SHAPELESS

PIKE 167 - SHAPELESS is the 66th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015. This album is performed exclusively by BUCKETHEAD and clocks in near the half hour mark at 30:20 with three tracks. Once again it is all instrumental like all the other PIKES that exist in BUCKETHEADLAND.

The title track at 16:27 is more than half the album and begins with a heavy metal guitar riff, bass and drums. There is a faint electronic ambience in the background. Let the riffing begin. It is hard and crunchy and has a thrash energy to it without sounding like thrash metal but this heavier riff alternates with a softer synthesized guitar riff as well. After a few minutes a nice tasty guitar solo emerges. Very bluesy and with a wah-wah type effect but more interesting than some of the other bluesy leads BH has done on the PIKES. Unfortunately this is one of those that kinda goes on too long for my liking. Songs over 10 minutes should have different segments but this is just one jammy riff with some lead guitars, bass and drums. Not enough to warrant the time length however i find this one less annoying than some simply because of the mixing, production and just overall feel however by the time this is over i'm soooooo done with it.

Track two "Vague Lights" at 9:09 also starts out as an alternative metal riffing rocker with a nice beefy bass, smokin' drums and grungy guitar. It alternates with some higher register guitar riffs. Nice sound once again. This album has a very nice production that mixes all the sounds together perfectly and adds some effects. This one has some breakdowns that totally jump out of the norm of things by sustaining power chords for various periods of time and then picking up again with a more thrashy riffing section. This one changes it up a lot like i really wanted the last one to. This one is actually pretty cool in how the guitar lines go from alternative to thrash to progressive and back. Nice guitar effects as well. Tail wagging with this one.

Track three "The Sleep Book" at 4:44 is presumably named after the Dr Seuss book. This one totally goes into a different direction. This is very slow and is more of an ambient song. It has a clean guitar line that echoes like it's in giant metal bowl but after a bit is joined by a bass line and drums. Great tone, great timing of the echoes. There is also synthesized ambience in the background to give it a light airy feel. This is pretty good for his slow and mellow stuff. Usually these are the bane of my listening experience because he recycles too liberally. This one is actually beautiful and makes me feel like i'm floating like someone's lost balloon making its way to a place where a whale will eat it and die.

Except for the needless length of the first track i actually like this one quite a bit but the first track is half the album and it gets quite irritating. The second two tracks are very good. So 3 stars is fair for this PIKE.