One would have to be deaf and blind to not notice the influence of the Melvins on what is generically known as grunge music. It’s obvious that these guys grew up rolling joints on Black Sabbath records at band practice, taking the torch of classic metal influence and melding it into their own beautifully strange rampaging beast.

My ears are still recovering from the Melvins’ neck-wrenching performance at Webster Hall. Sludge-metal pioneers, these guys have been churning out seriously heavy music that has weathered the storm of time for nearly 30 years, and it is awesome to see that they can still sell out a show and still keep heads banging. Bringing on NYC’s Unsane to open with their own ‘80s-born breed of merciless hardcore, it was a night of torrential guitar work and brutal drumming.

Taking the stage without a word, the Melvins, complete with two drummers and King Buzzo aka Buzz Osborne, (draped in an otherworldly frock and wielding a clear plastic guitar) launched into their vast catalogue of hard-hitting anthems. The air was quickly ignited and the long hairs started rocking, their fists pumping wildly. Lacing from stoner song to song with powerful riffage and ballistic drum interludes, the Melvins plowed onward for nearly two hours, proving that time truly can’t slow them down.

– John Figlesthaler