Here we are again, on the pre-ignition of another monday, and there's none more of an appropriate time for us to appreciate the Melvins. (MELVINS MONDAY!) That and I have more schoolwork I'm avoiding.
Prior to 93, the Melvins were anything but typical compared to their contemporaries from the region (see: grunge); they were sludge, they were metal, they were punk. When that whole dumb thing in the north-west corner happened...something changed. Bullhead wasn't too far removed from the formula we heard on Ozma--if anything it represented a transitional period. But in 1993, they veered off-course for better or worse.
The Melvins made a straight-ahead "rock" album, not unlike what everyone else was doing at the time. Were they cashing in? Were they taking the piss out of everyone else? It's not like they completely abandoned what they were doing before and turned to some contrived sound without reason; vestiges of their old style still soaked through in a few tracks (Hag Me, Copache, Set Me Straight, At the Stake, yadda yadda). What gets me about the whole change is that it's not like what they were doing on Ozma, Bullhead, and Eggnog was worn out or unoriginal...they fucking INVENTED sludge and played it for not even 5 years--then said fuck it--and moved on. Something so innovative, so new and fresh, although not all that accessible compared to other music, was at the very least THEIRS...and they just fucking threw it aside for other bands to pick up and march on with.
Really though, if they hadn't grown into a different genre of music, chances are their records would've ended up as stale, boring and unexciting as a Slayer or Cannibal Corpse release...the type of shit that only someone like Angry Pantera Kid would cum all over himself about. Or they could've suffered a slow painful death like TAD did from the mid to late nineties.
...nonetheless: whatever they were doing--they did it WELL, and that's what counts. Here's to 3 years of Mark D, solos, and KISS covers:
1993 - Houdini
1994 - Stoner Witch
1996 - Stag
--fred
2 comments:
it's mark d.
and i don't get how "their old style [...]soaked through" on "at the stake"...
ah nitpicking...
at least someone raises melvins awareness, and that's what counts
bahh, I don't know what the fuck
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