Try as you might, there’s no sense in tagging a genre onto the Melvins. Some insist on calling them grunge, others alt-metal, sludge and the like. Those elements are a part of what band leader Buzz Osborne does – but boiling his style down to one or even a few of those labels would be a massive disservice.
At his core, Osborne is an avant-garde guitarist who treats music like a blank canvas for self-expression. In essence, the Melvins – his primary outlet for that expression – are an ongoing art project, perpetually shifting in color and shape. One listen to any of the five new sprawling tracks from their latest creation, Tarantula Heart, will tell you as much.
