Melvins 1983: "Thunderball"

 

King Buzzo reunited with original drummer Mike Dillard to get even more experimental. There are some collaborators on this one rather than the normal Melvins line-up, which is why the 1983 is being attached to the name here. There is a clanging post-punk vibe to the first song that still holds an aggression in how the song does not let up, and the guitar keeps chugging away. I love bands getting weird, but this does not mean I let them slide on songwriting, so when we go into the ambient noises of "Vomit of Clarit,y" I am pleased to see it is only a two-minute interlude and not them trying to make art and call it music. 

"Short Hair With a Wig' feels more like a Melvins song. There is some pretty decent guitar on this one. Buzzo is an underrated guitarist in my book. That said, the Melvins are a band I like and respect, but never listen to as much as I could. Perhaps it's the more sprawling noise moments that make me pick some else, I like the creepy feeling to the verses on this one.  Granted, this is an 11-minute song, so they are taking their time to set up the dynamics. It leans into the more grungy side of sludge. This makes sense as the 90s were when the band hit their creative stride. They do jam it out a bit; this could have been a 7-minute song, easy, and gotten the point across. 

"Victory of the Pyramids" gets right to the rocking out, with a very upbeat attack that feels more like something Foo Fighters would do. This one is nine and a half minutes before the song shifts into something more like punk, which is equally one of the band's influences, as you can hear how elements of say the Dead Kennedys creep into this and the lumbering sludge it climaxes into makes the song feel like a Frankenstein assembly of parts. Though some of these parts are more hooky and memorable than others. "Venus Blood" closes the album.  It has a creepy groove that still holds some tension and is pretty consistent with what this band does, no matter who is involved. I'll give this album an 8.5, it works for what they do and this version of the band is pretty close to what they normally do. Out on Ipecac Records. 

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