So, the Melvins – you may have heard of these guys before. You know, the guys that play some pretty weird shit, experimental noise space rock stoner doom….. (I’ll stop here – I could go on for a while), they’ve been around for a while – in fact, the line up recording this album is the one from 1983 – and they are something of a cult band, still selling out venues so many years and many line up changes from their formation. However experimental they’ve been in their sound before, there’s something that age does to experimentalists sometimes, which is always a worry before listening to something new. First spin of the record and the first song tells me all I need to know…
Well, as you can tell by the above video (with ‘I Fuck Around’ being the opening track, ‘Bouncing Rick’ the third) there was no need to have any such worries here! Between the two tracks on that video, you get a sense of everything the album encompasses, the light and the dark. The shorter tracks on the album allude to counterparts and provide some light relief on what is at times a pretty dark album, serving to demonstrate a good depth of songwriting talent. There is plenty of groovy stoner swagger to the riffs which just sounds plain monstrous at times, almost like some beautiful mutant rising up on high above you, seeking to dash you down with vicious claws – one that feels almost too heavy, too much for you but at the same time you really just do not want to stop listening. There is, in fact, so much groove that my dog is now wagging his tail to the bass!
There’s something about Buzz shrieking ‘It’s morally superior’ in various tones that just works in ways that it shouldn’t in ‘Caddy Daddy’, while songs like ‘Boy Mike’ are more up-tempo and seem to align as much with noise rock as the initial stoner that you get in the immediacy of the track. There is so much more you pick up, extra layered effects, samples, and such as you progress through a second, third, fourth and beyond listen through, showing quite how important the production values are to Buzz, Dale and Mike. Even in their fuzzy, at times almost lo-fi state of musical being, this is something that you may not fully grasp in earlier listens through and in addition to the expert musicianship that is shown by each member throughout this release.
Nothing is ever easy with the Melvins and this is 100 per cent OK because they are utterly worth it. They might be trying to make things right with God, to quote the band in the bio, or they might not but I could definitely see an almighty being, if one exists, getting laid to some of these tracks, especially the likes of ‘Caddy Daddy’ which oozes a kind of fucked up groove to the music and the almost scornfully sludgy ‘Hot Fish’. While there are moments of irreverent fun, there are some absolutely fucking huge riffs contained within and I wholeheartedly recommend this album. Whether you’re already a Melvins aficionado, into your stoner, experimental, hard rock or just plain like weird shit, this is an album that you owe to yourself to own.
- ‘Working With God’ is released, together with vinyl reissues of ‘Hostile Ambient Takeover’ and ‘Gluey Porch Treatments’, on 26 February. You can get your copy HERE.
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