(A) Senile Animal

[blag jesus himself]

here's my review again, from my old (a)sa reviews thread:

  Well, it's that time of the month again:  a new Melvins album has been released.  What do we get this time around?  Exactly what a big portion of Melvins fans have been waiting for: a real, new MELVINS album.  No Lustmord, no Jello Biafra, no re-creations of old albums.  Just a new album by Buzz, Dale, and Bassist Guy.  Although, if you're looking for a 100% pure, unadulterated, barely-legal Melvins experience, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer.  They replaced old bassist Kevin Rutmanis with new bassist Jared Warren (from Karp & Big Business).  Thing is, he sings on a lot of the songs, too.  This may upset you, until you hear him and realize he basically sounds like a younger, scarier Buzz: imagine the vocals from "Eggnog" mixed with the vocals from "The Bloated Pope" and you get a pretty good idea of how this sounds.

   In addition to the double vocalists, you have two drummers as well.  Jared brought his best friend Coady from Big Business, and he adds to the percussive mayhem on the album.  This time when you think Dale must have four arms to pull off some of his drumming: you'll be right.  The extra member adds an new level of interest to the music because there is just so much going on with the drums alone.  Plus, the Melvins can now be referred to as a Fearsome Foursome, which is nice. 

   This is the most straightforward Melvins album since....ever.  The closest thing to this is Stoner Witch, and even that album had stuff like "Magic Pig Detective","Goose Freight Train", and "Lividity" to scare off the Pantera fans.  (a) Senile Animal is nothing but big, heavy slabs of metal.  This is understandable, coming after the ambient-noise-drone-fest of "Pigs of the Roman Empire".  They followed up the relatively quiet "Honky" with the heaviest album in the world "The Maggot", so it should be no surprise that this album sounds like it does.  Each song is built around heavy riffing, intense drumming (two drummers, remember?) and screaming by Buzz and Jared.  "Blood Witch" has the stilted, jittery riffing of "The Bloated Pope".  "A History of Bad Men" sounds like a distant cousin of "Night Goat", with its super catchy chorus and a bass line as thick and groovy as Mamma Cass.  "Civilized Worm" sounds dangerously close to a power ballad, but it's saved by the minute long outro of Dale and Coady abusing their poor drums.  The only semi-quiet moment comes on the album closer "A Vast Filthy Prison", but the chanting-monk-style vocals make it creepy enough to not seem out of place.  The rest of the album sounds like they realized how cool "Honey Bucket" was and tried to do that seven more times.  I'm exaggerating, but the album really is composed mostly of two and a half minute, fast, heavy songs.  This may upset or delight you, depending on how you felt about the Melvins' recent musical direction.  But it makes you realize: there is no direction.  This album could be followed up by a four hour bass solo.  Or a covers tribute to the Allman Brothers Band.  It's your job as a Melvins fan to just shut up and enjoy it.  Or shut up and hate it.  Either way...


read this for more thoughts on (a)sa
http://www.themelvins.net/forum/index.php?topic=6335.0

[FartLips]

It actually sounds like a progression from HAT.

[peopleperson]

Great reviews guys.  I highly agree with the Stoner Witch comparisons, especially in the since of the LP sounding like one big song after a couple of listens (hey, what's not to adore about drop D?).  It's not as well rounded songwise as to present a little bit of everything that the mighty Melvins are capable of (like say Houdini), but therein lies it's beauty.  It actually might be the most concentrated LP that they've ever done in terms of keeping the LP's "point" intact, this side of perhaps Ozma.  Even Stoner Witch had the sonic freakouts that this doesn't have.  All in all a fantastic LP with not a second of your time wasted, even though to my ears, it sounds like they banged some of these songs out quite quickly.  Sometimes, that's a real good thing.

[steve]

The "FBI Anti-piracy Warning" is a hoot. I don't have access to a CD player at the moment so I am amusing mysellf inspecting the CD and packaging... just read the FBI warning on the CD itself. 

[Andy]

It's really very very good. The double drums are good, but the quadruple vocals are better.

It's all ace but I don't like A History of Bad Men as much as the rest.

[glen]

It's really very very good. The double drums are good, but the quadruple vocals are better.

It's all ace but I don't like A History of Bad Men as much as the rest.

live jared does lead vocal duties.   not sure about the album version, sounds like buzz though.   
no disrespect to buzz but it actually made me like the song better.  something about jared's scream just worked well.

[Leeech]

Manwithnoname,
I'm in the same fuckin boat!
Waiting for October 10th for months, every day.
I live in Canada as well, not till the 17th dude! WEAK!
I can't wait.

