siLLy puPPy PIKE 193 - 14 DAYS TIL HALLOWEEN: VOICE FROM THE DEAD FOREST is the 92nd album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015 and the 18th installment in the countdown to a haunted HALLOWEEN (October 31st in participating nations). Once again the chicken lover conjures up a dark ambient soundtrack for the holiday season all by himself. This PIKE has 8 tracks that are all titled “Voice From The Dead Forest.” I like the album cover a lot. FORESTS can be hella spooky. All the tracks run together for one seamlessly whole spookathon. This one clocks in near the half hour mark at 29 minutes and 47 seconds.

This PIKE starts off with an electronically manipulated sound effect that is little musical riff that repeats. The rhythm is kinda like that of machinery where the cycle repeats after a few seconds but is hypnotic in its effect like a washing machine or even a train going down the tracks. It then changes into some different single sound that repeats and then changes the sound and rhythm of the sequence once again. It sounds like it could be a vocal uttering being manipulated beyond recognition. I’m liking this one much better than the previous couple because it begins to change things up regularly. The noises that appear only appear unaccompanied, meaning it’s one single electronic sound at a time without percussion or any harmonic accompaniments but it becomes more musical as in music that has pleasant scales that are manipulated electronically in different ways that changes up fairly regularly, then after a while a second electronic sound in the bass range joins in and there are two.

“Part 4” does change it up a little. It becomes a repetitive wah-wah electronic sound that goes up and down a musical scale but has extra sounds join in and then drop out. Eventually it becomes a strange keyboard riff that is just plain weird. It sounds like a church organ skipping like a record with other sounds joining in and dropping out. It then just goes for it and becomes unpredictable.

This one is actually fairly decent. I love how the sounds change up regularly. This is mostly random scary sounds but there are musical snippets that emerge now and again. I wouldn’t call this one totally scary in a traditional HALLOWEEN sense as i would call it more freaky and startling. It is definitely more interesting than the previous two but there are times when it seems to drag on a wee bit too long and keeps it from being amongst my favorite of PIKES.