April 26, 2026

Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March - Album Review

The much-anticipated collaboration between grindcore legends Napalm Death and the legendary Melvins is here— but does it live up to the hype? Dive into a raw, candid breakdown of "Savage Imperial Death March," where the consensus seems to be that it's more Melvins than Napalm Death and it lacks the of aggression and the heavy dose of Napalm Death that may leave some fans of either band feeling disappointed. Check why this album feels more like a relaxed Melvins studio session than a true fusion of these intense acts, and why many believe it misses the mark on the velocity and bite expected from their legendary catalogs.

Savage Imperial Death March represents a monumental fusion of two underground titans, merging the sludge-heavy experimentation of the Melvins with the relentless, pioneering grindcore of Napalm Death. Far from a standard split release, this project is a true collaborative studio album, blending the distinct textures and sonic philosophies of the Pacific Northwest and Birmingham’s extreme metal scenes.

Originally released as a limited vinyl edition via Amphetamine Reptile Records in early 2025, the album saw a wide-scale release through Ipecac Recordings in April 2026. The record stands as a testament to the uncompromising spirit of both bands, delivering a dense, atmospheric, and high-velocity exploration of heavy music.

The Collective

This collaboration features a powerhouse lineup of legendary musicians:

Buzz Osborne (Melvins): Vocals, Guitar
Barney Greenway (Napalm Death): Vocals
Shane Embury (Napalm Death): Bass
John Cooke (Napalm Death): Guitar
Dale Crover (Melvins): Drums

Together, these artists dismantle genre boundaries to create a sound that is as experimental as it is aggressive, cementing Savage Imperial Death March as a definitive moment in modern heavy music history.

LISTEN

All right, Derek. What do you get when you combine the extreme relentlessness of a band like Napalm Death with the

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quirky experimental sludge of a band like Melvin's? You get something that is sludgy,

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interesting at times, and also boring at times.

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You wind up with a Savage Imperial Death March, a collaboration by these two uh by these two far out bands.

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Yes, Grind Core Legends and Napalm Death and frankly the kings of sludge, King Buzzo is one of my heroes. Love the man,

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love the Melvin's. I was really pumped when I heard about this collaboration. Mhm.

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And um sadly my this is my opinion. It was a chore to listen to and you can

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flame me and feel free to flame me in the comments, but I would question and this is what I'm going to ask you is, is this record better than a new Napalm

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Death record or is this record better than a new Melvin's record? And if you can say yes, then more power to you.

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I can't say yes. But here's what I can say. That Melvin's I was a big big

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Melvin's fan back in the day. And one of the things that I liked so much about Melvin's was how far out they were. Like

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they do not and have never followed any conventional guides as far as what they do musically. And I think that's why I

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was so drawn to them. I mean, you take a track like I flies, which is just like six minutes of wild uh abstract

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craziness, but it was still cool as hell. And that's what first drew me to Melvin's. And I like that they are so

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left field. I I don't know Napal Death as well as you do, but I know enough that I too was really intrigued by this

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collaboration. Now, uh we've got Buzz Osborne, King Buzzo, and Dale Crover on drums from Melvin's from the Napalm

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Death side of things. Barney Greenway on vocals, Shane Embry on bass, backing vocals, and John Cook on guitar and backing vocals. So, it's an interesting,

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you know, mashing together of these two pretty wild bands. Well, and it was recorded at the Melvin Studio in Los

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Angeles. And this feels like it's recorded like a Melvin's record.

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I would agree. I think that the album had more of a Melvin's flavor to it than Napalm Death. It was It was Melvin's with some Napalm Death elements in it.

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Would you say that's a fair statement? I have a note here. It says identity crisis. And the identity crisis is is that this is probably 90% Melvin's and

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10% Napal death. And I love Napalm Death and I was there since the beginning.

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There are times in my life where I just wake up and I say say I need to listen to Napal Death and I do and I was looking for the velocity of Nate Palm

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Death mixed with the quirkiness of the Melvin's and I just felt like it was buried what what velocity is in this

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record is just buried behind noise and Melvinesque weirdness which again has its place. I would have loved to see a 50/50 tradeoff of some speed,

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some grind core mixed with some of that weirdness with the dueling vocals. Yeah.

