Customer Reviews

Bucketheadland 2

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is truly one of the best efforts I've heard from Buck. These tracks are brutally heavy, but not as outlandish as the Cuckoo Clocks of Hell record. Packed with creepy sounding tapping solos and other amazing riffs drenched in reverb and delay for maximum effect. This cd has 10-12 real songs ,and the rest are little interludes with characters explaining the park and its functions, which is kind of funny at times. This truly shows that Buck is probably the most creative and one of the sickest guitar players out there.
This album is easily his most solid since monsters and robots, definietly get this one before Funnel Weaver or Bermuda Triangle. Check out "Frozen Brains Tell no Tales", it's one of the best songs he has ever put out.

First and foremost, this album is NOT for everyone. The song titles alone should tell you if you if you want to buy a ticket to this warped "abusement park" where every day is Halloween.

At first, I figured this was just an over-the-top parody, and was laughing like crazy. About half way through, though, I began to get put together what was **really** going on plot-wise, and started to get seriously creeped out. To wit:

This is the story of a serial killer, who views his deeds in a carnival context. There are two types of music on this: bone-crushing metal, and loopy ukulele, the latter being the only "songs" with lyrics. The metal songs are when the guy's "in character" and the uke songs are him in the "real" world.

[if this assessment is wrong, please leave a comment correcting me]

Assuming you have a warped sense of humor, there are some genuinely funny moments scattered throughout in the form of public service announcements.

As for the music itself, Buckethead delivers some insanely fast and tight guitar riffing, which reminds me of Ministry with a touch of Primus. The editing style for all this is very Frank Zappa, replete with segments of spoken word and musique concrète interwoven. You have to like that sort of thing (and I do) but again, it's not to everyone's taste. Undoubtedly, many listeners will have a problem with the rather obvious lack of "real" songs. Although a few come close -- notably "The Cobra's Hood" and "Frozen Brains Tell No Tales" -- the music here really only works within its own internal context, and you pretty much have to listen to it start-to-finish, or do some heavy pre-programming on your cd player to edit out the spoken word and uke tracks.

I wouldn't want a steady diet of this: at its core it IS pretty disturbing and at around half-way through I start to reach my listening threshhold. That is why I didn't give it 5 stars. However, it is worth checking out at least once, and would be great for a long trip on a highway: the fast pace of the album will probably shave half an hour off your driving time.

If Buckethead is too weird for you stick to his calm albums. If you would like to visit the place "where all your dreams and nightmares can come true" bring a thread and needle and throw on some headphones!

This is a pretty drastic turn from the first park album,and while I wasn't too into it the first month I had it, now I can't see my Bucketllection being complete without it! Whoever finds the Albert acoustic songs dumb is insulting themselves in a very horrific manner indeed! Buckethead is getting messages across in those songs and interludes,and if you're too ignorant and stubborn to see that good luck finding fun in life; that's what Big B is ALL ABOUT,baby-bobba! I will say this, you have to be into a bit of heavy riffage to appreciate this album fully,and that's why I think it got a few bad reviews also.

DO NOT EVEN TRY TO DENY THE POWER OF "FROZEN BRAINS TELL NO TALES"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(btw,"...I wanna see peesez of guts and peesez of brains flyin'-though-the-air.it's fun for me to see these things.is it fun for you?is it fun for you?")

Well, well, well bucketheadland returns hotter than ever, let me tell you this IS one of his best albums. Now I know it's not Cuckoo Clocks, but who cares? This is classic Buckethead. Trust me if you enjoy Buckethead You'll Enjoy this.

With the speed in which he releases material (including many side projects), I don't think this guy ever rests! Because of this, you always get an aspect of Buckethead's musical imagination & prowess, but you don't always get a COMPLETE album of winning material. I, therefore, really wasn't sure what to expect with this release (a Bucketheadland sequel?). But my apprehension disappeared when I heard the first couple of tracks, and realized this was going to be a something special in his huge catalog of material. The whole CD (30 tracks) revolves around the Bucketheadland theme-park with more heavy and insane music, and great speaking parts scattered throughout the CD. It expands the whole Bucketheadland experience like never before, and makes you feel like you were actually there. The production is better, and the inclusion of a double-bass drummer on several tracks just increases the power of Buckethead's amazing guitar-work. I have 13 Buckethead or Buckethead-related CD's and this one will rank high as one of my favorites. It seems that he raised the bar for himself with this one, and we all reap the benefits of his efforts! I recommend this CD to ANY fan, but if you liked GIANT ROBOT, FUNNEL WEAVER, or MONSTERS & ROBOTS, then stop reading and buy this immediately -- you won't be disappointed! ------ "Goblins and Ghouls, Goblins and Ghouls!!"

