Listened to it yesterday. The first track is a bit odd, almost militant in the vocal delivery. I'm sure it was deliberate.

Not a bad album. It's no Houdini or Stag. It's no Pigs of the Roman Empire, either. But it's still the Melvins and they are always interesting.

One review I've read of it said that its the best album from this lineup. Anyone care to challenge or qualify that assertion? I'm gonna be out near my usuall record store today and am trying to decide if I should get it.

Compared to the 2 before it, it is pretty bad. The other 2 were amazing. this album is pretty quirky and interesting but just doesn't hold up under multiple listens. If you're a huge melvins fan, you might be able to find some worth in it, but it's pretty yucky. I don't dig it at all after about 5 listens, really.

What is it like stylistically? I was under the impression it was pretty agressively heavy.

the first song starts, and its like FUCK YES MELVISN FUCKS YOU ALLS!!1111111111 and you start headbanging and kicking doors in cos it starts so fucking cool and then they give up and try this quirky a cappella thing and don't finish making the song good. then the rest is boring. the end.

It's their least heavy album in years. Who gave you this "impression"? Some shitty review where everyone kisses Melvins's asses because they "respect" them? Seriously, it's probably their most boring and shit album, and tons of it is just the boring experimental crap they usually relegate to their non-"big" studio releases. The military chanting on song one alone is probably the worst thing they've ever done. Also, the My Sharona thing. Just really sloppy and poor.

Seriously, just go buy a Bohren Und Der Club of Gore album instead.

I got this impression from a free newspaper that had a write up on an upcoming melvins concert... it was basically an advertisement disguised as music journalism.
Yeah, I'm with you Adam, The Melvins sort of tend to fail at making compelling experimental music... hell they usually manage to ruin albums with it.

you get the impression they have a hard time keeping themselves interested, and a lot of that experimental stuff is sort of half vanity/fuck about.

they are obviously too poor/lazy be able to do anything else.

they are one of those bands i know in a few years will sound really old and ill barely want to listen to them, but they do have some great stuff. you could make a really good 2cd best of.

They're just one of those bands who are pleasant to put on but I never have the urge to jam out to or anything. BUT really, A SENILE ANIMAL and NUDE WITH BOOTS were their best albums in years. This one is one of their worst ever I think.

I get the feeling they can't write enough actual songs, so they fall into the old trap of meandering around for 9 plus minutes to fill up space. All of their albums (save bullhead and lysol) would have been much better ep's.

Definitely agree. And also ,I tend to like band's ep's better, period.

BULLHEAD is really awesome though, can you imagine how they would be regarded today if they'd stopped after that one?

is it worth buying today?

no. really it's not. it's barely worth downloading after the first half on the first song. save your money for something better.

It has some good parts, sure, but I wouldn't pay for it. It has some interesting ideas, but they don't know what to do with them. Listen to Lysol or Bullhead or Houdini or whatever instead, this one is pretty bad. I listened to it again today, and I didn't even have the interest to finish listening to the whole thing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100610/music_nm/us_melvins;_ylt=AmOWiQUGB55oDoZxlzGQXBes0NUE;_ylu= X3oDMTNlNjZzZ2tzBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwNjEwL3VzX21lbH ZpbnMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM4BHBvcwM1BHB0 A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDY3 VsdHJvY2tiYW5k

The music industry's collapse is good news for the Melvins, the defiantly uncommercial "thud-rock" band that just cracked the U.S. [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]pop [COLOR=#366388 ! important]album [/color][COLOR=#366388 ! important]chart[/color][/color][/color] for the first time in its 26-year career. The group, whose heavy guitar riffs and mumbled vocals paved the way for fellow Seattle-area bands such as Nirvana and [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]Soundgarden[/color][/color], grabbed the last spot on Billboard's Top 200 chart published Wednesday.
It achieved this feat by selling just 2,809 copies of "The Bride Screamed Murder," its 19th album. With another 2,000 units, they would have breached the top half of the chart.
Exactly five years ago, the threshold for inclusion in the Top 200 was about 5,000 copies. Since then, U.S. [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]album [COLOR=#366388 ! important]sales[/color][/color][/color] have halved, and the industry last month suffered its slowest week since the early 1970s, according to a Billboard estimate.
While the Melvins' debut chart ranking therefore comes with an asterisk of sorts, the milestone managed to stun its members. "Top 200 what?" singer/guitarist Roger "Buzz" Osborne said via email.
The band's biggest release is 1993's "Houdini," which was partly produced by Nirvana frontman [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]Kurt [COLOR=#366388 ! important]Cobain[/color][/color][/color], one of their biggest fans. It has sold about 110,000 copies. The 1996 release "Stag" posted the band's best opening week after selling almost 4,000 albums. The band has sold 538,000 albums since [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]Nielsen [COLOR=#366388 ! important]SoundScan[/color][/color][/color] began tracking data in 1991.