PIKE 40 - COAT OF ARMS

PIKE 40 - COAT OF CHARMS is the 30th release by BUCKETHEAD in 2013 and the 70th solo album overall. Once again is under the BUCKETHEADLAND moniker with all musical duties performed by the chicken lover himself while production is handled by Dan Monti and Albert. This one is shorter than usual and clocks in slightly under the half hour mark at 29:38 with 8 tracks and the 6 final ones all titled "Jettison (Parts 1 - 6)"

"Hall Of Aluminum" (3:13) begins things with an echo guitar riff and a bass and drum accompanying the guitar at a slightly above mid-paced tempo but remains somewhat mellow like an early 70s Pink Floyd sound that incorporates an echoey spaciness with rock instrumentation

"Coat Of Charms" (8:34), the longest running track begins with a mellow clean guitar run and cymbal action followed by the echo guitars with everything running on a slowed down speed. As a lengthy track this one has plenty of time to meander for long periods of time without changing things up much. The chord progressions are not bad but like many of these long PIKE tracks can seem to meander a bit too long without really developing into anything interesting. While the overall sound is fairly cool, the song structure is basically a repetitive type of riff that continues for a while. It does pick up the pace now and again but always reverts back to the same mellow riff with a different take on echo effects. OK, but meh

"Jettison (Part 1)" also begins with the same echoey clean guitar effects only slowly with some ambient buildup. This also has a funk sort of development with some wah-wah action and more energetic drums than on previous tracks. Almost a military march style. This one lets loose with some heavy rock guitar riffs that all all fuzzed out. It alternates with quieter echoey guitar passages

"Jettison (Part 2)" pretty much continues the flow of "Part 1" with the same rhythmic and melodic developments as well as the same echoey guitars in mid-tempo but also offers some heavier bits that alternate with mellower passages

"Jettison (Part 3)" continues the flow of the album that basically has the tracks passing the baton to the following track and keeping a continuity between them with same beat, rhythms, melodies and overall feel. The tracks basically slightly deviate from the rest but are in fact mere variations of one another. Unfortunately nothing really stands out. This is one of those PIKEs that is decently done and is a nice mellow contemplative journey into the musical world of BUCKETHEAD but doesn't really offer anything substantially startling or new. At times it rocks out in an alternative rock sorta way but it more or less remains on simmer in the echoplex dreamland state. If you really love the predictable placed rides through BUCKETHEADLAND then this one is for you, otherwise if you love the wild and unpredictable vomit inducing stomach churners then this might be a tad too tame

2.5 rounded down