MELVINS AND NAPALM DEATH: SAVAGE IMPERIAL DEATH MARCH
ARCHIVED FROM LOUDER THAN WAR
Melvins and Napalm Death: Savage Imperial Death March
LP | CD
Out Now
4/5
Melvins and Napalm Death Team-Up for a six-track soundtrack to Armageddon: Savage Imperial Death March. Spoiler Alert: It’s HUGE. Sean Millard dons his leaden diving boots and sinks to the depths of Hell itself to see how the end of the world plays itself out.
It could be Melvins, but it might be The Damned that I’ve seen live the most over the years. Probably Melvins. I mention this only to illustrate how biased this review will be. For even their most difficult records – I’m talking about you, Prick – and you, Colossus of Destiny – have something more worthwhile buried deep within their chaotic discordancy than the vast majority of any other band’s back catalogue does. It’s safe to say I’m a fan. My Melvins shelf is easily the heaviest. In more ways than one. I don’t mean to brag, but witness:
So don’t expect a gauged response to their latest endeavour – Savage Imperial Death March – a full-on Team-Up with Brum’s finest light-speed states-people, Napalm Death. It’s named after a 2016 co-headlining tour the two bands did together.
The two bands are age-old friends. I saw them play together in the 90s and they’re co-headling a US tour as you read this. I love the apparent juxtaposition of the pairing – but that’s just surface-level detail. It’s reductive to consider them in BPM opposition to each other. Neither band conforms solely to their own exhausted pace-driven legacy these days. What they really have in common – and why their pairing is a match made in heaven, not confusion – is their dedication and integrity to their music. Both bands are True Believers in their work; neither could still exist without their own dogged determination and self/belief. Both bands still prolifically create, both on tour and in the studio. Buzz, Dale, Steven, Barney, Shane, John and Danny were born for one thing only – to make ground-quaking, thought-provoking and entirely engaging audio artistry.
Melvins and Napalm Death each released their official debut LPs in 1987. Gluey Porch Treatments and Scum, respectively. Both cornerstone records that invented genres, almost forty years ago. And still, both bands retain the creative and inspiring impetus they launched their careers with. It might be that rarest of treasures that makes this latest release so exciting. Savage Imperial Death March is a six-track mini-LP, released in significantly limited numbers on superior Minneapolis noise label Amphetamine Reptile Records. IYKYN – but if you don’t, you’re missing out on one of the greatest catalogues in Noise Rock history. From their earliest incarnation in the late 1980s, through the booming grunge-obsessed early 90s to the boutique, hand-printed collectables of the label’s current aesthetic, AmRep has always been a label of integrity, noise and undiluted lowbrow artistry.
It is no surprise, therefore, that it is the home for most of Melvins’ limited run releases these days. Ipecac picks up the broader distribution of their core albums. Both labels embrace The Weird, and both embrace Melvins. No surprises. What is a surprise, though, is that this is the first studio output involving Napalm Death on AmRep. It seems like a natural home for them – more so, to my ears, than their official home of the last 20 years, Century Media. A great label, but stylistically very broad. Both bands DID release a live split 7” on AmRep in 2013, but nothing comparable to this latest endeavour.
The version we’re talking about today is a limited hand-screened version available exclusively – and for moments only – via AmRep’s webstore. They are also releasing a less-but-still-limited “Factory” edition via the same portal soon. There’s a link at the bottom of this piece. A wider release is hopefully coming out via Ipecac in the future, but that remains unconfirmed. Unlike traditional “splits”, which tend to dedicate opposing sides of vinyl to different bands, Savage Imperial Death March is a proper Team-Up, with both bands writing and playing together on the same songs. It makes for a truly unique release which perfectly illustrates the strengths of both bands’ oeuvre.
So, without further ado – and now that context has been exhaustively served – what does Savage Imperial Death March sound like?
