Apocalyptica - Shadowmaker

Artist: Apocalyptica
Album: Shadowmaker
Release date: April 17, 2015 (Europe)
Label: Harmageddon Records
Genre: Alternative rock with cellos









WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
You know them. They got kinda big about twenty years ago playing Metallica covers in a four-cellos lineup, then they didn't really stay big. This is their first album in five years, and for the first time they have a full-time singer, Franky Perez, formerly in the ill-fated System of a Down spinoff Scars on Broadway (he didn't sing on their only album, though). The album is technically self-produced and distributed by Harmageddon Records, which is an effective cost-cutting measure if you want to cut one of the ten or fifteen middle men between you and your record, especially if you can afford to front the money for the actual recording.

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
Take Riot Lights. It's a song with the right mood, a unique touch, a fresh take on the style that put Apocalyptica on the map years ago. It's also an instrumental. Yeah, I'm saying the singer thing doesn't really work. Or, rather, that it only works when you take Perez out of his element (like in Sea Song). When everything clicks, what you have is an album that is easy to listen through but mantains a gothic depth and some interesting twists and turns. Ballads like Hole in my Soul might not be original, but they show decent craft, although it's the kind of song that is least likely to impress the average listener.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
Boy oh boy, everytime Apocalyptica go for a standard rock track they drop the ball. Cold Blood, Slowburn, House of Chains are terrible songs - there is no polite way to put it. It's bland, uninspired, generic sounding top 40 rock with no credible chance of ever making it to the top 40. You know Nickelback? This is worse than Nickelback. It's an astonishing divide between two "souls" of this band - except one is their legitimate soul and the other is a terrible attempt at I-don't-even-know-what, because no one who's trying to make easy listening rock songs can have that bad an outcome and choose to release it nonetheless

VERDICT
Half of the album is pure garbage. The other half rests between passable and good. Luckily, we live in the age of separately sold songs, so you can make your own awesome (well, kinda) listening experience and completely ignore the rest. Of course, here I judge the album as a whole, and it doesn't make me happy at all. But you, lucky reader, can skip the bad parts. If you do that, you'll probably think "man, that reviewer guy is an asshole! This is a great record". It's okay, I'm used to that.

Buckethead: Pike 126 - Tourist

Artist: Buckethead
Album: Pike 126 - Tourist
Release date: April 10, 2015
Label: Independent (Bandcamp release)
Genre: look, it's Buckethead, he'll do whatever he wants. In this case, it's kind of alternative rock.









WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
Buckethead is the guy with a bucket on his head. He also happen to be one of the best, most innovative rock guitarist of his generation. You might remember him from the time Guns'n'Roses tried to evolve. I remember him for Pandemoniumfromamerica, one of the best albums you've never heard, an experimental take on spoken word in collaboration with Viggo Mortensen. Now, good ol' Bucky here never rests. The number right there is not an inside joke, this is the 126th album in the Pike series, which started in 2011. Tourist is guitar experimentation - you're either fascinated by it or not, I guess.

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
The only song you can stream on Bandcamp without buying the full album (which you should) is the centerpiece of this piece of work. Glow Worm is the kind of musical journey you can expect from Buckethead, and I have to say that it's both deep and pleasant - you can kinda leave it in the background and it'll do good things to your mind, or you can dive into it and find the meaning behind every note. This double layer approach has alway been Buckethead's main strength, so it's not surprising to see it here. I found Ticket to Extinguish to be the album's other high point, but it's a pretty cohesive work anyway, enjoyable as a whole. It's a lossless release, so it sounds great.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
You have to be a fan. I hate when people say, "it's an acquired taste", but it's true that you might not appreciate Buckethead if you're not already into him. I don't think he cares, but I do. So do yourself a favour and check some of his stuff online, listen to the 14-minutes song from this one and choose.

VERDICT
Buy it. At $8.99 it's a bit pricey, so you might be tempted to wait until it pops up on other streaming services, but it's not guaranteed to happen and you'd risk losing this chance just because you're a cheap bastard. Don't be a cheap bastard. Then again, if you're looking to enter the world of Buckethead, keep in mind that this is a fine album, but not his most memorable effort.