The Melvins, "War on Wisdom"

Is the world finally catching up to the Melvins? Scion, who are admittedly also behind one of the country's best underground metal fests, is offering the band's new EP, The Bulls & the Bees, on the car company's website starting March 13. It's a move that would've made the Melvins' biggest and most famous fan shake his head in wonder.



I'm not thrilled about the Melvins aligning themselves with a corporation, but it's fun to see them find their greatest commercial success 30 years into their career. They've always been far more influential (see Nirvana, Tool, Helmet) than popular, but with bands like Torche, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Boris emerging with the Melvins' unpredictable sludge-metal markings all over their music, apparently even Toyota-run companies are jumping on board.

Argue all you want whether the Melvins have "sold out," but one listen to the first song, "The War on Wisdom," shows them as eccentric and as cinder block heavy as ever. The rejuvination they've found from enlisting Big Business' Jared Warren and Coady Willis is still serving them with some of their best ever riffs, and if "The War on Wisdom" is any indication, The Bulls & the Bees will be another astonishing turn in one of the greatest careers in experimental music.