PIKE 252 - BOZO IN THE LABYRINTH

BUCKETHEAD (as Bucketheadland) / Pike 252 - Bozo In The Labyrinth / 9th release of 2017 / All instrumental / Contains 6 tracks / Clocks in at 30minutes 27seconds / everything played by Buck-buck-buckethead

'Mirrors Of The Sleeping Mind' (7:36) takes off in Rancho Relaxo with light fluffy guitars, subordinate bass and dreamy drum patterns that float by like Easter chicks in an Easter basket down a serene brook in a pastural setting. A melody has been initiated in slo-mo and takes it's sweet time to develop but an ambient background wahs its way into the picture. The tempo picks up with that notorious echo guitar effect and then. After a while. A solo erupts around the same melody that had been established from the beginning. It gets more energetic and builds steam but the chord sequence stagnates and remains the same progression in a looped effect. It continues as such with bluesy solo intact. I await some sort of break from the predictability but pulling hard on the nigh rein only prolongs the misery. Meh

'Cliff Faces' (4:39) begins a tad more energetic with grungy distorted guitars and bass and drums in energetic mode from the get go but has some interesting breaks with slide guitars and staccato action. Echo guitars become more pronounced further on but ultimately this is another track that has a predictable repetitive style of riffing in alternative metal mode with some solos and a few surprises. Meh as well

'Flooded Ballroom' (7:00) is even more grungy and sounds like a Soundgarden track at first but then bursts into a true BH riff shredder. The distortion is extra thick at least for the riffs but the breaks are cleaner. The riffs sound very 70s hard rock in style with a 90s veneer to the distortion. Solos are also very 70s bluesy hard rock in style but overall this is a decent but average BH track that doesn't need to go on as long as it does

'Branch' (2:25) begins soft and sensual with clean guitars but when the drums come in they're particularly aggressive in comparison. The guitar turns to that clucking style as ambient swirls float in the background. Bass is quite subdued but there.

'The Chambers' (4:06) sounds like a 70s Van Halen inspired grungy guitar riff monster but rather weak in comparison to the greats of that era and for BH who has done this style many times at this point. Sounds a little flabby like it needs to go on a diet in order to have a little more stamina. Just an average track and fairly unremarkable

'Bozo In The Labyrinth' (4:41) erupts in a super heavy metal riff with bizarre monster noises in the background and then starts changing up the riffs a bit while remaining fast and heavy but just when you think it's gonna get even heavier it suddenly morphs into an acoustic almost flamenco type of feel but then jumps into progressive tech extreme metal and then back to the gypsy flavored acoustic style and even after a huge pause stays in that style until it's time for metal again! Heavy riffs with irregular time sigs and monstrous sprawls of riffage finally give way to an alien sounding guitar solo but then suddenly jumps back into acoustic wonderland. This is by far the best track on this PIKE. After mediocre tracks, this one saves the day and is interesting and exhilarating and even includes all the styles of the tracks before and delivers them with gusto. Great track but too late to save the album from an overall ho hum feel