THE MELVINS
Nude With Boots
(Ipecac)

HERMANO
...Into the Exam Room
(Regain)

UNLEASHED
Hammer Battalion
(SPV)

RUN YOUR MOUTH
3-Way HC/Garage Split
(Rumour Control)

CABRóN
Mexican Shoe Thief
(Robot Enemy)

A HORSE CALLED WAR
Stumble at Every Hurdle 

(Calculon)

HEATDEATH
S/T 

(Conspiracy)

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Over twenty-five albums into a nearly flawless and highly influential career and The Melvins still make the kind of albums most rock and roll bands would kill their mothers for. More importantly, they pack them tightly with the sorts of riffs guitarists the world around can only dream of.   Theirs is leftfield heavy sludge music. In this ever changing world there are only a few things that remain constant, one of them is The Melvins.  We can always rest assured that a new Melvins albums will have two things; heaviness and quirkiness galore. All that is magnificently represented in the opening song “The Kicking Machine”, a direct rock and roller filled with a grand pseudo Southern fried riff only darkened and turned bizarre color by the strange and omnipresent vocals of Buzz Osbourne. A bit difficult to swallow at first, but this is The Melvins we are talking about. We couldn’t have them any other way.

In 2006 The Melvins surprised us all by announcing that they would be adding the full lineup of the sludge/stoner/whathaveyou duo Big Business as permanent part of the band.  Enter bassist Jared Warren and monster drummer Coady Willis who for Dale Crover’s (drums) account would be providing ‘this mirror image type of thing’.   That's because they are both left handed.  The line up increase has made a difference, in 2006’s A Senile Animal their sound came off bulkier, like the rhythmic section was represented by an elephant and a rhino.  And Nude With Boots is no different; the drums have this massive running blood flow; there is a sense of liberty to their playing.  And in this is a sense that is present everywhere in the record, Buzz Osborne’s playing is that of quiet intelligence. Subliminal riffs (“Suicide in Progress”) leave their shyness behind to give way to pseudo stoner riffs, they are the prefect compliment to the at times sneering vocals of Osborne.  Like most of its predecessors (many of which are already considered classics) Nude With Boots is a grower that offer the same sort of experience of a body snatcher

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