Melvins - Bullhead (1991)^{Release ID: 1029}

Bullhead is usually considered Melvin’s first truly great album. The Sludge Metal pioneers are relatively peerless in this era, as you could count the number of notable Sludge bands on one hand when this dropped. These circumstances made Melvins kings of the movement by default, and I think that’s why it doesn’t really appeal to me.

Bullhead is an album that is special by circumstance, because it had no competition and no comparison. It was influential and unique, but those things don’t matter to me when I’m listening to it. The music itself is very basic, monotonous, and droning. These qualities can be fine when done right (or if that is your taste) but I feel this album just doesn’t have enough going on to warrant much entertainment out of that. There aren’t any great riffs, no striking vocal performances, no rhythm grooves, its just a lot of repetitive heavy chords. It’s slow, but it’s certainly not doomy, because there’s no atmosphere and no strong mood aside from kind of anxious.

Unfortunately I have yet to find much enjoyment out of early Sludge, and this album was not the one to change my mind. Onward we go.

I don't think I ever really came across Washington sludge metallers Melvins back in the late 1980's & early 1990's. I certainly heard their name once Nirvana blew up in 1991 but didn't think they were any of my business given that they seemed to be associated with the grunge scene more than they did to the metal one. I don't think I'd actually ever hear them until around 2012 when I checked out their new "Scion A/V Presents: The Bulls & the Bees" E.P. & I didn't like it much to tell you the truth. My next encounter with them would come shortly afterwards through 2010's split E.P. with Massachusetts post metallers Isis, mainly because I'd gotten heavily into Isis but I found myself enjoying the Isis tracks but not the Melvins ones. So Melvins didn't actually start to show me what they really had to offer until I checked out their very solid 1992 fourth album "Lysol" which was mainly due to its association with the drone metal genre as its somewhat of a passion of mine. I found that record to be really appealing & have returned to it quite often since. This triggered a trip to its 1993 follow-up album "Houdini" which I quite liked too. But little did I know that the real meat on the Melvins bones was still in front of me with this week's investigation of their 1991 third album "Bullhead" being nothing short of game-changing.

"Bullhead" is only a relatively short record at just 35 minutes in duration but that's more than enough time when the quality is kept at such a consistently high level throughout. It sees the trio totally indulging themselves in amplifier worship with the spectacular production job allowing the listener to curl up in the drum riser or speaker box of a live performance & truly "feel" the reverberations of the music. It's about the clever use of rhythmic interplay between the musicians & the often weird yet perpetually gnarly vocals of front man Buzz (Crystal Fairy/Fantômas/Venomous Concept) which are both unusual & endearing at the same time. The commitment to keep unplanned guitar noise & other slight imperfections in the recording in the interest of building character was a masterstroke too while Crystal Fairy, Shrinebuilder & Porn (The Men Of) drummer Dale Crover's confidence in his own ability to explore new territory yet still hit the right beat at the right moment is staggering. Melvins simply sound like the elite version of what a dangerous live rock band should aspire to be here & it's left me devastated in a very similar way to the finest work from a band like Japan's Boris who I can only imagine were heavily influenced by "Bullhead" based on my experiences here.

The tracklisting kicks off in superb fashion with the epic nine-minute doom metal opener "Boris" (hhmmm... further indication of the potential influence I mentioned perhaps?) which is my favourite track on the album before turning towards a sludgier sound for the remaining seven tracks. The songs that close out either side of the record ("It's Shoved" & "Cow") clearly showcase the influence that Melvins had on the grunge scene that had just blown up on a global scale at the time as both tracks would arguably sit pretty comfortably on a grunge release. In fact, there are several passages across the tracklisting when I get similar chills to those that I'd experience during the doomier moments of your more crushingly heavy Soundgarden songs. Other highlights include the miraculous "Your Blessened" which is a perfect example of Buzz's ability to summon up some of the heaviest Sabbathian guitar riffs known to man & deliver them in the coolest fashion possible, as well as "Ligature" & "Zodiac" which aren't far behind in that regard. The grungier songs aren't quite as effective but the tracklisting never dips below a very solid level & is buoyed by the skyscraping highlight tracks that fill more than half of the run time.

I think it's fair to say that "Bullhead" has hit me as hard as a raging bull & I see it as one of the finest sludge metal releases I've ever heard. In fact, it's made such a big impact on me that I've had to find a place in my Top Ten Metal Releases of All Time list too which is really saying something after all these decades of metal indulgence. If you crave the days when rock music was edgy & dangerous then this record is most certainly for you. You can expect to have to give it a few listens to truly sink in but the rewards are nothing short of spectacular, particularly for those with a penchant for Boris, Acid Bath & Crowbar.