Melvins - The Maggot / The Bootlicker [2LP]

Melvins opened their 1999 trilogy with two very different moods, and this double LP pairs them, the riff-heavy The Maggot and the strangely gentle The Bootlicker.

Both albums arrived that year on Ipecac Recordings, with Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and bassist Kevin Rutmanis working with producer Tim Green and Mackie Osborne handling the artwork. The plan was a three-part series that closed with The Crybaby, and hearing the first two side by side shows how wildly the band could swing between extremes in a single year.

The Maggot is classic Melvins tonnage. "Manky" grinds with metallic menace, and their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" drags Peter Green's nightmare deep into their own murky territory. The Bootlicker was conceived as the pop-leaning sibling, and it lives up to that billing with quieter, richer textures that flirt with funk and jazz. "Toy" and "Black Santa" glide where you expect them to stomp, and Rutmanis's slide bass adds an eerie glow.

Together they make a perfect double bill, the bruiser and the dreamer sharing one package.

It is the ideal way to hear a band at the height of its contrary powers, and proof that the Melvins never made the same record twice.