Longtime Melvins fans are familiar with the many faces of the band. There’s the sludgey, hook-filled Melvins of Stag and Stoner Witch, the fair to
middling grunge wheel-spinning of Prick and Bullhead and the balls out “I’m not sure they give a shit anymore” experimentation of Hostile Ambient
Takeover and The Maggot. It’s a cycle the band has repeated consistently over the course of their 30-some odd-years as underground hard rock purveyors.
The Melvins have already shot through this cycle in the short time since they merged with the band formerly known as Big Business. Their third album
together, The Bride Screamed Murder, falls quite comfortably into that final WTF! category. But somehow they’ve managed to reign in their madness enough
this time to create something truly interesting.
“I’ll Finish You Off” is easily the album’s best track, softening the bottom end to create a roving, melancholy dirge that feels epic despite its short
(by Melvins’ standards) five minutes. Other tracks like the ‘start soft/finish strong…and crazy’ aesthetic of “Pig House” find an even keel groove that
could only be compared to the likes of Frank Zappa. The classic sludge sound The Melvins are best known for still saturates the disc. Songs like “Evil
New War God” and “Inhumanity and Death” will definitely keep old school fans happy, despite the songs’ own peculiar internal logic.
The Bride Screamed Murder is an exceptionally off-kilter album that becomes increasingly compelling the more spins you give it. The general warped
feeling the CD gives off is amplified by the two throw away tracks that bookend the rest of the songs. “The Water Glass” and “PGx3” are normally songs
I would call worthless and claim they were shoehorned in just to pad out the track listing. But here they serve as sign posts to the album’s rabbit hole.
In the end, I can’t imagine the album without them. This is definitely not a CD for Melvins newbies…but then again, few Melvins’ albums are.
Review by David Feltman
