The Melvins ‘Five Legged Dog’ Review: sludge metal legends release mammoth 36 song, 4-LP collection of acoustic renditions of classic tracks, deep cuts, and covers.
If there’s one sonic characteristic synonymous with the sound of the Melvins, it’s distortion. Big, syrupy, gelatinous overdriven riffs that emanate like lava, buttressed by relentless drumming and guitarist/singer Buzz Osborne’s guttural wail.
So what happens when you take that defining sonic signature away from their sound? There were hints of such on Osborne’s 2014 solo acoustic album This Machine Kills Artists, but now this approach has been fully explored on the group’s new acoustic collection Five Legged Dog (October 15th, Ipecac Recordings).
“This is a big one. We knew we had to do something massive to prove we weren’t fucking around.” This statement from Osborne from the album’s press release basically throws down the gauntlet, and is perhaps even an understatement given the massiveness of the project.
Spanning the group’s entire discography (which sprawls just under four decades), the massive 4-disc set Five Legged Dog reinterprets a wide swath of Melvins classics, while also offering a bevy of covers.
Dog kicks off with Edgar The Elephant off A Walk With Love & Death, and it gives a whole new dimension to the song’s psychedelic Syd Barret’ish textures.
The Bootlicker’s single Up The Dumper takes on a strange 60s bubblegum pop flavor, with its pared back delivery recalling Peggy March’s I Will Follow Him on acid, while Lysol’s Hung Bunny/Roman Dog Bird morphs into a hypnotic 14 minute prog odyssey.
But for the most part, an acoustic Melvins album is not the restrained, genteel unplugged affair some might expect. Indeed, tracks like Houdini cuts Hooch, Honey Bucket and Night Goat are arguably as heavy as the originals, but in a swampier, denser and trippier way.
This is due to the fact that Osborne, bassist Steve McDonald and drummer Dale Crover attack the material with the same ferocity as they do on their electrified works, as evidenced on a caustic rendition of Ozma’s Oven, or a show-stopping Civilized Worm (off (A)Senile Animal) with Crover’s drumming going into manic, violent overdrive.
What’s just as fascinating as their acoustic versions of classic songs, deep cuts and curios (including Bad Move from Crover’s 2017 solo album The Fickle Finger of Fate), is the eclectic selection of cover songs that pop up throughout the collection, including unique takes on Alice Cooper’s Halo of Flies, The Rolling Stone’s Sway and Free’s Woman.
The band’s cover of Redd Kross’s Charlie is a particular standout, taking a song off the forgotten Escape From LA soundtrack and reimagining it in an acoustic context. This allows McDonald (a founding member of Redd Kross) to revisit it in a darker, sludgier incarnation that arguably is superior to the original.
Outside Chance is garage rock perfection, with an endearing heartfelt take on the Warren Zevon penned Turtles tune, while Flypaper is an appropriately strange take on the Braniac favorite, featuring Osborne’s layered baritone and falsetto vocals, while Everybody’s Talking sees occasional Melvin’s member Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers) taking up vocal and banjo duties on the Fred Neil classic.
Five Legged Dog sounds like an intimidating proposition in the Spotify era–you can’t really halfass it, it needs a deep aural dive to appreciate its charms. But once you give in, it proves an engaging and immersive journey, showing that just because the Melvins went acoustic, it doesn’t mean they’re mellowing with age. Consider it both a retrospective and a reinvention. This would be a Herculean feat for most bands, but the Melvins have always been up for the challenge. As they say, old dogs can learn new tricks, including a five legged one, at that.
