The Melvins Still Understand Ugly

Colossus of Density Melvins (Ipecac) The final show of Atari Teenage Riot's 1999 tour was 26.47 minutes of pure sonic, digital overload. Overloaded by psychosis, illness, drugs, legal problems and exhaustion, the electronic post-riot-grrrl quartet pumped all their frustration and anger into one huge pulverizing track, voices screaming in distorted agony. This, too, was recorded for posterity and later released on the German collective's Digital Hardcore label: indeed, it's the finest document of their explosive, psychotic dance fury to date. Maverick dance artist Tricky was once paid to fly over to Seattle to DJ. The British star turned up stoned, late and with just one record under his arm, the Specials' first album. He settled down in the DJ booth and proceeded to light up a big fat spliff. Someone nervously inquired of the hot-tempered star where the rest of his records were. This is it, he replied. All you need to know about music. Tricky had a point. As did Dylan and Atari Teenage Riot.

If you're going to go totally minimal, though, you need the Melvins. Colossus of Density comes as close to being unlistenable as anything even Thurston Moore has recorded. Or perhaps it's supremely listenable: 59.23 minutes, one track, recorded live at Club Mangler in Cupertino, CA, 1998, distorted tape loops and radio frequencies and feedback, almost zero rhythm, manipulated with the dexterity of a herd of goats wearing gloves. It sounds like Atari Teenage Riot on Robitussin, Earth shorn even of the saving grace of the constancy of feedback's vibrations. There are no redeeming qualities to this album, certainly not the rumored presence of former multiplatinum rock star Mike Patton, but that is indeed the album's saving grace.

The Melvins understand ugly, the need to wallow in the darker, sleazier aspects of life, its use in music as a cleanser and an antidote against the worthy and the artificial, its healing power through catharsis, its sheer brutal splendor and forgiving grind. Beauty cannot and should not exist without its bestial counterpart. The Melvins supply the bestial counterpart.