Roaring back into life with their twenty-seventh full-length since forming all the way back in 1983, Tarantula Heart is something of a return to form for the Melvins. Certainly, their last few years haven't managed to produce much of interest, a series of mildly gimmicky albums being released with interest only to the most extreme of fans. So this album, a largely improvised set of songs from sessions with drummer Roy Mayorga (Soulfly, Ministry etc, joining usual drummer Dale Crover) and guitarist Gary Chester (We Are the Asteroid) was enough to gain attention just for the circumstances of its birth. Double-drummers is always a fascinating concept, bringing back memories of the band's last genuinely great album Nude With Boots all the way back in 2008, and so it would have been a bigger disappointment than usual if what the band produced here was uninteresting.

Thankfully, it's terrific, their best material in years. Starting with the near twenty-minute Pain Equals Funny, which opens with droning feedback and softly building rock, compelling riffs from the start and featuring a catchier than usual vocal performance from Buzz Osbourne - it's all something like Black Sabbath through a 90s grunge lens. Around the five minute mark there's a shift towards something more of a prog jam, the drums taking the lead and the riffs retreating to an ominous tone. There's still catchiness to be found yet the vibes are very different, more Sonic Youth than Soundgarden, even the guitars turning to virtual beeps and sheer noise, before all fades at around the nine minute mark for a Captain Beefheart-esque avant-garde exploration. Constantly shifting and rustling along, it eventually builds into an upbeat and rocking assault that grows more abstract and electronically muffled, eventually ending in noise.

The band soon wake you from the introspective trance caused by that little musical trip with Working the Ditch, a much more straightforward and clattering rock stomper with an aggressive riff that shows the double-drum power off well. With the sinister vocals and woozy backing melodies that tinge on psychedelic rock, it's something of a throwback to the band's classic 90s period as well as a solid reminder of Nude With Boots' excellence. After that, She's Got Weird Arms is a deranged experiment or highlight depending on your tastes, something like Bryan Ferry fronting 60s Pink Floyd with a hefty dose of clunky percussion! Yet the Melvins have balanced it well with the following rocking Allergic to Food, an energetic and inherently exciting piece, guitar-led and chaotic in the best of ways.

Perhaps in one of the album's few nitpicks that song is a little too long at over five minutes for what it is yet the following Smiler is equally inviting, an experimental little sludge rocker that finishes the album leaving you wanting more. Each will have their own favourite aspect to the Melvins and it can be tough to be a real fan of the band and embrace all that they produce - yet if your favourite is heavy, rocking, experimental voyagers that use their 90s sludge as a jumping-off point for something more abstract and strange, then Tarantula Heart will do a lot for you. As will, of course, the double drums!