10 Best Grunge Bands Of All Time
5. Melvins
When grunge exploded on the pop charts, the mainstream music world was introduced to a healthy dose of heaviness from Seattle. Even with local bands climbing up the charts, these bands couldn't hold a candle to the off-the-wall nature of the Melvins.
Forming in the mid-80's by Buzz Osborne, the Melvins' sound was unlike anything the metal world was used to. Sure, the sound was heavy, but it was also slow and sludgy than anything in metal circles at the time. Where 80's metal was dominated with partying hair metal on one side and fast thrash on the other, the Melvins were off in their own world of eccentricity.
Osborne himself once described the band's sound as what Captain Beefheart would sound like if he played metal, and there's a bit of truth to that. Though it is certainly heavy across the board, there is a bit of craziness laced throughout the band's material. Even the band's footnotes are remarkable in the grunge legend, such as Osborne introducing Kurt Cobain to Dave Grohl, which formed the foundation of Nirvana's mammoth sound. By combining metal, stoner rock, and experimental music, the Melvins took all the "ugly sounding" genres from Seattle and meshed them into a singularly beautiful wall of noise.