Melvins - 'Chicken Switch'

The entire Melvins catalog twisted, rearranged and rejiggered into avant-garde music.

King Buzzo and the Melvins are no strangers to experimentation, collaboration and musical convergence. They have backed former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, collaborated with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain on Houdini and released one album that consisted of synthesizer experiments.

The band was hand-picked to be a key part of the 1990s grunge scene by Atlantic Records, but dropped from the label because they wanted to play by their own rules. Their desire to follow their own dissonant muse may have confounded critics, but has earned them a die-hard fan base that has followed the band for decades.

The Melvins latest album Chicken Switch might be their most audacious musical experiment of all. It’s a bit of stretch to call this a proper Melvins album since it includes no new material from the band. Instead, the band went out to well-known remix artists and DJs and told them to construct a song out of an entire Melvins album. The end result is a staggering pastiche of recycled riffs, noise, static, vocals and effects.

If you are a Melvins fan you’ll find yourself picking apart each song and trying to place the part, which might be difficult considering the breadth of material. The diversity of sounds and styles on Chicken Switch is daunting; the album jumps from the drum-heavy techno rhythms of “Washmachine Sk8tronics” to the chanting drone of “Prick Concrete/Revolution M.” “She Chokes Her Dying Breath & Does It In My Face,” has layers of unbearable feedback on top of a Melvins riff and numerous speed changes.

This isn’t the album for lunch-pail metal fans who keep Dio, Testament and Obituary on steady rotation. But if you dig The Melvins or are looking for an album that takes you to interesting and unexpected places, than Chicken Switch will furrow your brow and bruise your ears.