Review: The Melvins – The Bride Screamed Murder

Here’s the thing, folks: I don’t even know how to describe The Melvins’ individual albums. Their work is all pretty much sludgy, dark, and weird, but individual albums each are their own entities. And I don’t mean that to be dismissive. I like their brand of sludgy, dark, and weird, but each of their albums is sometimes only different in subtle ways. This is all a roundabout way of saying they are their own band. Whenever the subject of where to start with the Melvins comes up, invariably a few hardcore fans crop up to tell you to go through all their albums, as though this superhumanly prolific band can be digested (let alone appreciated!) all at once.

So I can tell you The Bride Screamed Murder is as good an opening as exists. They’ve gotten a bit more accessible compared to their early days. Or maybe time has gotten softer to their heavy, slow brand of metal thanks to their progeny. I don’t know. The vocals on “I’ll Finish You” are more haunting than anything found on records from their “prime” like Houdini or Stoner Witch. There’s some great fret work on “Electric Flower” as the guitars duel with each other on a cat-and-mouse riff and Buzz Osborne’s multi-tracked vocals shout over them. They’re not ones for pop hooks, thank God, so mileage varies by how much gravitas and power one enjoys in their metal.

I’d say that their riffs are a little less Black Sabbath (the album) and a little more Paranoid nowadays, but that sounds like progress. And this band doesn’t necessarily progress; they just do different spins on their sound that are different but equally awesome. It’s why seemingly every corner of the band’s formidable discography has proponents. Yet, on this album, they do a cover of “My Generation” that’s unlike anything The Who or Sabbath could have ever done, all slow and moody – almost a parody, but somehow not quite getting to that level of sarcasm. It’s a bit overlong, but it’s at least different.

Then there are the odd detours that make the band so endearing. Like the chant and response on the opening track, “The Water Glass,” or the weird not-quite-jazz noodling at the end of “Hospital Up.” Then again, they speed up considerably, to an almost punkish degree, on “Inhumanity and Death” before switching over to a slower, high-tension tempo. Yet at the same time, it’s not as convincing as past forays into that sound (such as those on A Senile Animal).

Maybe I’ve done too much praising. The Melvins are not a band of grand statements, which is probably why they’ve stayed more or less a cult phenomenon. Their greatness lies in the fact that album-to-album, they’re remarkably consistent. Song-by-song, though, each album has some dry spots or dirges that don’t quite work out. Yet they hit so many right moments out of the park every single time that it’s hard not to recommend everything they do. I guess what I’m saying is: have you heard of this great band called The Melvins? If so, you’ll probably like this. You haven’t? Where’s the best place to start? Here or wherever, man.

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About the Author

Jere is not from Chicago. Nor is he from Parts Unknown. But he sure loves to hear things. Follow him on Twitter!

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