WORMS FOR THE GARDEN

PIKE 26 - WORMS FOR THE GARDEN is the 16th album unleashed unto the world by BUCKETHEAD who goes under the stage name Slunk Antenna on this one and once again performs all the instruments on board with Dan Monti and Albert handling the production, programming and mixing. The 5 tracks are clearly separated from each other and this one clocks in at 30 minutes and 7 seconds

"Worms for the Garden" (18:36) is by the longest track swallowing up 2 thirds of the real estate and begins with crunchy metal riffage not unlike the gazillion other alternative metal PIKES out there. This one has down-tuned guitar and is rather grungy sounding. After a while, it slows down and has a less distorted guitar riff let the bass and drums dominate more and then as expected picks back up and continues the same basic melody over and over. The guitar solo jumps in after a couple minutes and slowly builds up but is basically bluesy and reserved at first and then breaks the speed barrier. This is one of those boring repetitive tracks that goes on and on with the same repeating loop of chords and even the guitar soloing can't save it from sub-mediocrity. Yawn. Mommy, make it stop! Let the WORMS compost this one . "Ridge Roll" (3:05) is much more interesting as it begins with a stomping distorted guitar repeat the same chord with heavy bass and drums. It then changes into funk and then the heavy guitar joins in making a true funk metal delight.

"Owl on the Road" (2:00) is another heavy alternative metal rocker with grungy staccato based guitar chords and also breaks into solos and funk metal

"Learned the Land" (3:35) is yet another alternative metal rocker that trades off funky non-guitar bits and the two also play together. The guitars are extra grungy and heavy on this one and the funk guitar are extra clean and springy. This one is pretty cool

"Molt" (2:51) is one more heavy alternative metal track with some more interesting time sig changes in the main riff, thrashy chord segments and a nice mix of funk induced segments where the lightning quick guitar solos can shine. This is a really cool funk / thrash / alternative metal fusion track. I just wish the whole album shined like this little gem

The title track is a total waste of time but the remaining 1 third of the album is decent. Unfortunately because most of the album IS the title track means the album as a whole is fairly weak :(