Buckethead releases so much material it can be hard to keep up. In late 2008, a trio of albums featuring him were released, and now in 2009 not one month has passed without another release. “Slaughterhouse on the Prairie” is a step away from the sound that Buckethead has used on his last few solo ventures.
The album starts off with a duo of songs dedicated to the basketball star LeBron James. Who would have guessed that Buckethead was a basketball fan? Anyways, both feature a good amount of riffing by Buckethead with some nice melodic leads on top, which opens up the album nicely.
“Blood Bayou” sounds a tad more experimental, starting off with a very dissonant progression leading into some pretty weird sounding guitar work. ”Iceman” is a fairly typical Bucket song, but “Don’t Use Roosts if You Use Broilers” is very different sounding, featuring a funky rhythm section and slower, moodier guitar parts. The song adds some welcome variation to the album.
“Robot Checkerboard” is very different from everything else so far. It starts off with some very dissonant, glitchy sounding guitar parts, eventually moving into some riffs, and ending with shredding. The rest of the album for the most part continues with this sound of dissonant riffing and shredding.
I commented on my review of Buckethead’s last solo album (“Albino Slug”) that his sound was becoming a tad bland and that I hoped he would start to mess around with his music a bit for his next album. Apparently he had the same thing in mind, and “Slaughterhouse on the Prairie” is heavier and more experimental than his last few releases. It may not have been the change I was hoping for, but it certainly kept the album interesting and it starts 2009 on the right foot for Buckethead. Hopefully he will continue to experiment with his sound for his next release, for variety is the spice of life.
Rating: 3/5
- Lebron
- Lebron’s Hammer
- Blood Bayou
- Iceman
- Don’t Use Roosts If You Rase Broilers
- Robot Checkerboard
- Premonition
- Crouching Stump Hidden Limb
- Goat Host
- The Stretching Room
- Pumpkin PIke
- Collecting Specimens
- Rack Maintenance Part 2
February 8, 2009 at 12:15 pm |
>>Who would have guessed that Buckethead was a basketball fan?<<
Good question:
- He once had a sticker of Michael Jordan on his guitar: http://www.musiconphoto.com/UD_150601_1/FOTOS_UD_150601_1/BILL_LASWELL_PRAXIS_98_Buckethead_01Cs.jpg
- He released a track called “Jumpman” in 1999.
- He contributed “Jordan” to “Guitar Hero 2″.
- He released “King James” in 2006, also dedicated to LeBron.
Oterwise there’s no indication for this, no.
February 8, 2009 at 12:25 pm |
Thanks for the information, I had no idea he used to have a Michael Jordan sticker, and I didn’t realize Jordan was named after him.