Melvins - Stoner Witch

this music is drugs

people sometimes say that you need drugs to enjoy melvins music but ive always thought their music is drugs. if you let it, it will take you somewhere inside. shevil is the perfect track to do it. she's evil. meandering and atmosperic. buzz sings from behind a concrete wall. it's gentle but tense and yet relaxing at the same time. i always wished this number closed the album.
stoner witch has a great mix of wierd with accessable material. revolve could easily be a metallica song as many people often say. roadbull in a similar vein. queen is solid and streight forward as melvins get. sweet willy kicks off like an amphetamine rush. goose freight train takes you down a slow hynotic journey and has some of the most bizarr lyrics you'll find any where.
sadly skweetis never really goes any where, june bug, although you gotta love the title, is forgettable and lividity really has nothing to offer.
kind of a mixed bag but overall highly recomended for anyone looking for heavy music that is above and beyond the norm. and as always the album art is beautiful. a contradiction to the actual music behind it. mackie osborne (buzz's wife) is responsible. February 20, 2008

Wahoo for Mr. Buzz

This album, OH MAN THIS ALBUM!!!

I bought this CD because it had two of my favorite songs on it (i.e. "Sweet Willie Rollbar" and "Revolve")

it is a good CD, don't get me wrong, but there are like two tracks with no music on it (like the last track) which kind of pistons me off when a band will do that, put ambient noise on an album and title it as if it were a song! April 4, 2007

A good dose of lunatic rock intermixed with ambient music from Hell

On the excellent "Stoner Witch" the Melvins churn through song after song with a dense primordial energy--think neutron star emissions--buffered with excursions into the darker recesses of imagination. The band is not content to lock in to one particular vibe and often zags when you thing they are about to zig.

It took some guts to concoct this work, and it will take some fortitude to listen intently and loudly. Expect to do so alone if friends, like many of mine, cannot range far from the safe and sure when it comes to music. There's none of that to be found here.

If you enjoy a good dose of lunatic rock, that is distorted guitars, sludge drenched bass, and map cap percussion, intermixed with ambient music from Hell, then Stone Witch awaits.
November 23, 2006

Hail the King (Buzzo), baby.

Pacific Northwest rock shamans the Melvins are among the innovators of '80s and '90s "grunge," though they easily defied this simple categorization with every release. For every churning bucket 'o' sludge like Bullhead they released some off-the-wall album of ambient noodling like Ambient Noise Takeover or Honky. Stoner Witch, one part of the trio released during the Atlantic era (the other two are Houdini and Stag), combines both sides of the Melvins' sound into a surprisingly coherent whole while adding a small dose of commercial hard rock sensibility for good measure.

However, don't be mislead into thinking this is some pallid sellout effort, 'cause it's anything but. If anything, the fact that this band ever got signed to a major is a mystery to me (and I mean that in a positive way, of course).

The first four songs kick Stoner Witch off with a bang, with one-minute opener Skweetis (I wish it were longer--Dale Crover's legendary drumming kicks arse on this one), insidiously catchy stomper Queen, balls-to-the-wall speed of Sweet Willy Rollbar, and the excellent Revolve, a minor hit which stands as one of the most accessible and catchy entries in their catalog. King Buzzo's gruff howl and guitar playing is in fine form here.

Then it starts getting weird. You've got nice chilled slow burns like Goose Freight Train and the dreamy 6-minute Shevil; a dark evil dirge titled At The Stake that would've fit right in on their earlier albums; and Roadbull and Magic Pig Detective, which screw with expectations in some entertaining ways--the former starts like one of the earlier, more accessible tracks before turning into a marching tune complete with whistling, and the latter starts with a wall of noise then suddenly drops in a bit of rock to make it go down easy.

The best two songs, however, are saved for last. June Bug is a great little instrumental with excellent dynamics and melody that cries for a longer run time. The album closes with Lividity, a 9-minute creeping ambient drone that somehow manages to be driven mostly by a handful of REALLY HEAVY bass notes and sporadic Dale hits seemingly placed just right to make you jump. Fans of Earth, Sunn0)))) and the like (all Melvins-influenced, natch) will love this one.

All in all, Stoner Witch is one of the most interesting and varied "major label" albums ever. If you're going to start with any Melvins record, make it this one. Chase that with a round of Houdini then the sonic extremity of Bullhead and Ozma/Gluey Porch Treatments. If you're not singing the Buzzo's praises by then consider yourself lame. October 9, 2006

livinliveinitlovinit

lets get one thing straight: Melvins are one of the greatest hard rock bands in metal/punk/alt. history, hands down. they're not only one of the heaviest, they're also one of the loudest and most expressive, and most experimental, never becoming predictable or boring. with each album the band takes one step beyond what you'd expect, but is always--ALWAYS y'hear?--remarkably similar to themselves. in every track on this glorious CD, one of their least hard 'n' heavy, the band takes early 90s Grunge to fantastic new levels of Sludge and dire weirdness, the standouts (to me) being BULLHEAD and MAGIC PIG DETECTIVE. If you want the sameole MTV, corporate radio, emo andor Nu Metal filth thats acting as a plague to modern music, then go away. you won't like this because, quite frankly, your brain has bee shrinked to a level so small as you can never understand what is so special about this music. Melvins use both ambience and talent to pump out one of the strangest and most entertaining bunch of songs ever recorded, and this is, in my ohsohumble opinion a PERFECT companion piece to HOUDINI. if you like these two, move forward and get THE CRYBABY and HOSTILE AMBIENT TAKEOVER before checking out their earlier works. If you don't like it, besides being a musical retarded, you won't like much of this band's legend. 'nuff said...

but thats just my opinion. i could be wrong. October 6, 2006

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