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Album Details

• Artist: Melvins
• Album: Houdini
• Label: Atlantic
• Year of Release: 1993
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-09-07

The Melvins have overcome all odds staying alive after all these years. Hell, the first album they issued was back in 1987. I was still in high school for Christ sake! The band started out small in the beginning of grunge with what should have been one of the most defining sounds of the genre instead handing that over to the poppier bands like Nirvana and Alice In Chains. They started out indie with the C/Z and Boner labels and made their way to the majors by way of Atlantic and released one of their many sludge rock defining moment with Houdini in 1993, two years after Nirvana released Nevermind. But it was no wonder that the masses took to Nirvana and not Buzz Osbourne's noisy Melvins. Melvins rarely put any pop elements into their music. No, these guys were all about the heavy and sludgy. Influential bands and producers like Steve Albini and Queens of the Stone Age learned a lot from the Melvins and fine albums such as Houdini.
The album opens up with what could be the defining song for their sound, "Hooch". They jump into "Night Goat", one of the closest Sabbath sounds they achieve. Note: they did reference Black Sabbath in the music styles in many of their songs. They manage a sonic masterpiece with the track "Pearl Bomb", a song that would drive the uninitiated to push FFWD with it's machine gun skipping sound before the vocals finally kick in after 1.5 minutes.
So needless to say, Houdini is an essential disc in any alternative collection.

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