The Melvins-Houdini

This is slow, heavy, punk rock, with some brilliant riffs and some fudge off loud drums. If you want to test your system out, then this will do it. Dale Crovers drums thunder like a war Gods, inspiration for Mr Grohl IMO. Its not fast and furious, its slow and perfectly etched, with some great bass playing and plenty of space.

Kurt Cobain had a hand in engineering some of the tracks and makes an appearance playing guitar and drums. He engineers one track so that the lead guitar and vocals sound like they are miles away, but are still prominent in the overall mix, like a bright light in a very dark room, while the bass and the drums circle round each other in a tight knott, fully in the foreground.

This must be one of the loudest bands around, theres not much to compare them with, similar to the heaviest metallica riffs, but its clearly NOT Metallica, this band breaths force and power, lurching like some enormous prehistoric monster.

It wont appeal to everyone, but if you like your riffs bone crushingly heavy and an entire drum set right in your listening room, then this is for you. Its stoner metal at its most magnificent.

Buy with confidence,but buy a cushion to hide behind at the same time.

9/10

 

Didn't Dale Crover play on Bleach?

Never heard anything by the Melvins, always assumed they were like Mudhoney or similar. I'll put them on my "to do" list. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Quite right, he did, probably the hardest hitter around, makes DG sound like a jazz drummer

They dont sound much like Mudhoney, at least , not on Houdini. I have just ordered their first album and Stoner Witch (had to go to a US site for that).

Might be worth looking at Bad Brains, sort of Jamaican version of the Melvins Ire, Ire, dead good.