Album Review: Working With God, Melvins
By Resonate | July 9, 2021
Words By Kris Griffiths
More of the same but completely different in every aspect is what everybody wishes of their favourite bands, and often the desires of an audience for fresh nostalgia can impact upon an artist’s output. What ensues with each Melvins record is exclusive to each Melvins record, and no matter how a sound might translate into the next, the language in which it’s conveyed is never the same. Departing from their Pinkus Abortion Technician line up and returning to the original line-up of Osbourne and Crover with Mike Dillard on drums, Working with God is the Melvins 24th release.
It’s as furious as it is ridiculous, providing their dedicated cult following with a well-executed sludge onslaught. Not to be overlooked though certainly not to be revered, Working with God, opens with the tongue in cheek I Fuck Around, a genuinely inspired piss-take of The Beach Boys classic. Negative No No truly begins our descent into fuzz and Osbourne’s mysticism and Bouncing Rick is a flat out fuzzgasm with distorted vocals and bit crushing riffs delivering a clinical Melvins experience.
Working With God thematically is full of the musings of Osbourne on a journey of contemplation into religion. The Great Good Place sits in that pocket of sound that you’d want a Melvins song to land. Its even flow and major key sound bizarre amongst the grit of other tracks such as Negative No No and Boy Mike, yet they retain their fervour. This was my pick of the album. Final jams Hot Fish and Hund almost provide an ample climax to an eclectic journey of brooding, expletives, shenanigans and fuzz worship. Hot Fish sets in with a volatile screech of feedback carried by thick, pounding drums and as the banquet of sludge is almost at its close when final track Hund offers one final discomforting dive into the unworldly sounds of the stoner heavyweights. Not feeling too much like a crescendo or a fitting ending to what is a fantastic record, I couldn’t help but feel the sudden finish fell a bit flat and unpolished, though I’d be lying if I’d say that had affected my overall outlook on the album. The second track and third track on the album complement each other not and yet the heaving, gnarled bass of Caddy Daddy is just as quintessentially Osbourne and Crover as its former. Brian The Horse Faced Goon is a two-part masterclass in how to take the piss, use vocal modulation, cowbell and expose depravity through metaphor. The lyrical content thus far has been baffling, the riddles that seep throughout the songs do nothing to offer a point of relatability for the mind and at times being expected to understand the complex nuances of the narrative while slighted as such can be difficult.
Boy Mike has all the rage and fury of the era that the Melvins built themselves in. Wild bends overlapped with vicious riffs open the thrash zone further building for a muffled screaming solo barely heard beneath the savage rhythm. Following is a lesson in how to exploit your platform to deliver a message clearly somebody needed to be told, with sure-fire Grammy award-winning ‘Fuck You’;a simple yet effective song that provides in its two repeated words more clarity than the previous seven tracks could ever afford. Track nine, also entitled ‘Fuck You’ is clearly the radio cut of the first 11 seconds of ‘Fuck You’ with a more tasteful, family-friendly audience in mind.
7/10
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