Post by jaerockets on Jan 10, 2021 16:35:38 GMT -5
Inbred Mountain - Released 2005 by Buckethead
★★★★★
Track 1 - In Search of Inbred Mountain comes in with a delightful little spiraling loop, before crescendoing into a thunderous drumbeat + guitar smackdown. Immediately pumped up and kicking. After about a minute of this, the song enters total breakdown mode and tells you this is gonna be one of those W E I R D albums. Cycling back and forth between these two styles, we get a perfect mix between pounding riffage and funky spiraling sound effects. The outro with a droning chorus and chugging guitar is the cherry on top of this musical cake.
Track 2 - Johnny Be Slunk has a funky little start, then progresses using similar motifs to the first track. This one is a bit more subdued, simultaneously making catchy riffs and using weird sounds that conjure up images of a roller coast speeding around the track. The song changes up to a new idea or sound every few seconds, but maintains a similar overall energy throughout, preventing it from just sounding like a bunch of random shit thrown at a wall [which is also nice to listen to sometimes]. I haven't thought of anything to write for the past minute or so, as the song has maintained relatively consistent with the pattern I've already described. I'm noticing it kind of reminds me of the feeling you get when you wake up and fall back asleep like every 30 seconds in the middle of the night - never quite sticking to one mode, with a very hectic feel. No other musician I've ever listened to has been able to produce this kind of sound. It's like you took nursery rhymes and injected them with horror movie juice. With 2 minutes left, we finally enter a completely different type of sound, one I can't really describe. It's... lighter? than the rest. Hmm. Anyways, we go right back to the nightmare fueled, deranged chaosfest after that brief detour. I'm gonna go eat some raw eggs.
Track 3 - Lotus Island has a little drone playing over it, on top of an atmospheric galloping lick. As the drums come in with some thundering power chords, the track sets up and epic feel. Almost a similar vibe to something from Enter the Chicken. ENTER BREAKDOWN MODE - a minute and a half in. Melt your ears and your brain listening to these chords chug along, before returning to the riff from the beginning of the song. This seems to be a more jam oriented track than the second, favoring some epic soloing and more of a basic structure. It's as if they divided the two styles of track one in half, and track two and three were the result. Two was the weird random shit, and three is the chugging riffage, plus some signature Bucket solos. I dig it. The soloing and really powerful feel of this track are driven by some expertly placed interludes, which have a bit of a lighter, airy feel. The last minute of the song breaks off completely into something else, and sounds like a lobotomized leg from track two. Back to the muffled ramblings of Jenkins the coop manager. It sure is entertaining, but man is it bewildering. Making my desk shake with that R E V E R B.
Track 4 - Flock of Slunks has an ambient opening, with some indistinct noises along with the dripping of a faucet, before some funky guitar comes in for a bit of solo instrumentation. This quickly dissolves into a similar style heard at the beginning of track one, with fast pumping drums and loud, chugging guitar. And before I can finish typing that, we go back to weird track two type noises. Oh, now we're listening to something that sounds more like track three. This album is all over the place, but in a consistent way - and I love it. The song closes out with the main riff presented at various points throughout being soloed over magnificently by big B.
Track 5 - Advance to the Summit bursts into your ears from the beginning, filling out the audio spectrum with weird grindy noises . The song goes on with more of the weird out there sounds I love Buckethead for, but with even more ferocity and intensity as any of the previous tracks. Things are really starting to ramp up now. It's hard to put into words how this album works. My ears just can't stop trying to figure out what the fuck they're listening to. We've probably been listing for half an hour, and there's never a dull moment. Always something new coming in, always a fresh idea, while still connecting to a style that's been used already. Anyways, yeah this song slaps. Upping the anti, really just throwing everything at the wall. At the end we get a similar drone chorus effect that was heard at the beginning of the album. Makes me think of a bunch of tiny clay people humming as you escalate to the summit of Inbred Mountain.
Track 6 - Plastination Station comes in with a swingin riff that leads into a thunderous chorus of a similar style to previous tracks. Very in your face, slow, and booming. This leads into a calmer section, as things slow down a bit. A nice rest for the ears. The repetitive solo that comes in after a nice section of this is very pleasant sounding. At the end of this, a marching beat comes in to grind things up and sounds much more intense. A classic rock-inspired solo goes over this, building up into a beautiful spiral of music. For the last minute we return to to a slower, softer sound with the same soloey riff used earlier, fading into silence.
Track 7 - Escape from Inbred Mountain starts with a slide whistle, of all things. fitting. This is quickly taken over by a blasting, power chord chugging guitar riff, which then transitions into a few discordant notes being played over by a banjo. What the hell am I listening to? Why is it so awesome? Guitar takes it back over with the pounding riff before coming in at an all out assault on the ears as the drums speed up and the guitar blasts at full volume. The banjo keeps coming back in, reminding you that this album is NOT going to just suddenly turn into another Buckethead metal riffing party. We are here for some [weird sounding, definitely not normal, something might be wrong, Buckethead has a couple of screws lose] NOISE. As the banjo and metal guitar battle back and forth for control of the song, the utter absurdity of this entire project is put on full display. Anyone who doesn't like this sort of thing is probably not listening by this point, so why not just let things go wild for those of us that do? After everything fades out, we are left to think about what in the ever living fuck we just listened to.
Bonus Track! For those of us [like me] that got this album from Buckethead's digital store, we get a re-recording of Lotus Island. This version is a bit cleaner sounding, as he no doubt had access to higher end recording equipment by the time he decided to give it a do-over about a decade later. For the most part this version is the same, with a couple minor stylistic changes + an even weirder ending. A wonderful homage to the original iconic track!
Well that's it. This is one wild ride of an album, that I love every bit of. If I'm speaking critically, the album doesn't really progress all that much throughout, but I personally enjoy all the strange detours and ideas it explores too much to even care. One of my all time favorite Buckethead works. Great for newcomers and hardcore fans alike! [as long as you're down for some not-so-normal sounding stuff].