Bucketheadland 2 is quite possibly the best CD in my entire library. The songs are so psychotic and creepy, a definite taste of the Buckethead way. It offers several original and catchy tunes, plus a grab-bag of demented stories and comments of slaughter and mayhem you can add to any conversation! A definite must for any self-respecting Buckethead fan!

Obviously Buckethead is a great guitar player. On the metel sections of this album, you can hear his adapt chord blocks, and he has the magic fingers to play fast leads.

But running in place on the upper neck does not make a great soloist, and that is what Buckethead does for most of his solos. There is no real archatecture at work, and there is nothing that seperates him from freeze dried 80s metel wackers. Yes, Verenon Ried employs some of the same techniques, but as part of a bigger, blues based whole.

The concept of the album seems to be serial murder, and when Bucket is not scampering in the upper register, he rambles like a demented baby about playing with bodies all night. All this has a midly adolesent appeal, but it sure does not make a great free jazz album.

This is flashy at first, then it just gets boring.

Poor ol' Prog rock fan ain't too much prog -- more just rock...
This CD does what it says: this is part 2 of a guided tour to the scariest happiest place on earth, where dismemberment is just one of the many experiences park goers will be treated to. There is plenty of great music here -- albeit heavy as s**t and somewhat disturbing. Some of Buckethead's killeringest riffs and also some deadly drumming by Brain.
Anyone remotely familiar with Buckethead would know his M.O. -- this is one album out of dozens -- it is what it is and if you don't like this just keep checking his stuff. You'll like something eventually...

I have heard a ton of buckethead's work before, and I have to say that this ranks right near the top in tears of disturbing and creepy. At the same time though, it is really enjoyable. I haven't heard the first bucketheadland cd, but this one is good all the way through. Every song(all 30 of them) are good in different ways. This is a crazy cd, and that's the only reason why I didn't give this 5 stars. On the rest of his cds, there is the same amount(ok, maybe a little less, but still) of craziness, but there is always a pretty song on the cd to kinda get everything back on track. That is missing from this cd, and it is just wierd to be wierd. This is not my favorite cd by him, but it is a good addition to my collection from this guitar odditiy. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Giant Robot cd.

Let me first say that I own many of Bucketheads CD's and enjoy them. I think I own just about all of them minus the couple of new ones that just came out recently. He is a great player who creates some very interesting sounds which are instantly recognizable as his own. The original double CD of Bucketheadland is a Buckethead classic with cuts such as Giant Robot Theme and the infamous Giant Robot vs. Guillotine. What gives that CD it's special character is the between track dialog consisting of dialog from the Japanese series "Johnny Sakko and the Giant Robot" and by funk master bassist Bootsy Collins. Well, what gave the first Bucketheadland its special character is the doom of this CD. If you know Buckethead at all, you will learn that he presents his character as being a little more that obsessed with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The goofy degenerate from that movie, you know, the guy that likes "head cheese" seems to have made it onto the Bucketheadland 2 CD as a special guest for all the dialog fill ins. It could have been bearable if done minimally, but it is way over done and after hearing this guy for a while you yourself will want to "gut him alive". To even title this CD as "2" is shameful and it is a real pity considering how good this CD could and should have been. You would think that an artist would want to create something special for his fans but this release proves otherwise. One thing Buckethead does is crank out a lot of material but by doing so, some of what makes it onto CD is not the best he has to offer. Unfortunately for those who happen to spend their cash on this release, the material is bottom of the barrel. It's thrown together and titled "2" to what appears to be a blatant attempt to just generate some CD sales. How lame is that? I lost a bit of respect for this artist for allowing such a piece of crap come to fruition. There are a few (and I mean few) gleaming moments of guitar greatness here, but it is not worth the torture you will have to endure listening to the inbred degenerate dialog. Do yourself a favor and do not buy this CD. Pass it by and and pick up the original Bucketheadland if you can find it. Otherwise, buy one of the other Buckethead CD's out there such as Colma, Monsters & Robots or any Giant Robot CD. All are great! A favorite CD of mine Buckethead plays on is one titled Unison by artist Shin Terai. Also essential are any Thanatopsis CD's available here: http://www.tdrsmusic.com/axiologypage.html