[blacksanta]

I'm going to let it sink in before I post a review, but I'm glad I waited until yesterday to hear it. Finally, a follow-up to HAT This album just kicks ass.

[anaconda]

halle-fuckkin-llujah brother!

[mopafeena]

Amen

[FartLips]

lettuce pray!

[cheeseburger]

so Igor it today. i waited until i got the real CD before i listened to it. trust me it was hard to not just download it. but anyhow it was a great adventure getting that puppy.
so i've lived in san francisco for three years and today i finally had my first real bike ride here. i was scared. coming from minneapolis where there are not four lane one ways, and not to mention insanely steep hills.
so i was suppose to work at noon but when i showed up that all change, i ended up working at 7pm. so since i was there i proceded (i'm sorry my spelling is bad) to get fucked up (i work at a bar) so after a couple of drinks and alot of the sticky icky i decide what a perfect time for a bike ride. so i talk to one of my bosses and got money from her to get a copy for the jukebox and then one for me.
so i jump on the bike all of a sudden i realize "man i'm fucked up" but at that point it was to late i was already on the road and dammit i'm on a mission. so i ride up market to tower records, well they're going out of business so of course they didn't have it. so i figure fuck it i'm close enough to amoeba so i'll go there. well amoeba is in the upper haight (those not familiar it where haight and ashbury is, well it's basically where the hippy shit started, now it's all horrible trendy shit, i hate going up there) so anyway upper haight is called "upper" because you have to go up this huge hill to get there. so i figure i'll take the wiggle which is a bike path up the hill, you kinda "wiggle" your way up. but i didn't know the exact route. but anyway i only had to get of once to walk up a hill, and it was only a block, not bad for a lazy smoker.
so i finally make it to amoeba, now this place is huge and slightly overwhelming, especially when your really stoned and slightly drunk.  so it was no monkey business and i go straight for "m" in the rock section, and it took me forever to find it,(the "m's" go into the "p's" in a weird way plus is was also a little retarded), but after awhile i found it,yanked two copy's a go straight to the counter, reeking of booze and very redeyed oh and i forgot to mention that i was wearing the happy halloween bitch shirt so i can just imagine what the guy was thinking about me, especially when i asked him to ring them up separately not thinking that the receipt would have shown both of them separate. did i mention that i'm an idiot? so anyway i jump on the bike and it's all downhill from there which was nice but also alittle scary just cause you get going so fast. so i go back to the bar drop of their copy and then headed home.
once i got home i just couldn't contain myself any longer, i had to hear this. so i proceed to make out with my bong and popped it in to the ole xbox and cranked it.
the wait was definitely worth it, there is something to be said when you listen to something that you have impatiently been waiting for, with the cd case in one hand and the bong in the other. i'm glad i didn't cheat and downloaded it first. so after all this you're probably wondering "well does he fucking like it or what" and my respones is "what do you think", after only hearing it twice i fucking love it. i definitely agree that it is one of their most straight forward albums, but it's still the melvins and i think it's the perfect follow up to h.a.t., i love jareds vocals, it just makes it sound epic ya know like true fucking rock n roll. there's even parts of it that make me think of gene simmons, with the two of them together. the double drumming was done very tastefully. civilized worm has been stuck in my head all day.
i love this album.
now i just have to wait until nov. 29th to see them, but just like this c.d. i'm sure it will be well worth the wait.

[Vcavallo]

awesome review, cheeseburger!!

i can guarantee you that november will be worth the wait.

thanks for that story..i'm surprised you were coherent enough to write it after all that

[the bloat]

That was great cheeseburger! Very entertaining.

[blacksanta]

2002's Hostile Ambient Takeover was a watershed moment in an already long and varied career. The psychedelia and stretching for new sounds that began with Stoner Witch, Stag and Honky was combines with the full-fledged metal onslaught of Maggot and the enhanced embrace of melody on The Bootlicker. In retrospect, the four year wait between HAT and (A) Senile Animal probably represents the most fertile growth period the band has ever had. The releases put forth between HAT and ASA embrace the celebrate the Melvins' past, as well as try some collaborations that contributed to the bands seemingly new-found energy and maturity. Here's a quick re-cap of what has been released since the monumental HAT.

2003 -
26 Songs: A definitive re-release of the band's debut, originally released as a 6 song 7" in 1986 on C/Z records, re-released as an 8 song 12" and 10 song CD in 1991, long oop.

Melvinmania: A European only comp comprising the tightest and most popular tunes from the band's most commercially successful period, 1993-1996 on Atlantic Records. Although unauthorized by the band, Warner still had the rights to put this out, which prevents it from being sloughed off as a bootleg.

