HAPPY HALLOWEEN: SILVER SHAMROCK

PIKE 206 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN: SILVER SHAMROCK is the 105th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015 and the much anticipated conclusion to a 31 day countdown to the ghoulish holiday that occurs every 31 October in participating nations of the globe. The mystery is what happened to 1 DAY TO HALLOWEEN as we go from 2 straight to HALLOWEEN itself. Why the cover displays a silver jack-o-lantern and the title is SILVER SHAMROCK is a blooming mystery only Mr Prolific Chicken Lover knows. This album has five tracks all titled "Silver Shamrock" and this all clocks in at 29 seconds past the half hour mark. As usual BUCKETHEAD delivers all the sounds heard solo on an entirely instrumental album. As with most of these all the tracks blend together seamlessly and this one delivers the most proper of hauntings.

This album starts out with a jarring distorted something and has a richer variety of sounds all congregating together than the last few HALLOWEEN PIKES. It is immediately more varied in both timbres of sounds, rhythmic embellishments and weirdness. I guess you gotta save the freakiest for the holiday itself. This one also has some guitar in it as well. It is expressed in some little licks in the treble range as the ambience swirls around like a ghostly brume trying to debroom a witch in the midst of her flight. The guitar is a nice addition as an avant-garde atmospheric generator adding a little horror to the dark ambient cauldron of sonic torture. I'm realizing that this culmination of HALLOWEEN albums pretty much adds all the ingredients that went into making all the countdown albums and creates a spooky festival type of vibe that is apparently designed to summon the dead, the demons and the deranged to come out and play on their own special day.

The album continues with what sounds like mummies knocking on sarcophagi or ghouls trying to knock down the walls. All the while the guitar sounds are wailing on overdrive as they reverberate and echo in a most tense way but wait! It then slows down and creates a new sound, one that introduces a deepened sense of dread. As this continues it seems like the the guitar action sounds more like a BUCKETHEAD album in the playing style. It is somewhat bluesy but also displays his virtuosic side as he not only lets notes sustain but does some serious finger action as well but it is always highly processed and distorted the creepiest way possible. The runs are brief and never let you get too comfortable before it reverts back to something creepy.

I like this one! This is a wild ride through the creepiest, darkest and most bizarre electronic meets guitar music i've ever heard. It's a fine line for some of these between being totally boring and highly exhilarating but this one works for me. I never knew HALLOWEEN could be so much fun! I know the Adams Family would play this on a daily basis but for the rest of us this is probably left to those special occasion where you just want to melt your mind into the crevices of a spiritual plane where everything has gone wrong and all souls are anguished and anxious to majorly freak out any possible victims who might accidentally drop into their dimension of horror. Pretty cool stuff here. It took some effort getting to this bizarre soundscape but i have to say i've made it to the promised pumpkin.