PIKE 325 - LANGUAGE OF THE MOSCAICS

BUCKETHEAD is back with one chicken attack after another. LANGUAGE OF THE MOSAICS is the 24th PIKE of 2022 and there are still fourth months left in the egg hatchery! While BH is throwing in some live albums here and there this year, this one is a bonafide studio album that features BH's most intense and energetic guitar wankery. This is experimental, progressive and avant-garde as well as pedal to the metal head banging splendor.

This one features seven tracks all titled "Mosaic" plus the corresponding number. This is also one of those blitzkrieg PIKEs where all the tracks run into another. This one is primarily metal oriented with crazy fast tempos, face melting guitar workouts and crunchy riffing however this one is also one of those shapeshifters that allows various stylistic approaches to seep in. Any given style usually takes a few bars before changing it up but then again BH is full of surprises.

This one is truly for the tech guitar lovers. Those who crave wild unapologetic frenetic guitar abuse and love those roller coaster compositional approaches where hairpin turns and upside down loops are guaranteed all but the most adrenaline seeking junkies out there lose their lunch and run far away. Unlike some of BH's most avant-garde PIKEs of the same ilk, this one is more on the melodic side with catchy riffs and traditional heavy metal compositional approaches but then there are those weird crazy turns towards the bizarre and experimental.

Personally these are the types of PIKEs that suit me best however many of these exist at this point so this is just one more in a large collection. There's not really much to distinguish this one from many others that have come before which is why i can't rate it higher. At this point even PIKEs of this caliber which showcase BH's most technical workouts have been done to death. I just wish BH would up his game in the compositional department or start playing with other musicians and make a totally unique band. Oh well. This is a very good PIKE but not to the point where i will probably ever feel the need to revisit it.

3.5 rounded down