MELVINS/NAPALM DEATH
Savage Imperial Death March
2026, Ipecac

You may notice, as a keen observer of observances, that the artist and album etc. line for this review flies in the face of established protocols and norms here at ye olde KNAC dot com. I’m sure somewhere this is showing up on my performance review. I know damn well what I did there.

You see, ‘Savage Imperial Death March’ isn’t a split, and also isn’t a band in the traditional sense. It is also not, strictly speaking, a collaboration between artists. It is wholly its own beast, taking cues and parts of its members and creating something new, that is also familiar – difficult, but easy to digest. Theseus would be proud here, or would he? Someone get me a giant boulder.

MELVINS and NAPALM DEATH is not a new proposition – the two bands compliment each other and bring out the eccentricities of extremity they both embody, albeit at very different ends of the spectrum of what “extremity” means. SAVAGE IMPERIAL DEATH MARCH is what I think the project is called and I could be totally off base there. Then, I guess, the album title would be ‘Melvins and Napalm Death’ but that isn’t truly descriptive enough for what’s happening here. The sound of the album is absolutely unlike anything either band does in their day jobs and exists in its own world.

Sonically, I guess, the sound would be closest to the down ‘n’ dirty sludge of MELVINS but goddammit, there is something even more low slung about this. It’s messy, it’s irreverent, it’s vital. It’s the Python sketch about winking and nudging – it doesn’t make sense that it all makes so much sense. Oh, and “Tossing Coins Into The Fountain of Fuck” is possibly the best song title of this year. It really speaks to how I feel, man.

This is broody music made by some of the best to ever brood. It is angular, difficult, and enveloping – but not in a hoity toity experimental proggier-than-thou way. These men have created an album that is really, really hard to review without it becoming a mess. As I proofread again…

I dunno. Go listen to it. It’s not a split – but it just might split you up a bit.

Rating (which is not really possible here and totally arbitrary like the rest of life): 4.0 Out Of 5.0