MELVINS - Savage Imperial Death March

On paper, a full collaborative album credited to Napalm Death and Melvins is the perfect recipe for an unpredictable fusion of the bizarre, the violent and the experimental. The godfathers of grindcore, also an absolute institution of death-metal and sonic extremism in general, team up with the founders of sludge for eight tracks gathered under an evocative title: "Savage Imperial Death March". In reality, though, the result is a minor Melvins album with Napalm Death lending a hand on execution.

"Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck" is a furious, rotten rock'n'roll number driven by the bestial roar of Napalm Death's Mark "Barney" Greenway: a fast, powerful track that captures the more playful side of the collaboration well. The lengthy "Some Kind Of Antichrist", clocking in at over nine minutes, already leans heavily toward the Melvins side, here only slightly contaminated by a marginally more furious sound than usual. After three minutes the energy dissolves into a long, abstract detour of atmospheric sounds, filtered vocals and industrial clanging that, frankly, tests one's patience. More entertaining is the brief "Awful Handwriting", barely two minutes of spastic sludge-rap, while the gloomy hymn to despair "Nine Days Of Rain" is better focused, and "Rip The God", smeared with death-metal in its finale, is business as usual for the Melvins.

Few surprises in the final trio of tracks, caught between armored sludge and other, more cacophonous and abstract moments that are all too recognizable to anyone familiar with King Buzzo and co.'s catalogue.

In essence, Napalm Death's most distinctive traits end up crushed beneath the hybrid of hard rock, sludge and experimental noise that the Melvins have been practicing for countless albums now. An entertaining parade of violent, often deliciously weird music, but one we've already heard before, save for Barney's truculent vocals clashing with the Melvins singer's dazed tone.

So nothing worth keeping, then? Very little, and only for the fans.

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29/04/2026