Sunday, August 17, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews
MELVINS
“NUDE WITH BOOTS”
(IPECAC)
Courtesy of Ipecac Recordings
MELVINS
w/Big Business
Sunday, Aug.
The Drunken Unicorn
$15-17
www.thedrunkenunicorn.net Check out any history on the roots of the Seattle sound and you’ll find the Melvins referenced as an integral component of what Nirvana and Pearl Jam buffed up and took to the bank. But the Melvins’ unapologetically raw sludge of metal, garage and oozing hard rock has, not surprisingly, been a more difficult sell.
Just one year short of the trio-turned quartet’s 25th anniversary, and with nearly as many albums, they’re not going to sell out now. Anyone who’s recorded for a major label (1993’s “Houdini” was partially produced by Kurt Cobain), staunch indies such as Amphetamine Reptile and Boner and, for nearly a decade, Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings, has been in the trenches long enough to draw a line in the artistic sand.
Guitarist/frontman King Buzzo revs up the tempos to approximate the more lick-oriented Led Zeppelin with a thundering stoner rock hangover. Two drummers pound out the explosive John Bonham beat on typical grindcore fare such as “The Savage Hippie” and the title track, but gruff melodies lurk under the heavy riffage.
It’s still dark in the Melvins’ freak house, as evidenced by song titles such as “Suicide in Progress” and the closing “It Tastes Better Than the Truth,” the latter featuring deathly howls of rage and pain against a stark military beat. Even though this is pretty far from even the least commercial aspects of a compatriot like Mudhoney, it’s more listenable than some of the band’s previous discs, and an adequate place to join the ongoing story, already very much in progress. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz