Holy shit! It just arrived yesterday and I finally had a chance to throw it on. It's better than I thought it would be. It came in a sturdy cardboard container and I was happy to see that record is in as good of shape as could be. The vinyl described by Enterruption as "pink...ish" is actually more of a primary red. A bit lighter than the red colors that you see on this forum. The artwork is pretty basic and comes with a pink slip of paper inside. The paper has a hand-written number in the lower right hand corner. Mine is 416 of 500.
The record opens with a few seconds of silence and cuts into distorted guitar chord and the opening drums of 'At A Crawl'. Honestly, this song sounds better now then it did 20 years ago. The tempo is heavy and slow and the riffage is blunt like a sledgehammer to yer skull. Just how all you Melvins dorks love it. After crushing a fairly straightforward version of this early Melvins classic, the drums roll into H.A.T's lead-off drum beat while Dale gives his kick drum a proper working-over. After a few fancy fills thrown in for good measure, Black Stooges rears its nasty head, coming out of the gates blazing. Buzz flashes some pretty slick fingerwork on top of the main part before launching into a no - nonsense thrash take on the song. Steadily gaining momentum, Stooges comes around full circle ending on the same drum part that Dale started out with.
After a short pause, the opening riff of 'Night Goat' bobs through the murk. Kevin's bass sounds absolutely brutal here. Probably nothing you haven't heard before. This song seems to make an appearance on about every other live or specialty Melvins record. Oh and same goes with 'Revolve', which is played next. Who's tired of this tried and true classic? NOT ME! This time it seems pretty straightforward, albeit played two times faster than the orginal recorded version. Towards the end of the song, the driving beat drops seamlessly into about a half minute of 'We All Love JUDY' and much heaviness ensues! After just a taste of my favorite song off the Maggot, Melvins tear into 'Brain Center at Whipples' without missing a beat...
That's all for now. Side Two later....
