The Melvins: Four Decades of Dense Sound and Musical Evolution

For forty years of existence, the group released the album The Devil You Knew, The Devil You Know, which offers songs from the first EP from 1986. On the other side are the original recordings, on the first new versions recorded this year.

However, the previous year’s album Five Legged Dog was also a certain look back. The band, known for their dense sound, presented their songs in acoustic versions, which showed that the Melvins are not just about sound.

The Melvins got together in the first half of the eighties. They started out fast hardcore, but soon slowed down under the influence of Black Flag’s My War album and early Black Sabbath records.

Since then, they have been faithful to a dense sound, in which distortion plays a big role, and a slow relentless tempo. However, their compositions are definitely not straightforward and do not rely on the usual format of alternating verses and choruses, they develop and give a lot of room for improvisation live

Lately bassist Shane McDonald has been playing with guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover.