ALBUM REVIEW: Tarantula Heart – Melvins
If you’ve ever listened to grunge, stoner rock, doom, sludge or drone, the chances are you’ll have heard a MELVINS influence in there somewhere. A legendary band with a prolific output, their earlier work in particular has been credited with inspiring the likes of NIRVANA, MASTODON, BORIS and EARTH. Having released their proto-sludge debut Gluey Porch Treatments in 1987, you’d probably expect them to be putting their feet up on a back porch somewhere, taking it easy and occasionally reuniting to tour work from their ‘classic’ era to rake in the money. Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Tarantula Heart is the band’s 27th studio album and it certainly doesn’t sound anything like a band nearly 40 years into their career. Even in the 1980s, critics and fans alike struggled to pigeonhole the band’s music, as it flitted between big, doom-influenced riffs and punky, experimental post-rock noise. It is heartening then to find on first listen that Tarantula Heart shows the band still pushing the boundaries of genre and experimenting with an energy lacking in most bands half their age.
Band leader and scene stalwart Buzz Osborne (AKA King Buzzo) has revealed in recent interviews that this album has been written and recorded in a way completely unlike the band’s previous work. This time, the band (Dale Crover on drums, Steven McDonald on bass, Roy Mayorga also on drums and Gary Chester on guitars and – according to the press release – “Texas weirdness”) jammed and recorded sections of songs together, before listening back and forming the final versions of songs from those sessions, essentially writing the songs after they had been recorded. This unusual approach has resulted in what the band themselves call “the weirdest thing” they’ve been a part of.
This weirdness is instantly apparent on opening track Pain Equals Funny, a 19-minute behemoth that acts as an excellent introduction to the band’s off-kilter, psychedelic core. It starts off with big, meaty upbeat riffs and droney vocal harmonies before taking a turn into darker territory. That positive vibe from the opening soon transforms into a chugging, fuzzy, robotic section that wouldn’t sound out of place on the latest QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE album. However, just as you settle in, just as your head starts nodding along, it starts to fade out, changing direction again at the halfway point into a bluesy, noise-filled jam that takes up the majority of the second half of the song.
Second track Working The Ditch continues where the opener left off with experimental noise very much to the fore, although as this one progresses there are snatches of an almost chant-along chorus to be found (“It was a dark day for us!”). In fact, as with Pain Equals Funny, there is something hypnotic and enchanting about the sounds the band produces here. She’s Got Weird Arms (contender for song title of the year) is up next and again puts experimentation first. As a result it ends up sounding like a cross between CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and early TALKING HEADS, particularly in the David Byrne-esque vocal delivery. Eclectic as ever, the big guitars from the earlier songs very much take a backseat here.
Allergic To Food sounds more like an acid-fuelled garage jam that anything and actually sums up the whole record rather well. Whether you will enjoy this album relies largely on two things – your love of the MELVINS and your ability to withstand (or get into) listening to a band who are clearly having a great time while essentially mucking about. Most of these songs very much have the feeling of ‘let’s chuck everything including the kitchen sink at it and see how it turns out’.
Having said that, final track Smiler is probably the most traditionally coherent piece of music on the album, in that it follows a regular structure, with metallic riffs and a powerful performance from the rhythm section driving the song through its sort-of-verses and choruses. Those listeners less familiar with the band’s more ‘out-there’ moments might find themselves hoping for more of this – fuzzy, punky garage rock with an experimentally psychedelic edge.
MELVINS fans will no doubt enjoy the weirdness on offer here and it’s great that the band are still pushing to create something genuinely fresh-sounding. However, if you’re new to the band this album may not exactly be your best starting point.
Rating: 7/10
Tarantula Heart is set for release on April 19th via Ipecac Recordings.
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