To amazing effect.

This is the first video from the disc, which was released on June 7th.  A full Abysmal review is forthcoming, but in the meantime enjoy this taster.

Abysmally, of course….

1994 Atlantic Records

The perfect chaser for “Houdini” and easily the best of a trifecta of Melvins albums that were their only major label releases ever, “Stoner Witch” will forever be my favorite slab of Melvins…the Melvins CD I return to most, although it really works nice in tandem shuffle-play with “Houdini.”

“Skweetis” kicks things off in a superbly sludgy fashion that sounds like the soundtrack to watching someone pour a big jar of molasses…leading right into the sparse-then-pounding “Queen.” From there, King Buzzo and the boyz kick into what is probably my favorite Melvins track ever, the overdriven and stop-on-a-dime-tight “Sweet Willy Rollbar.” It’s one of those two minute shots of greatness that commands repeated listens on brevity alone.

Then it’s onto choice Melvins like “Revolve,” “Roadbull” and “Magic Pig Detective” interspersed with their trademark curveballs like the beautifully agonizing “At the Stake,” and closer “Lividity.” Like its predecessor “Houdini,” “Stoner Witch” is very much its own world and a treasure trove of slow cooking grooves and hooks, some of which don’t sink in until after repeated listens.

It’s amazing really, that a band could get away with being so un-commercial on a major label release. No wonder Buzzo and company get so much respect from so many musical circles so many years after their inception. Melvins have always been a band that just doesn’t take themselves or anything else too seriously and that’s one of the things that makes them so dern much fun.

They’re not a band that everyone “gets,” but for those that do…Melvins just always seem to deliver.

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

1993 Atlantic Records

Every once in a while a band will hit a creative mother lode and put out two or three albums in a row that are basically interchangeable in all the good ways. Clutch’s one-two punch of “Blast Tyrant” and “Robot Hive/Exodus” is a great example…just put ’em in media player or on your iPod and just hit shuffle play.

Melvins have done it with this disc and it’s ludicrously cool follow-up “Stoner Witch.” For the uninitiated, be forewarned that Melvins are indeed a concept and universe all their own. They’re just as likely to hit you with 4 minutes of controlled feedback and a sloth-slow drumbeat as they are to blow your sorry woofers with a hard-hitting workout like “Honey Bucket.” An open mind and sense of humour are most definitely required in the weird wild world of Melvins.

Opener “Hooch” pretty much sets the table for this eclectic and heavy aural feast, bridging the gap between Black Sabbath and Kyuss without sounding derivative, and their cover of KISS’s classic “Goin’ Blind” is really quite excellent.

I dunno…they’re definitely a HEAVY band and deserve their notoriety as the godfathers of grunge. Still raw and crusty after all these years, Houdini was the first of a trifecta of albums that were the only Melvins releases on a major label. What’s really cool is that there was no compromise…the attitude and sound were quite intact on all three discs.

It’s hard to pick out specific individual songs as favorites on an album like this, as it’s best ingested as a whole. If I have to pic faves there would be the aforementioned “Honey Bucket,” “Night Goat,” “Sky Pup,” “Lizzy” and “Pearl Bomb.” Hell, I could name them all really because when I’m in that weird, late night, Adult Swim kinda mood, a good Melvins disc like this satisfies every time.

Rating: 4 out of 5

2007 Relapse Records

One of those bands I just didn’t get upon first hearing the seminal “Miss Machine” some years back.  However, the videos for “Milk Lizard” and “Black Bubblegum” drew me back for another whirl and once their sound sank in, it was positively addictive.

My favorite bands are those who carve their own distinct and unique sound.  Even if most extreme music sounds basically the same to you, Dillinger Escape Plan manages to sound like no one else and there’s probably no other band this side of Meshuggah with the ridiculously sick chops to pull this stuff off.

Seriously, even the sheer noise is totally deliberate and calculated…and superb vocalist Greg Puciato knows just when to intersperse melody with the noise.  Incredibly, the melodies he comes up with are more memorable and hummable than much of what passes for music on today’s radio.  His harsh vocals are abrasive and hair-raising while his melodic vocals are unbelievably strong from hard melody to croon.  The fact that a band stuck with the “math metal” tag could pull off a song like “Black Bubblegum” is just amazing to me.

It’s hard to label any one band as the MOST talented band out there, but it’s easy to say there’s probably none more talented than DEP.  Leadoff track “Fix Your Face” does exactly that…especially if you really don’t know what you’re getting into, while “Lurch” continues the brilliant cacophony leading strangely yet perfectly into the very melodic “Black Bubblegum” and it’s memorable chorus (I).

Elsewhere “Nong Eye Gong,” the brilliant “Milk Lizard,” “Dead as History” and “Horse Hunter” hit with such conviction and deliberate precision that one can only just shake one’s head in amazement.  I imagine it would be like witnessing an asteroid colliding with the earth and managing to survive and be able to stare into the crater.

Rating: 5 out of 5

2011 OU Records

It’s been 15 years.

15 years since Exit the Dragon, a CD that I admittedly didn’t truly appreciate until a couple of years later, and by then the band was already sadly imploding from myriad issues (not the least of which was drummer Blackie Onassis’ drug problems).

The songwriting core of Nash Kato and Eddie “King” Roeser somehow weathered the storm(s) and now here we are with a new  Urge Overkill CD called Rock and Roll Submarine.

Maybe I just don’t get the title, but it just seems more than a tad lame to me. Oh well, I’ll gladly live with it ‘cos this is one mutha of a return for our favorite Abysmal band from Chicago. The glorious opening chords of leadoff track “Mason Dixon” are the perfect introduction, as the band sounds revitalized and gloriously stoked on this lonnnnnng awaited follow up.

Though the video for “Sister Havana” was probably their high point (other than their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon”), the corresponding album “Saturation” didn’t catapult them into the big league the way they and many others expected. One listen to the follow up album “Exit the Dragon” and it’s clear why. “…Dragon” was a more honest representation of who this band really is.

They’re equal parts rock, pop, alternative and garage, and “Saturation” just didn’t showcase their strengths overall. “Rock and Roll Submarine” is really the perfect disc to follow “Exit the Dragon,” no matter how long it has been. Eclectic in all the best ways, and garage enough to allow imperfections (like King Roeser’s fragile, sometimes slightly out of tune voice and some slightly off-tune harmonies) to shine proudly.

Really…Roeser and Nash Kato have two totally distinct voices and it’s with this album that I’ve grown to respect them as much as ANY other songwriting team out there. They have a style all their own, distinct and unique voices and they proudly pay homage to all their influences from rockers like “Mason Dixon” and the title track to cruisin’ guitar pop like the intelligent and infectious “Thought Balloon”

An album that reveals new hooks, harmonies and hidden treasures with almost every listen, “Rock and Roll Submarine” is a total triumph and a disc that effortlessly seduces repeated listens. There’s so much variety it’s almost amazing the disc sounds so cohesive. That’s what total commitment will do for ya:)

And damn if “Touch to a Cut” isn’t the closest we’ll probably EVER come to hearing a new Sisters of Mercy song. And I mean that with a ton of respect.

Rating: 5 out of 5