With their nineteenth studio album, the Melvins are once again bludgeoning their way through a hectic and preposterously sludgy set of tracks well worthy to follow-up 2006’s great (A) Senile Animal. Capturing the band’s mid-’90s run of heaviness and eccentricity, Nude With Boots picks up right where (A) Senile Animal left off and systematically closes the deal on what could have been a killer double album.
The heart of the Melvins is, of course, the dynamic duo of Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover. This demented nucleus added Jared Warren and Coady Willis (Big Business), a second drummer, to the devilish dichotomy and came up with another full blast of crazed noise.
Nude With Boots is the result of the elements of madness combining, as King Buzzo’s command of the vocals runs a daring swath through what could be normal rock songs and the band’s consistency storms through to create a concrete backcloth that few bands could replicate on their best days.
Despite the seeming lunacy at the core of the Melvins, the songwriting is remarkably succinct and the results are always convincing. Whether they’re mining vintage ’80s thrash metal, chunks of Sabbath, or doubling up on their own innovative sound from the ’90s, the Melvins are in top form on Nude With Boots and fans of the veteran rockers will be more than pleased with the results.
The album is almost split into two halves, with the first half dedicated staunchly to that big ’70s rock shit. The lead riff from “The Kicking Machine” is addictive and carries through Buzzo’s peculiar quasi-operatic vocals gleefully. And the storming drum opening of “Billy Fish” subsides to a killer guitar portion so crisply that it requires temple adulation of some sort.
The harmonizations are also stellar, gutting songs like “Dog Island” with a sort of strange splendour that fits the hair-splitting guitar to a T.
Article comments
1 - Bertha
Excellent article! I appreciate the nod to the fans of the older, undeniably "MELVINS" sound. The return to these sludgy minor chords makes me like this album better than Senile. Thanks for the excellent coverage!