Melvins, Stoner Witch
The most "Melvins" of all Melvins records
Stoner Witch is the most "Melvins" of all Melvins records. It's not the best, most cohesive or most influential, but this diverse 1994 slab neatly displays all of their best guises: demented punks, distortion-drunk doomophiles, grunge-era art-poppers and noise-wielding pranksters. A band as abrasive as the Melvins were an unlikely major-label signing, even during the post-Nirvana alterna-boom. But the band, originally known for 5-rpm slowpoke sap-suck, still managed to keep their itchy underground black-hole bludgeon alive. To wit: Eight-minute monsters like "At The Stake" and the Sunn O)))-anticipating "Lividity" are harrowingly sluggish tracks that revolve around the monster basslines of new addition Mark Deutrom. The two-minute "June Bug" looks to the past, mirroring the group's humble beginnings as hardcore punks, ca. 1983, while "Magic Pig Detective" looks to the future with a suffocating, Gristle-worthy oscillation that echoes some of their fan-polarizing noise experiments.
Most people remember '90s Melvins as the weirdo heroes of sludge-pop, occasionally MTV-worthy art stars who managed a few super-heavy anthems that served as an antidote to Stone Temple Pilots mania. Their three Atlantic records have some of their most accessible tunes, and Stoner Witch offers "Revolve" and "Roadbull," two obtuse sing-alongs that perfectly — and impossibly — gel their love of Kiss, Sabbath and Beefheart.
