The Melvins
Nude With Boots / Ipecac / BUY
Know who needs no intro? A band that’s been in biz for about 25 years, with just shy of 20(!) records under their belt. So, no, we won’t go into detail about how King Buzzo and his mighty Melvins all but created Grunge. Or how they distilled the ever-loving piss out of sludge and made it cool to sound down, dirty, and slower than slow. Or how they influenced anyandeverything you might call “heavy” nowadays. Instead, we’ll just breathlessly praise the knock-down, drag-out intensity of the band’s latest full-length, Nude With Boots. Picking up where 2006′s (A) Senile Animal left off, Boots throws its weight around with the best of them, whipping back and forth from raucous riff rock on the album-opening “Kicking Machine” to Spaghetti Western voodoo on “Dies Iraea” to beefy bluesman metal on “A Suicide In Progress.”
Once again featuring the rhythm section of Seattle sludgemiesters Big Business — Jared Warren and Coady Willis, for those keeping score at home — the album builds on the template guitarist Buzz Osbourne and drummer Dale Crover set forth back when Reagan was in the White House: interstate-wide grooves, impossibly-proportioned riffs, and eye-bugging, from-the-gut vocals. But what sets Boots apart is its ability to sound 100% menacing while swinging for the fences with its “pop hooks.” Check the hyperblast Thin Lizzy, or hulked up Cheap Trick vibe on the title track below. But don’t fret if “Nude” is too cheery for your taste, there’s plenty of hellfire and squealing Melvmetal on the album-closing “It Tastes Better Than The Truth.”
Long live the Melvins!
