Thanatopsis — Thanatopsis

Masked guitarist Buckethead seems to have two schemes in his releases: high profile, well budgetted releases like Monsters & Robots and Giant Robot and low profile, quick and dirty recordings like Cobra Strike and this project.

He hooked up with labelboss and keyboardist Travis Dickerson and drummer Ramy Antoun to record this album under the banner of Thanatopsis. This album is funky and heavy, pretty much in the vein of the legendary out-of-print Giant Robot album although Travis is much more present as a keyboardplayer than Pete Scaturro who contributed more of an atmosphere. The acid-ish electronic loops and for instance the orchestral samples on Final Reparation are also cool. Buckethead adapts to the different scales wonderfully. The track In Their Millions features hammond organ and Mortheol has lots of piano on it.

All these things add something special to Buckethead's funk/metal hybrid. Ramy's drums are remeniscent to Deli Creeps and GR2 drummer Pinchface's style. It seems Bucket also discovered the whammy-pedal judging on the extensive use of this apparatus on the album adding a new twist to his style. Of course Big B races up and down his fretboard as usual, alternating spooky chords and heavy riffing. The production is somewhat rough but good and heavy. As a taster we were allowed to offer an mp3 of Myopia.

I think this release appeals most to fans of Buckethead and not as much to the newly gained Guns 'n' Roses followers.