2004 -
Neither Here Nor There: The Melvins celebrate their 20 years in the business with a beautiful coffee-table art book, with contributions from not only the band's artwork but random art and writings from friends of the Melvins. A career-spanning comp hand-picked by Buzzo himself, including their first officially released songs on some K-Records cassette comps in 1984. The comp is decent, but the tracks are not as varied in style as some of the full-length albums can be in terms of musical variety.

Pigs of the Roman Empire (collaboration with Lustmord): This album caused some controversy. Many claimed it a stroke of genius, with the Melvins sonic onslaught combining with the dark ambiance of Lustmord into a towering work of creepy evil. Others felt the album was too obviously split down the middle between the ambient and the rock, and that the rock tracks felt weak and re-hashed. This album took awhile to grow on me. The ambiance wins out over the rock in many cases, and it has a late-night chill out/headphone vibe. It is also their darkest work, the album just convulses with cold and evil decay.

Never Breathe What You Can't See (collaboration with Jello Biafra): Melvins return to their hardcore roots by helping Jello come up with his first studio album of music in a long time. A few songs sound pretty generic, but on others Buzzo, Dale and Kevin really outdo themselves by laying down thick slabs of Black Flag riffage that punks, metalheads and stoners can all appreciate. It's obviously Jello's show, but he sure had good taste in finding a new backing band and the Melvins obviously didn't just job this one out but really put some effort into these gems (Caped Crusader, Enchanted Thoughtfist, Dawn of the Locusts).

2005 -
Mangled demos from 1983: The original line-up of Buzzo, Lukin and Dillard finally gets pulled out of bootleg obscurity and given a official release. Buzzo's liner notes are hilarious, especially when he's talking about Kurt from Metal Church. The music shows a young garage band from the middle of nowhere combining hardcore and Kiss to invent grunge. Also included are the Melvins' first radio appearance in 1983 for the Aberdeen Elks Christmas show, and a nice piece of found audio of the stoned teenagers (complete with bong hits in the background) arguing over vodka and french fries. A real treat for the obsessive fan.

Sieg Howdy! (collaboration with Jello Biafra): The odds and sods follow up to Never Breathe, this album is heavier and funnier and looser than the first. It includes a cover of the Alice Cooper prog-metal classic 'Halo of Flies,' a mind-meltingly extended psycho take on 'The Lighter Side of Global Terrorism (reminiscent of the Melvins' classic cover the Wipers' 'Youth of America'), 4 new originals, an updated live version of the DK nugget 'California Uber-Alles,' and 3 remixes of Never Breath tunes by Dalek, Al Jourgenson and the Deaf Nephews. More satisfying and fun than the first go-around. Also the swan song of recently fired bassist Kevin Rutmanis, who joined the band in 1998 and debuted on The Maggot.

2006-
Houdini Live 2005-A Live History of Gluttony and Lust: The ATP festival in England asked the Melvins to perform 1993's Houdini live all the way through. With temporary bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Trio Convulsant) in the line-up, the band decided that since they went to the trouble of re-learning the songs, they might as well record it and put it out. The band really freshens up the old material, and it sounds more lively than it did on the original. Dunn's bass playing is fantastic, he finds subtle harmonic nuances to many of the songs that were not exploited by Lorax on the original. Set Me Straight is now combined with a cover of Cream's almost forgotten gem 'Deserted Cities of the Heart.' The album was recorded live in a warehouse and performed in front of an invitation only audience, hence the lack of crowd noise and the unusually clean sonic clarity that is a rarity on many live recordings.

Now comes the new Melvins line-up, Buzz and Dale teaming up with Coady and Jared from the powerhouse duo Big Business. Two young men playing with their older and wiser heroes who wisely told them that they must keep Big Business going if you want to keep your gig with us. Two drummers and triple vocals abound on the first Melvins album since 2002 that is no a comp, re-release, re-recording, old demos or a collaboration.

(A) Senile Animal track by track review:
The Talking Horse - Blast off, here we go! This beat is complicated, I am reminded of Good times Bad Times of Zep I due to these beautifully complicated beats. The riffs keep changing, and we are in a smooth ride for a few seconds until we have an anthemic Buzzo cascading down from witch mountain.....then the riff gets faster......these drums remind me of Zappa, which is a good thing. This song makes me want to break windows and then ponder the intrinsic complication of a 3 minute song with 5 parts. Even when the melvins aren't doing psychedelia they are so fucking complex.......

Blood Witch - What a noggin' nodding groove, the bastard son of Page Hamilton and the Bloated Pope with more double tracked vocals that make me wanna do good and bad, what's this, another complicated lil' drum breakdown. I wanna destroy and plant flowers at the same time.

Civilized Worm -