“Monsters and Robots” by Buckethead

First of all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all you readers. This is another shorter review of mine and of the youngest album I have reviewed here so far on great-anonymous-albums.com.

“Buckethead”, I first came across this unusual name while reading the comments of another reviewer on one of Yngwie Malmsteen’s albums on Amazon.com. I couldn’t believe the reviewer actually wrote that Buckethead is a better shredder than Yngwie. Out of curiosity I couldn’t resist checking Buckethead out and I was hardly prepared for what I was going to be listening to. The first album I checked thankfully was one called “Colma” and the very first song of that album blew me away. I knew I was listening to a great and an unusual guitarist. I then started searching all over the net and did find quite a lot of his songs and information. Everything about Buckethead seemed to arouse more curiosity, his name, his stage appearance wearing a mask and a Kentucky Fried Chicken hat on his head, his theory of being raised in a chicken farm, his goal of an utopian land that he calls Bucketheadland, his strange music and his tall 6ft plus frame. But it was this album “Monsters and Robots” that blew me away. Not only is Buckethead one of the fastest guitarists in the World (ranked at number 8, yes below Yngwie, by Guitar One Magazine in 2003) but it is sad this album remains relatively unknown and anonymous even among heavy metal officianados. Buckethead has been playing in and for several bands now. At the request of Axl Rose he was on tour with Guns ‘n Roses for many of their concerts. Other bands he has played for are Praxis (collaborated with legendary bassist Bill Laswell) Death Cube K and Cobra Strke besides collaborating with other big guitarists and musicians in the industry, such as Boosty Collins and Serj Tankian of Sytem of a Down.

The following is my review of Monsters and Robots on Amazon.com tweaked slightly.

What is the benchmark to check a guitar hero today? Check if guitar was played at 16 notes per second or faster on their latest album? Give us, all guitar listeners, a break! Since the advent of the rock guitar we have all been listening to shreding, shredding and even more shredding for over four decades now. So unless there is something really new and exciting on the market any new guitar album is not welcome here.

Step in Buckethead!

With excellent arrangements (this is very important; the reason why Yngwie Malmsteen can be very boring and dull no matter how good a Guitar God he is), exciting new sounds and effects and a unique playing style Buckethead’s Monsters and Robots is a welcome break from conventional guitar albums in years. Add to it new technologies such as DJ tracks/mixing and M & B becomes a guitar album of the times. But do not dismiss Mr. Buckethead as just innovative or exciting. Buckethead has speed for the demon but unlike the conventional “fastest and therefore greatest guitarist of all time impressionists” Monsters and Robots is not another shredfest from the start till the end. Unlike his other albums a lot of the unusual sounds both human and machine-made, a feature of Buckethead’s albums that normally tend to annoy are also kept to a minimum.

And how many of the guitar albums out there can you name where you can remember the adroit drummer or the fine bassist that accompanied the guitarist? Most guitar albums make supporting musicians seem like session artists. However Buckethead’s albums give drummers and bassists their due without his hogging all the limelight. Check out ‘Revenge of the Double Man’, ‘Stun Operator’ and ‘Stick Pit’ for some fine drumming and for some groovy bass check ‘Stun operator’, ‘Jowls’, and ‘Nun chaka taka’. And if you are a 80′s heavy metal fan there is a gem of an instrumental in ‘Scapula’. ‘Jump man’ is an excellent starter for the album and ‘Nun chaka taka’ the befitting climactic finale. If you are looking for melody this album is not for you but there’s enough excellent shredding to please even the discerning shred lover. Bottomline – Monsters and Robots, certainly not to be dismissed as just another guitar album.

I had posted a review of his “Colma” on Amazon.com too but didn’t give it a 5 star rating but it does have some big stunners.

Check out “Monsters and Robots” and you won’t regret.

Listen to MP3 clips of the songs here.

The album cover shows Buckethead playing left handed but he is in fact right handed.

Wanna find out how Buckethead looks unmasked? Check out the link below.
Buckethead unmasked

If you wish to purchase the CD from Amazon.com click the link below.

Buy Monsters and Robots from Amazon.com

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.