Thunderball

Buzz Osborne is an artist who clearly has no fear of exploring either the past or the future, and he does a bit of both on the Melvins 2025 effort Thunderball. Osborne identifies this album as the work of "Melvins 1983," meaning that the drummer on board is Mike Dillard, who played in the bands first lineup, while usual timekeeper Dale Crover is apparently otherwise engaged. Dillards presence gives Thunderball a clear tie to the bands first era, but the other players Osborne invited for these sessions come from a very different musical direction. Ni Maitres, an experimental noise artist of note, played upright bass on this material, while abstract electronic musician Void Manes manipulates various bits of electronic gadgetry as well as contributing what he calls "experimental machine vocals." Manes clouds of buzzing and squealing dominate "Vomit of Clarity," while he makes his presence known on most of the other cuts without getting too far in the way of the other musicians. The opener, "King of Rome," is a potent three-and-a-half-minute dose of thunder with lots of chugging guitar, roiling drums, pulsebeat bass, and aggressive rhythms that rocks hard in a satisfying way. The abstract soundscape of "Vomit of Clarity" briefly stops the momentum and throws the pacing offtrack, but the remaining three tunes are lengthy journeys into heaviness that better reflect the traditional Melvins stylebook. The slow, dynamic march into the unknown on "Short Hair with a Wig" gives Manes plenty of space to punctuate the quiet moments with inorganic sounds, and the more energetic attack of "Victory of the Pyramids" indulges the Melvins well-documented passion for sludgy metallic riffing while running at a faster pace than is their custom, and with an impressive amount of anthemic riffage. Osborne has been doing this sort of thing for so long, one imagines he could write and play songs like this in his sleep if he wanted to, but he understands theres a difference between having a recognizable style and lazily repeating yourself, and Thunderball shows he still hasnt fallen into the trap of sounding rote. This isnt the Melvins at their peak, but it is the work of a band following their muse with smarts and muscle, and the presence of Maitres and Manes does allow for some new wrinkles that take these tunes down less traveled detours. After over four decades, the Melvins still sound utterly uncompromised and full of swampy vigor, and Thunderball confirms they havent finished challenging themselves or their audience, not by a long shot. ~ Mark Deming

変幻自在の活動を展開しているメルヴィンズの最新作は、バズ・オズボーン(ヴォーカル/ギター)とオリジナル・ドラマーのダグ・ディラードによるメルヴィンズ1983によるリリースだ。スラッジ～スラッシュの振り幅はもはや当たり前。そこにエレクトロニックなアプローチも加えてみせる。9分超のメタル組曲も含む本作を、彼らはとことん大袈裟にしたかったのだそうだ。
bounce (C)山口智男