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But the the 9010 split just for me was really disappointing.

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Yeah. So, we seem to agree on that that it's it really felt more Melvin's than Nate Palm Death. Uh, I will say this that I, you know, I've over the past 10,

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15 years, I've been so so into music that is super tight, really clean,

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polished production and things like that that this was I did enjoy listening to this record because it is not tight. And

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the production is good. It's it is its own style for this album, but this is I don't want to say sloppy, but it's messy. It's Melvin's messy.

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And you know, they don't worry about playing to a grid. They're not playing to any kind of click tracks. No.

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But I do wonder you you bring up an interesting point that because this was recorded at Melvin's home studio, if it

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wasn't easier for them to be a little more relaxed and for the Napalm Death guys to kind of fall into the Melvin's ethos of how they write and record it.

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It's obvious that the guys in Napal Death are obviously fans of the Melvin and let that happen. And I think that if

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they had, you know, flexed their muscles and sat in the studio and said, "You know what? We're [ __ ] napal deaf.

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Let's be badass." In addition to being quirky. Mhm.

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Then I think we would have had something that would be a little bit more, you know, tasty to listen to. It's just a lot of filler lacking lacking substance

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on the record. A lot of just noises and things. And I was painting listening to it going, "Dad, you know, and I just

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kind like next. There's too much filler just going on of like feedback and and I just Well, that to me though, that's very

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Melvinesque, you know. Track two, some kind of Antichrist. That's n and a half minutes. And like the first couple of

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minutes of the song is, you know, like the back and forth between uh Buzz and Barney is pretty killer. You get the,

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you know, the the trading vocals with Barney's just, you know, grinder of a throat style vocals. Mhm.

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And then it shifts into this super spaced out psychedelic kind of break with these massive verbed out drums and

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that sequenced synth pattern that just kind of goes through to the end. That quirky Melvin'sness

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that you were talking about and Melvin's but yeah,

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irritatingly so when you've got Napal Death in the room with you.

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If you're looking for what Napalm brings, this is probably not the album that you're going to find it on. Well,

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that's the problem. You just nailed it right there.

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Like, if you're going to do a collaboration, let Napal and Death spread their wings every now and then.

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Like, instead of having endless feedback and synth, let them freaking riff. Where where's the aggression? Where where was it? Very little.

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I mean, you move to, let's see, Stealing Horses, track six on the record. It's uptempo. It's I think probably as close

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to Napal Death in terms of just tempo as you're going to get on the record. I I do like that track. It's got some cool qualities like that main riff is both

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somehow manages to be like have a major feel and a minor feel at the same time.

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The big doubled vocal tracks and all that. The melodic guitar lines. It's like a big wall of sound, but at the end of it, it's still more Melvin's than it is Napal Death.

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It's a sonic experiment with Napal Death at the Melvin studio that failed. It didn't It does not have the heavy. And to me, this is a record that's going to

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be and I please don't crucify me. It'll be in the $5 bin at the vinyl record stores before long. It's not going to

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it's not going to be one of either band's finer moments. It's kind of like the Lulu record for Metallica.

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Yeah, I would I would guess that, you know, Napal Death fans are going to go,

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"Yeah, this isn't really the Napalm Death that, you know, we know and love."

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Melvin's fans are going to say, "Yeah, I like this. It's more probably because it's more Melvin's than than Napalm."

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But I don't disagree that it's, you know, it's probably not going to land on an album of the year list. I think that's a a safe a safe guess.

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Well, I'm not too bad cuz I was really excited for it, too.

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I'm not wrong. And I got called a narcissist today and so I'll own it. But Crang said Crank said Cleaves closer to

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Melvin's sonic signature. The results are as weird and experimental as anything you can find from the Melvin.

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Yeah. And there again, I think what what is missing is the mention of Mr. Barney and and Napal Death. Glide magazine.

