Review Summary: A superb album.
Buckethead is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. He is extremely diverse as an artist, playing everything from country to techno to metal. On
The Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell, he is playing almost entirely the latter. This album is filled with heavy riffs and solos. Also, Brain is featured on this album, and his drumming is exceptional. The double bass pedals are amazingly fast and his drumming blends in with Buckethead's guitar and bass playing perfectly.
If you're like me, and like the music in metal but don't much care for the screaming vocals, than this album is for you. This album is entirely instrumental; there are no vocals whatsoever on this album. There must be at least fifty riffs on this album, maybe more. This makes it so that the songs all sound different from one another, despite them all having the same idea behind them. (Granted, there may be a few exceptions to this.)
As I said before, the album is filled with heavy riffs. However, these riffs differentiate from one another. Buckethead's guitar sounds superb here. On the opening track,
Descent Of The Damned, a clock is heard ticking and then the song explodes into madness. Brains' drumming is incredible, and before long Buckethead's crazy playing comes in and an amazing solo is heard. I also really like the end riff to this song.
The bass on this album is just as good as the guitar, however. This is noticeable on songs like
The Treeman and
Yellowed Hide. I believe Buckethead played bass as well as guitar on this album, so hats off to him for that too.
Another great thing about this album is the song titles. They fit the songs perfectly and sound cool too. I mean,
Spokes For The Wheel Of Torment,
One Tooth Of The Time Train... come on! Those are awesome titles, and they really do match the songs perfectly.
If by now you're thinking, "This album is all metal, I'm not gonna like it." then think again. There is one track on here that breaks up the steady flow of mad distorted riffs and that is
The Black Forest. I think this song is played entirely on an acoustic guitar, and if it isn't, it sure sounds like it Granted, it still sounds demented, but the electronic drumming and bizarre riffs do a great job to break up the album.
Brain's double bass pedalling is completely insane. In fact, not just the double bass pedalling is, everything on the album he does is. If you don't belive, listen to
Bedlam's Bluff,
The Treeman, and pretty much just about any other song on the album.
This album has periods of silence that last about a second in some songs. This is oftentimes to change a riff or simply there to give you a moment's rest in this maniacal journey. Also, the production quality is excellent. Everything sounds awesome and the drum and guitar volumes are perfect relative to one another.
Buckethead does have some incredible solos on this album.
Moths To Flame has an incredible beginning and near the middle of the song Buckethead has an awesome solo. Also, the aforementioned
Descent of the Damned and
Arc Of The Pendulum have incredible solos as well.
A stand-out track on the album for me is
Beaten With Sledges. The low melody parts and riffs used in this song (such as the one that starts around 0:44 and another one that starts around 1:57) are brilliant and fit the song perfectly. Also Brain's drumming and Buckethead's playing are superb here as usual.
Overall, this album is incredible. Every song on here has something to like about. Buckethead's guitar and bass playing are absolutely incredible and so is Brain's drumming. If you like metal music and don't much care for the screaming vocals than this album is for you. If you're a Buckethead fan than this is album for you. Every track on this album is awesome.
4.5/5
