I find it hard to keep up with Melvins. I have 14 of their albums and feel like I have just about made a dent. If you add in Melvins related albums Buzz solo’s and collabs the number seems almost infinite and seemingly impossible to attain. Then my head gets in a Linda Blair due to the changes the band do to their sound and personnel at the change of seasons. What the fuck!
So it is with trepidation and excitement I press play on Tarantula Heart the new opus from these seminal musicians who have influenced a veritable fuck tonne of my fave bands.
The opener is an album in itself – the 19 minute long “Pain Equals Funny”. This track runs the gamut of Melvins styles and showcases the impact they have had on underground and alternative music since 1983 (I was 10 then!).
It starts very chill and laid back – kinda Janes Addiction into a riff that takes me straight to Torche. It rolls and breaches like a Pacific wave. About 6 mins in it gets dark – a bit industrial – an eerie pulse ushers in some electronica that feels like an alarm going off that you know you need to heed but don’t have a clue about the protocol. Three minutes later it fades into arthouse gentle noise with wah wahs . I am not a Zappa fan but I have a mate who is both a big Melvins nut and a Zappa head and it is at times like this I can see why. This track is like a cocktail of drugs queuing to take charge of the cerebellum. Thirteen minutes in things segue into distorted feedback and a noisy riff breaks though the membrane of calm and psychedelia. This repeats and builds with some added electronic drums and the hint of a breakbeat. It all starts getting very Justin Broadrick and any green shoots and flowers are crushed by concrete and steel. SO that’s track one!
I gotta say it almost feels churlish to be describing the new Melvins album to you right now. It’s the Melvins! You either love em or love a band that wouldn’t exist without them or you need to go back to your KVLT dungeon and play with matches.
Seeing as I accepted the task to review this I better stick to the job in hand.
So, after the opening opus the Melvins get on “Working the Ditch” which was the single from Tarantula Heart. It is a dark brooding dirty shovel in muddy gravel. You will get the refrain “It was a dark time for us” running round your head for the rest of the day along with the hypnotic creepy riff.
“She’s Got Weird Arms” is playful in a warped toybox as seen through a carnival mirror way. I get big Cardiacs vibes from this which is no real surprise as the late lamented Tim Smith and co are another bunch of innovators who have cast a massive fluffy shadow over the music of the last 4 decades. It ends abruptly and the gang move into more madness with the chaotic “Allergic to Food” which is disorientating and energising in equal measures – like being spun in a manic game of Blind Mans Buff, in a room filled with candy floss and razor blades.
Final track “Smiler” is a mish-mash of the previous chaos, a robotic vocal that matches a rhythmic mechanical riff that is the steadying hand behind some dizzy madness. My brain changes direction a few times, sometimes choosing to follow the freeform sporadic melodies whilst other times nailing itself to the basic groove of the track. I suppose that is as good a description of Melvins as I can give. Chaos and Order battling together and making awesome records.
(8.5/10 Matt Mason)
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