Metal Underground.com

The Melvins are known for one-of-a-kind music that has been classified as everything from metal to pop to jazz. But the truth is that many styles of music make up the sound that numerous bands credit as influential. The Melvins’s latest venture “The Bride Screamed Murder” is as varied and strange as ever. In the blink of an eye, the heavy sludge transforms into a jazzy drum solo. It will definitely keep you on your toes, wondering what you’re going to hear next.

Vocalist and guitarist King Buzzo uses a different vocal style for every song. In the opening track “The Water Glass,” after a sludgy opening and a drum solo, the group chants, “Here we go” and other phrases reminiscent of an 80’s pop song. On the guitar he plays many styles of music, from his psychedelic/surfer solo in “Pig House” and incredibly heavy sludge guitar in “The Water Glass,” to a bluesy cover of The Who’s “My Generation?” A simple, one-note feedback in the very strange song “P.G. x 3,” while a person slowly counts, makes the track eerie.

The drums are the most amazing part of the album. The two drummers Dale Crover and Coady Willis have an incredible syncopated improvisational style that makes the many drum solos stand out against the many different musical backgrounds. The work in “The Water Glass” and “Evil New War God” are notable for their freestyle drum solos. But the most impressive thing is the use of stereo for the two drum sets. In “I’ll Finish You Off,” the drummers duel on either side of your speakers, putting you in the middle of the action.

Not only are the regular subjects strange, there are other instruments present on the album as well. A harmonica opens “P.G. x 3” with a jagged solo. A spooky old organ turns the ending of the rock song “Evil New War God” into a haunted carnival. Each song on this album has its own character and each is completely different and awesome in its own way, but “The Bride Screamed Murder” is all the Melvins.