Opening track – the immaculately titled Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck – is clearly closer to Napalm than Melvins. Barney’s vocals lead the mid-paced, lumbering rhythm, and guitar solos pepper the composition – an unlikely metalism from anything Melvins would release alone. You are left feeling very curious to know if Buzz got his grind on for the recording or if the blisterings are all down to Napalm’s John Cooke. The awkwardness of the back-beat feels more Dale than Danny. But there’s no way to really know who was responsible for what.
The track rolls out into more typical Melvins fair with Some Kind of Antichrist. Buzz takes hold of the microphone this time and the riffage is more in line with Melvins’ usual output. The weird squeals and immaculate main riff I assume come from him – but the waves of extra dimensional lead lines and thumping bass must surely come from our boys from Brum. Barney backs up Buzz in spectacular fashion. The song dissolves into a vocoder voice that recalls Metal Mickey. Though this time, presumably, he’s pleading for more vigorous flagellation, as the song segues into ambient, haunting weirdness with backwards tape effects and meandering nonchalance. Oddly, it might be the track that best exemplifies the pairing of both bands’ experimental dynamics.
The third and final track on Side One is Nine Days Of Rain, which thumps in, following the long fade out of Antichrist. The lead riff is oppressive and unnerving, with an anticipatory climb that is horribly tense. Buzz takes the lead vocals again – and presumably it is John Cooke’s wah-driven lead lines that back him up once more. A real success of this team-up is how well Barney and Buzz compliment each other vocally. Musically, the track is unlike anything you would directly link to either band’s output – it has a soundtrack, chanty quality to it that feels unique – not just for them, but entirely.
By the time the tom-toms thud to an end, you’re really quite convinced you’ve just been present at the burning of a wicker effigy and that those are naked Nanas dancing around the flames, not the swirling Rorsharch blobs you first thought you were imagining. But squint hard, and those Nanas could easily be Buzz and Barney in their underpants. It’s an atmospheric and slightly unnerving way to draw the first side to a close.
Rip The God launches Side Two with a spacious, dry riff, led by Barney’s clean singing – which impresses – even more so when backed up by Buzz. Musically, the song leans far more into Melvins territory than Napalm. The track wouldn’t sound out of place on Houdini, Basses Loaded or Hold It In. It’s got a nagging insistence that stays with you after the needle’s passage is complete. Although the riff grinds away throughout, additional texture from John Cooke (again) keeps it alive, as does Barney’s transferral back to a more guttural roar, as we climb towards the song’s climax. There’s even a bit of high-pitched blackened shrieking going on in the distant background, beyond the discordant squall of guitars.
Stealing Horses is a cyclic riff monster a’la the roiling rockers Melvins created with Jello Biafra on Sieg Howdy! and Never Breathe What You Can’t See. It has a little bit of Independent Worm Saloon Butthole action about it too, which is always nice. It’s the peppiest track on the Mini-LP. It would have been an obvious single back in the days when such a thing wouldn’t have been too expensive to entertain producing. Lastly, Death Hour presents itself as a fantasy Bullhead outtake, rather magnificently. The central riff is nothing short of magnificent – enhanced by John’s metallic leads AGAIN. For me, it’s the track of the album. It perfectly blends the two sides of the Team-Up equation, before its short-lived adrenalised outburst dissolves into another ambient ritualistic series of drones, wails and lowing, gradually picking up again to an overwhelming and exhausting multi-tracked spoken-word section that sounds positively Satanic.
As much as anything else, Savage Imperial Death March emphasises the glory of the Mini-LP format. I love those six-track assemblages. They are too tight to wander too far, too long to just chuck disposable pop at. Whether it’s The Fluid’s Glue, Boss Hog’s Drinkin’ Lechin’ and Lyin’, or Mudhoney’s immaculate Superfuzz Bigmuff – the format seems to draw out the best of bands, and this one is no exception. Both Napalm and Melvins clearly embraced the opportunity here to do something really special together. There’s not a duffer on the record and I can’t recommend it highly enough – even if you only have a passive interest in either band alone.
Together, they’re more than the sum of their parts. It’s really quite spectacular. If you can find it, grab it. You won’t regret it.
All words by Sean Millard