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Eccentric album that is transcended at times and maddening at others. Metal trenches. This is where the album is a

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bit hit or miss for me. Experimental moments like a handwriting feel fillerish in between the heavy grooves. So,

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I was just going to bring that track up,

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too. Yeah. Well, and and what I did too was I I took these quotes and I tried to forget about them and obviously some of

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it subliminally came out, but I think that these are all fair quotes about the record.

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Yeah. Yeah. I I can't really find fault with any of them. Yeah. Awful handwriting. the third track, you know,

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it's a it's just a strange like pseudo electronic track with this bizarre vocal chant throughout it that both somehow

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make sense because it's Melvin's, but at the same time doesn't make sense at all.

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I mean, then on the other hand, nothing has really ever been off the table for Melvin, so I, you know, why the hell not? But it didn't feel like one of the more substantive tracks on the record,

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for sure.

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Yeah. Well, look, it lacks bite. I was expecting Melvin's with bite and I didn't get it and that is okay. It's not

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for me, you know, but there are people out there that this will probably say in the comments that we're tools for not loving it. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. But we say this all the time.

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Music is subjective. What does it for one person may well not do it for somebody else. And you know what doesn't

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do it for me may do it for you. So we can't love everything that we hear. for sure. And that's not to say that this album doesn't have some positive

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attributes. I think it does. There's some stuff on here that I like, but overall, like I said, it's not going to make it on an album of the list, album

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of the year list for me. I don't know if this is one that I'm going to run back to, you know, and put it into my my liked albums on Spotify. I'm just not

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sure about that. which is kind of a bummer because I hearken back to my youth when Melvin's were just everything and anything Melvin's was the coolest [ __ ] out there.

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Yeah, but what are you going to do? Well, and look, it's a hard pass for me.

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I wanted to like it. I really did. And unfortunately, I just couldn't do it.

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And that's that's okay. You can't love everything. But if I may, one thing that you we tend to do these reminders every now and then that and this is about love

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is love your kids. You know, if you are a parent that's out there, let your kids be innocent. Let them don't talk about

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adult stuff in front of them. Don't make them grow up faster than they are. Just keep the adult stuff to yourself. You know, it doesn't have to be that way.

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Kids are kids and let them enjoy toys and Santa Claus and innocence and the feeling of your first crush and all

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those things. don't don't stomp on their lives and them growing up because of your adult BS. And I think that that's

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just the the message that I wanted to portray. If it gets through to one parent and they look in the mirror and go, "Yeah, you know what? I'm not I'm not letting my kids stay innocent. I

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need to be better. Then I've done my job."

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Yeah. I think what you're the core of what you're getting at is if you don't like the Melvin's Napalm Death album, don't force that opinion on your child.

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Let them love it or hate it on their own.

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Bring it all back around. You You're very good as a host. Nice job. Good job.

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Uh, no, man. I'm sorry. I'm a dick. I don't disagree with what you said,

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though, man. You know, life is life is so short and so [ __ ] up and people are fickle. Kids have the opportunity to

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just be innocent and not have any idea how hard life is going to get when they get older. Let them enjoy that innocence

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and doing dumb [ __ ] because they don't know any better. because it goes away way too early anymore.

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It does. And I think that social media and communication, the constant communication really, it takes away kids ability to stay innocent and they don't

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want to. They want to run as fast as they can to being adulty and then once they get there, they start having adult themes in their life and start going,

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"Oh boy."

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Well, the these days, kids are getting the adult themes when they are 100%

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still kids. And that's what's really scary for me. I mean, I became an adult.

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All I wanted to do is turn around and run backwards. I, you know, I'm I'm pushing mid-50s now, and all I want to do is have zero responsibility and get

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on my bike and ride to the convenience store. Well, I remember my big my big issue at 10 years old at 1984 was my dad really didn't like Slayer and he's like,

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I don't want you listening to that.

