PIKE 13

PIKE 13 is the 3rd album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2013 and the 43rd overall solo offering. The album cover is unique in the whole BUCKETHEAD catalogue in that it is the ONLY album to host a photo of the unmasked chicken lover as a teenager hugging his father and was a tribute to his then ill father and pretty much the only evidence that BH is actually a real human but i guess a well-disguised alien or robot could have posed here as well :) This is a total ambient album with 9NINE tracks that are all untitled. This one clocks in at 33:08 and features BH performing all instrumental duties with Dan Monti and Albert helping out on production.

Although there are separate track listings this is one of those where we get a continuous flow of ambient music without any real distinction between the tracks. As far as the sound goes, this is one of the most ethereal BH releases much in the vein of "Electric Sea" but more spacey. It has many of the same elements such as an acoustic guitar delivering the melody, very slight accompanying percussion and all laid out in the slow to mid-tempo range with ambient background atmospheric intensifying synth effects.

The music certainly conveys the mood of BUCKETHEAD during the trying times of his father's illness and is probably some kind of therapy that channels all of the anger, sadness and confusion into a musical healing session. Although the music is ambient, mellow, ethereal and slow, there are many different parts to it. The guitar is the lead instrument and it does follow BH's tendency to alternate different types of passages in certain patterns albeit totally in an ambient manner. Constructionwise however, the tracks are much like a majority of BH's output whether they be thrash or alternative metal or the mellowness heard here.

While i'm not usually a fan of the slower BH releases because they can be a bit repetitive and failing to inspire the whole imagination and all, this one is actually quite outstanding in its delivery of poking and prodding your emotional complex and eking out the desired response. This one exudes a very lugubrious feel to it and it's almost as if we are being pulled in by the musical gravitational pull to experience the agony of the musician himself. I am feeling impending uncertainty and dread upon listening to this one. This is excellently constructed ambient music and not one bit of it is boring. In fact, it seems like this was just a warm up to the Halloween countdown series in 2015. I rather fancy this one i do say. Splendid indeed. One of his best ambient releases. Original. Heartfelt. Personal. Sorrowful

Buckethead's Pike 13 is one dedicated to his indisposed father (who died not long after it's release), Tom Carroll. Buckethead, a guitar virtuoso who can be described as a freakshow with the musical stamina of a demigod, turned down his sound into something a bit more lackadaisical and emotional.

Pike 13 is a collection of ambient quasi-progressive rock songs which are all untitled, so they're generally referred to as "Track ___" depending on where they land on the album. They are all extremely slow and melodic, with a space rock vibe, but where most would fail with this laidback concept but Buckethead uses it to his advantage to create some pretty emotional pieces. Much of the album is very compact, usually only with Buckethead's echoing guitar doing the work. The longer parts, mainly the fantastic 'Track 6' is where he uses some simplistic yet effective drum fills for background sound.

Pike 13 is a short but sweet album from the recent years and is good for any occasion you want peace and quiet. I'd recommend to fans of soundtrack music (very Buckethead) or just soft prog in general.