If you are a fan of instrumental guitar music, the artist known as Buckethead should be in your CD collection. Although not as widely known as todays guitar virtuoso's like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson or Yngwie Malmsteen, Buckethead is certainly as good.
If I were to venture a guess why Buckethead isn't as popular as his peers, I would say it is because well, Buckethead is odd, strange, even bizarre. I can't fault him for using a nom' d'axe. After all, I grew up with artists sporting names like "The Edge", "Slash" and "John 5" (David Evans of U2, Saul Hudson of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Underground and John Lowery of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie).
However, if you want to learn about BucketHead (born Brian Carroll), Robots and Monsters wouldn't be a bad place to start. My son and I discovered Buckethead on the video game Guitar Hero II, and his song Jordan. That song is not on this album, nor any other, but the songs contained herein, will give you a good idea why I think Buckethead is so good, albeit quite strange.
Gods and Monsters
This is an early Buckethead album, released in 1999. Buckethead is joined by Primus bass player Les Claypool. Claypool co-wrote the songs on here, and plays bass and sings on many of the songs. From the first two songs Jump Man and Stick Pit you know this guy is one incredible guitar player. However, Buckethead's solos don't sound like your average shredder or guitar virtuoso. It is almost computer like. The speed is amazing, the melodies are different and if I hadn't seen the guy on Youtube playing myself, I wouldn't believe these sounds emanated from a guitar. Buckethead is as different and unique from his peers as Jimi Hendrix was back in the 60s.
The Ballad of Buckethead
Primus bass player yelps out the chorus at insane speed He was born in a coop, raised in a cage. children fear him, critics rage. He's half alive, he's half dead, folks just call him Buckethead. If you've heard him perform the South Park theme, you'd have an idea how the song is sung. The song also tells the unlikely story of this guitar playing hero Now late at night he'd sneak off to the graveyard all alone and play a soapbox guitar to the faces made of stone. Buckethead found his freedom at the age of 17, when he burned the chicken house down with a quart of gasoline. He did puppet shows on corners and bought a real guitar, and with the help of Colonel Sanders, he's bound to be a star..
Why is he called Buckethead?
On every album he has put out and on every Youtube performance you watch, he wears a KFC bucket on his head and a strange looking white plastic face mask. He is very tall and the guitars he plays almost look like toys in his hands.
Back to the album
The album also plays songs called Sow Thistle, Revenge of the Double Man, Night of the Slunk, Who Me?, Jowls, The Shape v. Buckethead, Stun Operator, Scapula and Nun Chuka kata.
Most of the tracks are a blend of electronica and insanely fast guitar playing. Although not the beautiful hypnotic melodies of a Satriani, neither are they speed for speeds sake. Each song has unique melodies and tones that will draw you in and make you pay attention. For example on Revenge of the Double Man a quite beautiful acoustic guitar melody plays with strange warbling in the background. It brought to mind a haunted insane asylum. Save Me the Slunk hammers in with crazed crunchy riffs and insane runs. Claypool's bass is a perfect counterpoint to Bucket head's guitar, slamming out methodical bass riffs to anchor the over the top guitar solos. The lyrics are sung by a crazy sounding man, and appear to be about de-boning a chicken and getting all the good parts to eat.
The album is combination carnival and freak show. In the intro of Who Me? a man is heard saying, among other things If you can't stand the heat, you'd better just burn the whole darn kitchen down.
Summary
If you want to check out some music that is extreme, fun, and yeah, quite a bit strange, go out and get Robots and Monsters and learn about the legend of Buckethead for yourself. I gave the album five stars.
related review:
My First Buckethead Album - A review of Buckethead: Population Override
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