BUCKETHEAD — Pike 35 - Thank You Ohlinger's (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 35 - Thank You Ohlinger's album cover

Album · 2013 · Alternative Metal

2/5 · 2016-07-22
siLLy puPPy

PIKE 35 - THANK YOU OHLINGER’S is the 24th album released in the PIKE series by BUCKETHEAD in 2013 and the 64th overall solo studio album. This is yet another eclectic instrumental album that BH graces us with his instrumental prowess and production handled by Dan Monti and Albert once again. BUCKETHEAD released PIKE 35 without releasing a PIKE 34 and that remained a mystery until he solved that problem by releasing “Pike 34 - Pikes” after “Pike 39 - Twisterland” finally filling in the gap that led to speculation of chicken insanity in the works.

"Thank you Ohlinger's" (9:19) begins as one of those alternative rocker instrumentals where the guitars, bass and drums all create a loud distortionfest. The riffs change up a bit here and there but remain grungy, on full energy and distortion. There are different time sig changes here and there but it never deviates too much from an alt metal riffage salute. Slightly sounds like the riff from “Shyboy” on David Lee Roth’s “Eat Em And Smile” at times but also sounds like an Eddie Van Halen riff as well but ultimately has a lot of changes to keep it from being a rip-off if of any kind

"Unopened Boxes" (5:09) has a frightening guitar opening sequence with hyperactive percussion and then becomes a heavy riff that changes it up sequentially. This one is OK but really isn’t anything that great. Heavy riffs, mediocre drum machine. Nothing PIKEs haven’t dished out before

“Way In The Back" (2:16) begins another heavy alternative metal riff with slightly off timings but fairly repetitive in chord progressions. Somewhat interesting echo effects when chords are sustained. A heavy bass and drums join in and it creates a nice heavy metal track with slightly weirded timings but all in the alternative metal playbook. This one works for me fairly well

"Manila Envelopes" (2:16) is a super heavy alternative metal rocker with somewhat jarring timings but fairly easy to grasp

"Alphabetical Order" (3:00) is a surprising weird number. It starts off with hyper freaky guitar, strange bass line and THEN breaks into an alternative metal groove but changes it up again with several new guitar riffs, timings that have freakiness, fairly standard metal riffage and then takes it further. By far, the most interesting track on the album

"Window Clip" (3:35) is yet another fairly straight forward alternative metal rocker but turns into a funky metal behemoth.

"Shoe Lock" (2:30) is another bluesy heavy metal rocker that is fairly predictable and not too exciting as it’s all been done before

"Telling Number" (3:39) starts with an interesting guitar riff in the treble range adds some bass and drums and sounds like an Eddie Van Halen type of thing but becomes more alternative metal in riffage. Actually kind of melodic and good guitar work. Nice although not terrible original or anything

A PIKE with interesting moments but not outstanding. Many tricks have been performed by many ponies of the past