At some point I’m going to take a deep dive into the music of Boris, a band I have come to absolutely (amplifier?) worship over the years, starting from their later, more accessible moments and spiraling down to their early, fuzzed out droning earthquake sonics. Melvins are a more mysterious band for me, a collective I know in small pockets despite only only a few releases on digital. The history of these two monsters of noise is long and intertwined, continuing to this very moment with the release of Twins of Evil, a split commemorating the bands’ 2023 tour. Two tracks, each one about 20 minutes long and currently only available as a cheap but awesome $5 CD from Amphetamine Reptile. I couldn’t wait for the vinyl coming soon, so here we are, the CD arriving today and a virgin listening experience awaiting below.

First up is Boris with “Cry” and the weird children’s accordion and whirling, broken down washed out recording that opens its feels like a child’s favorite toy slowly dying. It then slowly builds into the main theme, a droning, rising doom dirge. Drums and piano haunt the track, leaving plenty of space for the room to live in the song. You can hear strings squeaking, and as Wata’s guitar becomes more pronounced and her background vocals filter in the mood becomes more ominous. Atsuo’s drumming is a beast, restrained but only just, pulling at the chain to be unleashed. Why he’s not spoken about in the same whispers as other great drummers is a mystery and a drag.

Confession as we move into the 10-minute mark and Wata unfurls a devastating guitar tone in her solo: I can never remember who is singing what. Wata is obviously easy to remember, but I can never remember the difference in Atuso and Takeshi’s voice, something I need to rectify after this. So I’ll only say here that whoever IS handling the lead vocals here is phenomenal (I think it’s Atsuo). If I were to assign a style to this from Boris’s lengthy, lengthy discography, I would say this has a lot of the hallmarks of something like Feedback – lots of noise and droning moments, but with a dose of their later sound, letting a level of glacial groove enter the track as well. The song ends as it began, with that creepy music. Overall just a great, great track from one of my favorite bands.

As the feedback rises in volume you know it’s time for Melvins to bring their singular sound to bear on the proceedings. A bowed bass appears out of nowhere, and skeletal percussion creep into the soundstage as “Funny Equals Pain” begins. It’s dark and creepy and evil, but there’s an element of puckish prankster-ism as well. We don’t even really get the semblance of what this song is gong to be until almost four minutes in, when we can start to decipher the beginning of a riff. The riff actually kicks in around 4:45, and it’s a perverse rock and roll number, all dusty drum beats and a glitchy, almost industrial melody. Then those vocals come in, all filtered and spacey and I am instantly nodding my head along. Melvins have a knack for being so damn catchy as times that it completely catches you off your guard.

The track continues in this vein for a while before drowning in feedback to launch the next theme around the eight and a half minute mark. It’s a completely different vibe, much more aggressive and angry, with discordant melodies rising out of the fury. It’s a nice contrast to Boris, who build and build their theme over time, whereas here Melvins shift gears like a lumbering truck. The clattering percussion descending into a delay and reverb-drenched hell announce the end of Part 2 and the beginning of Part 3. And yeah: there’s some wah pedal going on. There’s also some real righteous riffing going on as the band channels their inner 90s rock god child and arrives at the common theme that opens “Pain Equals Funny” from the band’s latest album, this year’s Tarantula Heart. having now heard this version, I’m excited to really dive into the band’s latest full-length and dig myself deeper into terrific music.

May it never end.