Melvins are an American band formed in Montesano, Washington in 1982. In the early days of their career their dark, heavy, oppressively slow sound made them innovators of genres like sludge, grunge and doom metal. Melvins’ music is influenced by Flipper, Black Flag’s My War-era hardcore punk and Black Sabbath-style heavy metal, but their idiosyncratic approach, bizarre sense of humor, and experimentation make neat categorization difficult. Singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne (aka “King Buzzo”) and drummer Dale Crover are constant members while several bass guitarists have cycled through the group. Melvins usually performed as a trio until 2006 when two members of Big Business became permanent members of the band.
The band was named after a grocery clerk at the Thriftway in Montesano, Washington where Osborne was employed. Melvin was the most-hated fellow employee and the band felt it to be an appropriate name. Like SF noisenik predecessors Flipper, their love of slow tempos and sludgy sound were a strong influence on grunge music, especially Nirvana and many other bands from Seattle. Their protegés, however, tended to use more conventional musical structures with this sound.
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Isis was a Los Angeles, California-based band, founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1997. They borrowed from and helped to evolve a sound pioneered by the likes of Neurosis and Godflesh, creating heavy music consisting primarily of lengthy songs that focus on repetition and evolution of structure and texture. As such, a great range of musical labels are used to describe their sound, including sludge metal and post-metal.
The band’s most recent album Wavering Radiant, was released on May 5, 2009.
Several sessions of experimentation in Boston, Massachusetts led friends Aaron Turner (guitar/vocals; also the owner of Hydra Head Records and its subsidiary, HH Noise Industries), Jeff Caxide (bass guitar), Chris Mereschuk (electronics/vocals) and Aaron Harris (drums) to form Isis in late 1997. As Turner states, “Isis formed as a result of the dissatisfaction with past bands of the founding members. None of us were happy with what we were doing musically at the time, two of us lived together, we had similar tastes and similar record collections.”[2] Isis released a demo and their first EP, Mosquito Control, in 1998, with this line-up. After an East Coast tour in the summer of 1998 where they were joined by Randy Larsen of Cable on guitar, Mereschuk left the band. Jay Randall (now of Agoraphobic Nosebleed) soon replaced him, working on Red Sea (1999). However, his stay would not last; this ultimately led to the addition of Bryant Clifford Meyer of The Gersch as well as former Cast Iron Hike guitarist Michael Gallagher in 1999.
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This is it. ISIS disbanded this year, just some weeks ago. On this split with the mighty Melvins we have the last track ever that has been recorded by ISIS. It's released now on this record. Bow down the last time for ISIS. Enjoy folks!
Tracklist
01. Melvins - Pig house (alt. version) (5:17)
02. Melvins - I'll finish you off (alt. version) (5:05)
03. ISIS - Way through woven branches (6:23)
04. ISIS - The pliable foe (7:53)
02. Melvins - I'll finish you off (alt. version) (5:05)
03. ISIS - Way through woven branches (6:23)
04. ISIS - The pliable foe (7:53)
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24:38
