Melvins’ frontman Buzz Osborne has participated in about a zillion side projects over the years—including his King Buzzo solo EP from 1992, part of a series that mimicked the infamous Kiss solo albums in 1978. But he’s never made a whole album by himself. Until now. This Machine Kills Artists is King Buzzo’s full-length solo debut, 17 tracks of acoustic aggression and weirdness from a man best known as one of the distorted guitar’s most earth-shattering champions. And while Buzzo unplugged might seem like a dubious prospect to a certain section of volume-craving Melvins fans, they may rest assured that This Machine Kills Artists—as heard on the insidiously catchy song “Drunken Baby,” being debuted here—is pants-pissingly heavy, in its own quiet, creepy way.
This Machine Kills Artists will be released June 3 via Ipecac.