BUCKETHEAD — Pike 307 - Mercury Break (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 307 - Mercury Break album cover Album · 2022 · Heavy Alternative Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
Although BUCKETHEAD has slowed down in recent years, he still cranks out more releases than many other artists out there. While hundreds were released back in 2015 now in 2022 the chicken lover is only on his fifth album in 2022 which is titled PIKE 307 - MERCURY BREAK.

Like all PIKEs, this one is all instrumental and a one-chicken show. This one is short as it only clocks in over 27 minutes. This one features only two tracks, the 23-minute plus title track and the tiny-in-comparison “Echoing Unicorn.” Ah, i love it when unicorns echo echo echooooo.

For the majority of these PIKEs the chicken lover hovers between angsty alternative metal and a softer form of heavy alternative rock of course those are hardly the only genres he covers but the vast majority fall into either of these. This one is more on the heavy rock side of things.

The cool sounding title track is a nice break from some of the monotony of recent PIKEs. Yeah this one has the same repetitive guitar riffs and accompanying bass and drums but the atmosphere and production is a bit airy with even a bit of processed vocals in the mix.

The guitar tones are pretty cool and some synthesized sound effects are just what the doctor ordered to keep this from being too repetitive. Even the drumming is a bit more complex than the usual canned drumbeat. It actually sounds as if a live being is pecking away on percussion.

Yeah, perhaps the title track is longer than i needs to be with the same receptive riffs chugging along after each breakdown but it is more interesting than normal with some nice processed guitars, a few time signature and tempo deviations and overall atmospheres. Decent.

“Echoing Unicorns” insinuates a psychedelic space rock with trippy reverb and fantasy fueled freakiness but is in fact another one of those heavy alt rock guitar riffing sessions in the vein of the title track with processed talk box vocals in tandem with the guitar. The sound effects are pretty cool but not OMG so. Unlike the title track, this one is the perfect playing length.


Overall this PIKE is a nice subtle shift from previous ones. BH has been ramping up the production values and this one has some interesting atmospheres and cool sound effects. Now he needs to work on more interesting compositions overall. It’s still just repetitive riffs on overdrive. This is a decent PIKE but it’s been a while since i’ve been blown away.
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