PIKE 306 - THE TOY CUPBOARD

Another day, another PIKE in the world of BUCKETHEAD. So far 2022 is proving to be another year of quantity over quality and squeaking in as the fourth release of 2022 at the final hours of January is PIKE 306 - THE TOY CUPBOARD which features two tracks that add up to just over 27 minutes of playing time. One thing i've noticed is that BH is now throwing in a PIKE or two with the cover art in a horizontal instead of vertical position. Amazing how PIKEs are still 13 cents after all these years! Clearly not affected by inflation :D

The title track (12:05) begins with a typical alternative metal PIKE stylistic approach. Heavy crunch guitar riffs with bass and drums. Of course everything is played by BH and this is yet another all instrumental PIKE. Damn these newer PIKEs need some vocals. This stuff has gotten stale to my ears. This one takes the usual approach of riffing on in heavy mode for countless measures and then adding some mellower breakdowns. Once again this is acceptable but highly derivative of about a gazillion PIKEs that came before. How many more of these factory farmed assembly line eggs are going to hatch? Probably quite a few.

"The Great Carousel" (15:03) starts as a grungy rocker with heavily distorted guitar chords but then adds a bit of funk to the riffing. This one is already more interesting but i was expecting carnival music! Sorry but Mr Bungle has spoiled us with carnival metal. This one isn't anything spectacular but at least it doesn't sound like another generic cookie cutter track that has appeared hundreds of times on various PIKEs over the years. Despite that it still drags on for way too long. BH is quite capable of making progressive music but these basic riffing sessions sprawled out to 15 minutes become quite tedious especially when i'm itching to put something else on! Although this starts out somewhat different it reverts to the same formulaic alt metal riffing session.

To my ears this PIKE is about as drab as the cover art. Once again this makes decent background music and nothing is overtly offensive except for the fact IT'S ALL BEEN DONE BEFORE AD NAUSEUM AND BETTER!!! I'm wondering if BH has some sort of computer program that allows him to simply tweak previous tracks and change them up so slightly. I can't imagine sitting in the studio cranking out all these generic tracks that perfectly line up in the same playbook. I guess BH's intent is to flood the market hoping someone will pay for all this substandard crap. Not only is this PIKE recycled but no guitar solos, no wild avant adventurism. This is what i call an assembly line PIKE.

2.5 rounded down