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And I'm like, well, too bad. And then my mom was cool because she was an opera singer and she taught music at school and taught great musical taste. Yeah,

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she did. I mean, even on her deathbed,

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she was watching Slayer on like one of the movie channels at the time. This was like I don't know 12 13 years ago. But um you know, she used to I remember her

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buying um the Injustice for All and um Ride the Lightning for the kids at Thatford Academy to learn how to play.

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Go and Yeah. and um and my friend Jamie Hosley who's in a very successful band up here in Vermont and New Hampshire,

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the conipion fits. Yeah. My mom went and got him. He was totally into Metallica and went and bought with the budget Ride the Lightning for him to learn and taught him how to play. And um you know,

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again, he was gifted. Didn't take much to teach him how to play Metallica. Yeah.

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But still, you know, it it was Are you saying it's it's not hard to learn Kirk Hammet guitar solos? Is that what you're saying, Derek? Are you

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saying if you have a W pedal, you too can sound like Kirk Ammit?

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Well, maybe. But he was a he's a basist and he was playing uh Cliff Burton's stuff and he and he really liked a

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Cliff. So, but yeah, you know, a good shout out to my mom. Good memories there. Yeah, for sure.

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Yeah. And your boys in the conion fits too for that matter. And I meant to ask you, I don't know. I just saw today we're recording this on Earth. Happy

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Earth to you, Derek. Happy Earth. I just saw that Slayer announced two dates. I don't know what the dates are where, but I saw that they are playing two shows.

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They just announced it.

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One is in Minnesota. I know that. And then see what the other one was. I My friend Mark had actually sent it to me and you know he's been looking for any

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reason to go to a show and then he was trying to get Metallica tickets at Moheaggan Sun because he lives in Connecticut and then he saw the prices

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and that's He hasn't robbed a bank lately so he can't afford them.

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No. No. I did tell him to actually go like I guess some of these people that are out on the street asking for money at stop signs are making a fortune and I

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said well maybe you can do that if you are they doing that because they they want to go see Metallica too. Yeah.

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Their corporate job isn't paying enough to afford a Metallica show.

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Thousand,000 bucks a ticket you know 600 bucks to sit in the back of the room and that's why we did that blog post. And you know, I had I had fun putting gain,

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you know, on with all the don't don't tread on me, James, and all that stuff.

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It was kind of fun to make, but Oh, and one more thing, by the way, everybody who hates AI. Okay. Yeah, it's cool. No problem. Yeah. Cool.

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Yeah. You got your thing, I got my thing. It's all fine.

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Hey, if you if there's artists out there that want to uh do some Gain stuff, let us know. DM us. You can Gain is free

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reign. Feel free to put gain in with any of your favorite bands and we will post it if it's if you're an artist and you would like to, you know, do some cool band related

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artwork or something. Absolutely. Would love to see it.

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Just do it. Send it to us. In fact, post it. Do it.

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I mean, our followers will appreciate that. Appreciate seeing your artwork. Yeah. Well,

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post it anyway, but send it to us and we'll post it, too. Well, we're we're approaching a 100,000, you know, views over the last 30 days across things. And so, we don't have three three followers,

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but we like to say that keeps us humble.

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All right. Well, listen, not every record is a winner. This one was not a big winner for for either of us. I think I may may have liked it a little bit more than you, but that's totally cool.

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So hopefully the next album we talk about will be one that we're both over the moon about because uh it is way more fun getting excited about a record than not.

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I am pumped about the next one that we're doing. Nice. Well, we can say what it is. Yeah, we're doing a uh uh Mosaic by Dead Nate.

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Dead Nate. Would you call them a Prague metal? They're they're progressive metal, right? I would say they're Prague. Yeah, there's some trash in there. Some bite, you know.

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Well, that's a great record. Yeah, it's a great record. We're we're we're letting we're letting we're opening the kimono on that too soon. We can't do

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that. And by the way, the idea of you doing the kimono and me doing the kimono is like something. It's a nightmare and we should probably end the podcast.

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We should probably Okay, on that note, we'll see you on the next one. See you.

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Derek Showerhead

John Staley

Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March - Album Review

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