DISSECTING BUCKETHEAD
Part 1/50
Bucketheadland is the debut solo album by the eclectic guitarist we know as Buckethead. This is an interesting album to say the least. It is a concept album about Buckethead’s fictional “abusement” park where people usually suffer bodily harm. There are a whopping 33 tracks with a lot of them being under two minutes. Buckethead manages to debut very strongly with some pretty neat ideas which sometimes don’t even have anything to do with his guitar playing. The album is best listened to in full to enjoy more as opposed to individual tracks as the album has a lot of samples and makes many references to its concept. Of course, there is some great guitar playing on this record. Poor production and a few missteps are noticed but can definitely be forgiven due to it being his first solo effort and the fact that Buckethead delivers the goods more often than not.
The guitar playing on this record surprisingly isn’t front and centre as it usually is (mainly due to all the samples and effects), but it is definitely a driving force on this record. Buckethead’s chops on Bucketheadland are excellent. For example, album opener “Intro – Park Theme” has some Satriani-like riffs that still have Buckethead’s flair. The guitar solo in this song is extremely fast and blistering with a few slower melodic parts which makes for one of my favorite guitar parts on the album. Also, “Steel Wedge” sometimes seems like a bit of a random jam, but it has some frantic shredding with a lot of interesting sounds you wouldn’t hear in a lot of leads. Additionally, “Sterling Scapula has an awesome metal riff that could have been made into a full song. Lastly, my favorite solo on the album is “Home Run Derby – Main Theme”. He switches between fast shredding a few bluesy ideas over some metal riffing.
As previously mentioned, there are a lot of elements on this record that aren’t about guitar playing and are included to either adhere to the album’s concept or to keep the album interesting. These mainly come in the form of shorter interlude-esque tracks. For example, “Phantom Monk” kicks off with a weird riff muddled in effects until it turns into something you might hear off a Death Cube K album. There are a lot of different sounds and parts in this quick track that keep the listener interested. Also, “Skid’s Looking Where” is a great ambient track with booming footsteps and a strange synth that is quite intriguing. “The Rack” is a 30 second song with haunting synths and maniacal laughter that is a fun campy horror romp that reminds me a lot of Halloween. Other cool ambient interludes include “Noisin’ Part 2” and “Gorey Head Stomp”. Lastly, “Enter Slipdisc” is a pretty funny track when Slipdisc starts talking like a cliché villain.
The album has a bit of a demented atmosphere in terms of its sound. However, there are a few songs on this album which come as quite a surprise. For example, “Wonka In Slaughter Zone” is a beautiful guitar ballad over a clock ticking with a few melodies found in the theme song to the Willy Wonka movie. Also, “Funeral Time” sounds like something off of Electric Tears and makes for a rather dark ballad. Lastly, album closer “I Love My Parents” is probably the most heartfelt and melodic track on the album featuring a guitar by itself playing a wonderful lullaby.
While this album has a lot of good guitar playing and interesting tracks to offer, in my opinion, there are a few missteps which hurt the album’s overall quality a bit. As an example, “Noisin’” and “Cattle Prod” sound almost exactly identical because they are just random shred-runs with the same spacey effects added to them. “Computer Master” has some cool parts but is ultimately too long to listen to in it’s entirety without getting bored or annoyed. Lastly, “Giant Robot – Interlude” could have been combined with its Main Theme or just omitted from the album because it was a bit unnecessary. Another small issue I have with this album is the lack of realistic drumming throughout (Not a huge problem though).
To conclude, this album is a great start to Buckethead’s solo career. It has some great shredding and heavy guitar riffs meshed with a lot of experimentation. With only a few missteps and shoddy production he managed to produce an excellent album. It’s interesting to look back at this album and see where the man with a bottomless well of ideas started off.
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
