Album Review: Melvins - Tarantula Heart
Reviewed by Carl Black
We will have heard about the Melvins, we know them from back in the day, feeding off the hype that grunge generated but still having that authenticity of being around before it. And we know Buzz Osborne, the Melvins leader, forever present and can write a song in a moment's notice.
We also know that Melvin's albums are fairly dependable. They come along at a fairly regular rate. 'Tarantula Heart' is everything you'd expect from a Melvins' album with one difference, this album is centred around the first song 'Pain Equals Funny', which is a huge nineteen minutes long epic. The fact that this was written differently to other Melvins albums with drums taking a centre stage in the writing process is neither here or there. Yes, there are some strong drums on here but it is distinctly Melvin's. 'Tarantula Heart' is a trip through Buzz Osborne's head... god help us.
Unfortunately, my intrigue on the nineteen -minute epic was short lived. If I'm honest it's four separate songs, heaped together and not really transitioned in a way that a nineteen minutes’ song should be. But then when did you ever expect the Melvin’s to do something conventionally. If writing long songs means everything needs to knit together, the Melvins are going to do it completely the other way around and that's exactly what they've done. Dependably Melvins.
'Pain Equals Funny' starts with very clean vocals over a trippy grunge riff. You then get a short transition part with plenty of feedback, some over processed drums come in over more dark and meaner in the next section of the song. Annoyingly we get a fade out from that section of the song. It is going to be interesting to see how they plan to play it live. We get about five minutes of jazz noodling and then they throw everything in at the end. A massive long fade out twined with what sounds like Concord engines feeding back. The song keeps you engaged but it's by no means 2112.
The remaining four songs are of a more traditional length. The pick of the bunch being the psycho rhythms and smooth grunge effect of 'She's Got Weird Arms'. 'Working the Ditches' is catchy but heavy. You get fuzzy guitars over shouty vocals in 'Allergic to Feed'.
Don't expect a synchronised concept album, this is the Melvins we're talking about. What we get is a strange mix of sounds, noise and melody. It's dependable Melvin's
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