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[Music] Buckethead - All Albums

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jsem:
This is a truly great album.

lateralus88:
Bucketheadland is a pretty great debut album. I mean, it's got all of the things I love about Buckethead. But the production bothers me a tad. It's not bad, but distracting. Though you got Giant Robot just about spot on for me. I fucking love that album to death.

Ultimetalhead:
I really don't mind the production on the album. It's not good enough for me to mention, but it's not bad enough for me to mention either.  :P

Ultimetalhead:
Artist: Buckethead
Album: Day of the Robot
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
Year: 1996

Buckethead in a Year: The Reviews Project
Part 03: Day of the Robot
And so we’ve arrived at Day of the Robot. This album, while the title may seem like a sequel of sorts to the previous album, is Buckethead’s first major stylistic shifts. However, unlike the examples we are to see later, this one was never revisited. This album is a lot more serious than its predecessors. It’s much more focused on its songs rather than the vocal bits and general insanity from the previous two projects. There’s not a single vocal sample on the entire album, leaving Buckethead’s riffs and solos to fill up most of the musical space. This time around, instead of hiring what seemed like a whole family tree of contributors, Buckethead sticks with Ninj on the bass, drums, and keyboards and Bill Laswell on drums and “low bass”.

By this point, it’s already pretty easy to guess that the guitar playing on this album is top-notch. Buckethead never fails to impress in the riff department, the first 3 minutes of Destroyer give great credence to that statement. As far as his solos are concerned, I am again amazed at the sheer speed and technicality that Buckethead plays with. To top it all off, he’s still clean as a whistle. No note seems like it was played by accident, and even in the midst of the insane shredding, every single tone cuts through like a dagger.

Many Buckethead fans refer to this album affectionately as his “jungle” album, and it’s quite obvious why. Ninj and Laswell use their tools to their full advantage, creating a unique blend of avant-garde metal and drum and bass. However strange this marriage may sound on paper, it actually works surprisingly well. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not exactly well versed in electronic music, but I know good music when I hear it. This new dimension is something I enjoy quite a bit. The background effects tend to take up more space as the album progresses, leading up to one of the coolest bass riffs I’ve ever heard on Collision. Personally, I’m a sucker for progression when it comes to an album, and this one does it right.

Now, as for the best song, I have to give the award to Destroyer. This song does everything an intro needs to do. It sets the groundwork with some absolutely delicious riffs, giving off the impression that this might be an album similar to Giant Robot, but more mature and serious. Then, halfway through the song, the drums and bass come in and do very well to show off the new sound. The soloing is flawless and jaw-dropping, as expected.

I don’t really have a lot of specific complaints with this one. I mean, it’s all great music, but some of the sections could have used a bit of a trim (whole songs really, not a whole lot of in-song progression), and the drum bits can get quite repetitive.

Overall, this album is a great experiment that produced some good music, but it’s not too hard to see why this direction hasn’t been explored further.

4/5

lateralus88:
I've actually never really cared for Day of the Robot all that much. It's one of those albums, at least to me, where he completely delved into the realm of experimentation in order to create one big trip. Though I must say, I do enjoy Flying Guillotine and Quantum Crash quite a bit.

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