Buckethead
Inbred Mountain (2005)
Tracklist:
1. In Search Of Inbred Mountain (3:26)
2. Johnny Be Slunk (8:43)
3. Lotus Island (6:34)
4. Flock Of Slunks (4:30)
5. Advance To The Summit (6:03)
6. Plastination Station (5:47)
7. Escape From Inbred Mountain (8:21)
In case you’ve never heard of Buckethead, I’ll fill you in: He’s a solo guitarist who has been producing an ungodly amount of material since his debut album Bucketheadland in 1992. Since then he’s released twenty-seven more solo albums, two DVDs, three videos, two demos, a trio of music videos, three more special release albums of old, unreleased material at the time, a thirteen-disc improvised album collection, and sixty one albums with other artists in an important role. He’s also guest starred on too many albums to count. He’s an incredibly prolific musician, and while he is most widely known for his guitar playing, even coming in at number eight in GuitarOne magazine’s “Top 20 Best Shredders of All Time” list, he plays a multitude of other instruments including drums, bass, banjo, and more. And this is just the facts.
Inbred Mountain is his sixteenth solo album, released in 2005 as his second album only sold on tour. It has since been sold at the label TDRS Music, along with the rest of his tour only CDs, each appearing a few months after it becomes available on tour. In my opinion, it is also one of his finest CDs to date. It covers all the styles and techniques that Buckethead has become notable for, such as intense shredding, experimental song structures and instruments (particularly on the eight-and-three-quarters-minute musical exploration "Johnny Be Slunk"), and powerful, emotional solos on "Lotus Island" and "Plastination Station". These last two songs stand out from the rest as fantastic, focused instrumental rock tracks, whereas the other five tracks can at times be too experimental or meandering to handle. Despite this, overall I think it is one of his strongest albums. Some of his albums can become too much like collections of riffs rather than songs, but even the twisting passages of "Johnny Be Slunk" still feel like a single song. When I listen to it I even feel as if Inbred Mountain is a concept album, though there are no lyrics or information to suggest that this is true. There is an epic scope in the three Inbred Mountain songs that links them in the way the titles suggest, with each being a portion of a story involving a hypothetical Inbred Mountain. The interesting album art and Buckethead’s penchant for odd melodies and overdubbed contrasting guitar lines all add to the creepy, rural feel.
Listeners can be very split on Buckethead’s music; some think his music contains too much shredding or is otherwise uninteresting, which I find surprising considering that little of his music nowadays contains a prominent amount of shredding, and others dislike it because it is too experimental and difficult to listen to. While I can sympathize with both of these arguments, I find Inbred Mountain to be a great piece of music in it’s own right.
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