Buckethead Pike Album Reviews

Pike 130 – 'Down in the Bayou Part Two' by Buckethead, released April 25th 2015

Good evening everybody, today we're back with another trip down the rabbit hole into guitar hero Buckethead's Pike album series, with Pike 130 'Down in the Bayou Part Two'. So, let's begin. Woo!!

Released April 25th 2015 Pike 130 Down in the Bayou Part Two dropped 4 days before Down the Bayou Part One, making it a sequel and a prequel, Buckethead aye? what a genius.

The 4 track album kicks off with the 7 minute 'Critter'. Leading with heavy bass synth wah driven riffage, it's a slow crunchy head banger, its certainly not wow but it's an enjoyable opener helped along by its complimentary drum track. Good stuff.

Track 2 'Marshmallow' continues with more heavy crunch riffage, actually, it's pretty much just one riff repeated for the entire 4+ minute track. Which might sound boring and repetitive, but it kinda works. It's not for everybody, but on this album as the 2nd track, it's alright, but nothing more.

Track 3 is the 6.5 minute 'Water Gardens'. Once again snarly growling riffage leads the way. It hits some nice high points throughout, certainly has more character and personality than the previous tracks and will get head bobbing back and forth throughout. Job done.

The album concludes with the 12 minute title track 'Down in the Bayou Part Two'. The riffage is slow and nasty really finding an excellent flow several minutes in backed by the drums, which are outstanding throughout this track. From that point on you're locked in and this becomes the clear standout song of the album. What the first 2 songs somewhat lacked, this one delivers. Nasty.

Overall, as a stand alone album Pike 130 takes it time to find its footing but eventually delivers towards the latter part of the album. If comparing it as a sequel to Pike 131 which other than by name, there's seemingly no connection between the albums, with one being southern blues driven and the other being slow metal. Then Pike 131 is far superior with far more character. Still, this album has its moments, especially it's title track which you'll revisit and crank up to 11 plenty of times.

After adding up the rating I gave for each track, It came to exactly 62.5%, which I'd categorize as Good and feels about right. And you can find my individual song ratings & breakdown on our website natternet.com

So, what's your rating for Pike 130?
To work out what percentage you'd give the album, rate each song out of 5 stars, add up your total and divide it by the total score possible, which for Pike 130 is 20. Then times it by 100.

Pike 130 'Down in the Bayou Part Two' RATINGS (out of 5)
1. Critter   ***  (3)
2. Marshmallow   **½  (2.5)
3. Water Gardens   ***¼  (3.25)
4. Down in the Bayou Part Two   ***¾  (3.75)

Album length: 29:51

Total = 12.5 out of 20 (Album = 62.5%, Good )

1-20 % = Poor
20- 40 % = Below Average
40-60 % = Average
60-80 % = Good
80-100 % = Awesome

Buy the album HERE