BUCKETHEAD — Pike 92 - The Splatterhorn (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 92 - The Splatterhorn album cover

Album · 2014 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2016-11-30
siLLy puPPy

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 92 - The Splatterhorn 51st album out of 60 in 2014 and 121st overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one clocks in at 30:12

“Horn 1” (2:39) starts out with jittery metal chords that jam on for a bit then a strange little lick and then jumps into an echoey riff and then funk! It goes back into metal and then a break of static and then back into sludge metal and then adds some industrial noises. Drums are lazy

“Horn 2” (3:07) begins with jangly clean guitar chords that carry on for a while and then it gets into weird time sigs as the snail’s paced riffs just march along in an aimless matter before finally a steady bass line comes in as training wheels and let’s a ripping guitar solo sizzle out of control for a while and then it turns into a staccato chord chugga chug with dissonant guitar jangles accompanying it

“Horn 3” (4:19) starts with clean guitar chords with a whizzing guitar solo in the distant background. It breaks into heavier staccato chord chops and quickly moves on to clean weirdness. This PIKE is creating the most detached and bizarre mood swings. The drums remain lazy as with the previous tracks. Weird honking noises occur in the middle as everything else drops out and then chaotic electronic swirls erupt like fireworks. This one continues to change it up often and ratchets up the intensity and alienating soundscape

“Horn 4” (3:48) starts off with freaky electronic freak outs with a childish playful melody dancing on keys with a steady bass as the ambient background buzzes about. The melody dissipates and a heavy beefy bass ushers in a more industrial sounding groove. Drums are still lazy. It continues in an avant-funk fashion and then changes it up again and again but keeps da funk

“Horn 5” (3:03) begins with a funky guitar lick with highly distorted noise accompanying it in an industrial groove kinda way. It all changes shortly and becomes a heavily chaotic mix of the funk and other violent eddies of sonic weirdness. Several parts are sort of independent of each other but stay together in a recognizable pattern. The funk comes back

“Horn 6” (3:17) begins with a jittery guitar riff and a solo behind it with the industrial noise chords remaining from the last track. They trade off quickly and evolve into a complex tapestry of all three elements but becomes funky metal again. Ends as electronic noise

“Horn 7” (4:02) begins as deformed funk with spidery guitar antics. It twists and turns into irregular musical shapes. The lazy drums keep a steady beat but the bizarrely tuned guitars and off-kilter time sigs keep a freaky tension going. In the middle it turns into a weird avant-garde jazz guitar type of thing but then picks up steam and rock out more with sizzling solos and electronica freak outs

“Horn 8” (3:05) begins with a wildly weird electronic buzz and then starts to sound like a Soundgarden ballad (“Black Hole Sun”) with a clean guitar chord sequence that sounds a little Floydian as well. The most melodic thing on the PIKE until it abruptly bursts into cyber-funk again with industrial noises and beefy bass, frenetic layers of time sig overlaps and the same lazy drumming. It ratchets up the weirdness and intensity until you’re head wants to explode and ends as some kind of industrial disco weirdness with a guitar lick

“Horn 9” (2:52) begins as a weird dissonant jazz guitar type of track with strange squeals and then picks up a drumbeat and becomes more funky. It suddenly simulates a haunted house with jittery guitar licks and frenetic spastic bass and drum interaction. It goes back into “regular” funk metal and dances around progressive twists and turns and ends the PIKE as bizarre and angst fueled as it began

Whew! This one was a majorly wild ride. Frenetic, twisted and perfectly simulates some freaky scary attraction at BUCKETHEADLAND. Very creative and unlike any other PIKE. This is one for the most adventurous freaks out there. If you like em wild, weird and unpredictable then this one will NOT disappoint