siLLy puPPy PIKE 147 - POPCORN SHELLS is the 46th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015. Yet another all instrumental album clocking in near the half hour mark at 28:40. Once again BUCKETHEAD performs all instrument playing and this one has only three tracks.

The title track begins and is the longest at 14:24. This one starts off with a heavy rocker with crunchy metal guitars and accompanying bass and drum (machine). It kinda goes on and on with a few electronic additional noises here and there has little break downs now and again but is ultimately a long drawn out jam that is actually quite boring. Even the sizzling solos here and there are uninspired. Don’t like it. Next.

Track two “Stetzab” at 7:16 starts out with a cool bass sound accompanied by a drum (machine) in the cymbal range. Kinda funky but kinda not! No, after awhile it is apparent that it is funky but it’s kinda of a strange funk. Kinda of progressive and aggressive. Seems like it’s one of those bass and drum tracks as there are no other instruments popping up. No, wait. There are some kind of keyboards providing a percussion layer with sound effects. OK, here come the guitars half way thru but then as soon as they appear they drop out and let the bass become even more aggressive. You get the idea. This one’s not bad, but i’m not blown away either.

Track three “Yester” at 7 minutes exactly is the shortest track and starts out with a synthesized guitar riff and a drum machine. Yikes! Not very promising. Don’t like either sound so far. It kinda changes up the syncronicity of the instruments here and there but the patterns of this way and that way are rather boring. The whole thing continues in this manner. Nah, meh. This PIKE is a snoozer.