Melvins: Tarantula Heart

An album review of the 27th record by Melvins — “Tarantula Heart”

Melvins

Tarantula Heart

Liberator Music / Ipecac Recordings

Gosh, but I love the Melvins! And they can (pretty much) do no wrong. But, much as I’ve loved (and reviewed) many of their albums over the last decade it has all started to get a bit too gimmicky, covers albums, records with different line-ups, one with extra bass guitarists (Basses Loaded, great title but) and though some of the music has been great, and none of it has been flat out embarrassing, you know they absolutely wail live, and you long for the return to that vibe.

I saw them earlier this year, ahead of the release of Tarantula Heart, their 27th album! and they absolutely killed it, as usual. No mean feat when you’re essentially the opening act (but I saw them all but destroy Tool as opening act about a quarter century ago, so no surprise they were on near equal footing with their friends, Mr. Bungle).

Anyway, I was hopeful that Tarantula might be more than just another Melvins record, knowing if that’s all it was I’d still (happily) take it. And so it’s a great thrill to think of this as maybe their best since maybe 2002’s Hostile Ambient Takeover. They were on fire back then, with plenty of quirk of course. And the same is true with Tarantula Heart. Who, but Melvins, would open a five-song record with a 19-minute epic, when the rest of the album combined is about as long as that one song? And the side-long opener is truly an epic, moving through the sludge metal, punk rock, grunge and stoner-rock aspects of the Melvins sound, to arrive at some sort of Beefheart-ian madness, mid-song, and then drive on home on the back of Buzz’s 1287th blistering riff.

You could listen to a Melvins record for the guitar tone alone. But you might play it again for the way their two drums fall in and out of sync with one another, in only ever the most glorious way. Joining Dale Crover this time around is Roy Mayorga (ex Stone Sour and Soufly, and currently still playing with Ministry). And — in an interesting move for Melvins — joining Buzz Osbourne on second guitar is Gary Chester. It makes for some interesting (extra) sounds on She’s Got Weird Arms, Allergic to Food, and closer, Smiler.

Steven Shane McDonald (Red Kross, OFF!) has been the bassist (or one of them) across most of the last decade for Melvins records, and he’s in fine form (again), sitting right in-between the two drummers, two guitarists, and occasional synth (no, really). Take, Working The Ditch, for instance, a huge rock of a song, and it’s McDonald in the middle to anchor, as Chester and Buzz throw guitar lines at one another in and around the weave of ride cymbal pings and hi-hats.

She’s Got Weird Arms is full of ideas, beginning with a 101 drum pattern that soon falls down into the deluge of creepy guitar hooks, sounding almost new wave or power-pop. There’s a bit of power-pop in the opener, Pain Equals Funny too. Well, that’s until its groove collapses and takes its sweet time to rebuild.

I love the Melvins so much — and never feel disappointed by their records. But they were starting to almost seem like they were coasting. There’s no evidence of that here. This is guttural and huge, and profoundly odd whilst seeming somehow about as straight as they have seemed in close to two decades. Like Hostile Ambient it is a weirder record than you might hear anywhere near the mainstream, but more straight ahead than several within the singular Melvins discography.

God bless Buzz and the Crove, and the new(er) guys. May their strange, ugly/beautiful. music live forever.