Melvins / Totimoshi – Suicide In Progress Live / Waning Divine (2012)

Volcom Entertainment VEVC0025

I was genuinely excited when I heard that Totimoshi were doing a split with the Melvins on the Volcom Entertainment Vinyl Club. It meant that through my friend at Volcom, I might actually get one of these limited Melvins releases which I rarely can justify buying at inflated eBay costs.

For this release Totimoshi seem to have gone back to their original sound (by which, I mean that of ¿Mysterioso? as I haven't heard their original self-released CD), which is a good thing in my opinion. Waning Divine is a bit of a heavy Bullhead/Stag era Melvins song in style and a little less heavy than usual on the Native American influence for which I never particularly cared for when it came to studio recordings of these guys. Maybe this is the Scott Kelly/Brett Hinds influence as I think both of these guys are on this track.
Hopefully they'll kick this one around live, somehow. Totimoshi really are great to go and see play and have always kept the show fiery.

As for the other side of the 7" - Suicide in Progress continues the recent Melvins tradition of putting out a lot of live releases (after the 5xLP Endless Residency and the Sugar Daddy Live releases). This is a version sounding pretty damn close to the studio original, albeit with a slightly rawer feel. It's probably better than the studio version although I'm not totally settled. I think played at volume, this one will win out though. It's the Melvins doing what they do. Live, fast, slow, heavy, melodic.
I think that outside of Chicken Switch, you'll probably not find a bad Melvins review on this blog. I can't get enough of them.

Thanks to Kurt at Volcom Entertainment for this hook up. It's 14/100, in case you are interested.

Don't skip: Suicide in Progress