Buckethead makes use of his killswitch before the bass solo. His guitar tone is grating, and there is no bass for most of the solo, but it fits the feel of the song perfectly and again, the build-up to it is perfect, with a demented-sounding fast guitar line played. This song has an absolutely blisteringly fast solo though- one of Buckethead's finest. It has many different riffs, and this is where the experimental part of the album really shows. This is one of the more controversial songs on the album, and also one of the weirdest. Elephant Man's Alarm Clock, the title track, is up next. The end of the solo features a great speed-up, and then the final riff comes in, accurately alternately picked by Buckethead. There is another great build up before the solo comes in, played at lightning speed by Buckethead. The third song on the album is Baseball Furies, which features a low-tuned guitar riff (drop B I believe). As I said before, this is one of his most popular songs, and with good reason. The ending solo is superb, with some very fast playing towards the end of the song. The breakdown here works very well, and is followed by another melodic section. During the first melodic section there is a great chord progression with sounds amazing, and then a guitar solo comes in. It effortlessly blends melodic and heavy with its alternating sections of emotional balladry and heavy metal riffs. Next is Final Wars, which is one of Buckethead's most popular songs.
Thai Fighter Swarm is a great song, if sporadic. Towards the end of the song there is some awesome multi-finger tapping, and then the ending riff comes in. After this part comes a very cool speed up, with guitar and drums consistently getting faster. Then everything starts again with a slower riff. A guitar riff comes in for a brief period of time, and then everything stops. It starts with a very odd guitar riff played on top of some very fast drumming, and then quickly moves into some insanely fast guitar shredding. Thai Fighter Swarm opens up the album with a bang. This album is entirely instrumental except for one very small part of a song, but it this CD doesn't need vocals- in fact, vocals would probably constrain Buckethead (see Enter The Chicken). Even if you have never heard Buckethead before, this is a great place to start. If you are a Buckethead fan and you don't own this album, then put it at the top of your 'to buy' list. The drums and backing tracks sound great Bootsy Collins even shows up for a song and plays a space bass solo (more on that later). There is a ton of variation on this album, too- from funk, to metal, to experimental, this album has (almost) everything. Often named by fans as one of (or his very) best album, this is Buckethead at his pinnacle in terms of song-writing ability. Review Summary: An absolutely fantastic album that must be heard by all.īuckethead's The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock is a true masterpiece.