Buzz Osborne and Mike Dillard go way back - back to Montesano, Washington, a place Osborne never had much love for but where he found a kindred spirit in Dillard. That connection led to the Melvins, a band that would spend the next four decades bulldozing through punk, sludge, and whatever other boundaries dared to stand in their way. With Thunderball, the latest from the Melvins 1983 lineup, Osborne, Dillard, and collaborators Ni Maîtres and Void Manes push even further into uncharted territory.

“I wanted this one to be bombastic. I think it is,” Osborne says of the album. He and Dillard, who started playing music together as teenagers, have always shared a drive to defy expectations. On Thunderball, they bring in fresh perspectives: Ni Maîtres’ upright bass and noise manipulations with Void Manes’ eerie electronics and “creepy machine vocals" - to twist and stretch the Melvins’ sound in unpredictable directions.

For Dillard, it’s another standout moment in a long history with the band. “I really love this record. I think it’s amazing - a lovely blend of beautiful noise and gut-busting grooves. Working with the Melvins is always a special treat,” he says. Meanwhile, Ni Maîtres and Void Manes push the experimental edge even further. “Are you a sponge or a stone?” Ni Maîtres muses. “Do you like to experience all facets of life, or do you shut yourself off from new experiences?” Void Manes offers something even more cryptic: “I was quite gratified to spill a heap of abstract electronic debris into the desert for this record. Fragments diffused in the dust, reanimating into a disturbance underneath.”

The Melvins have never been about playing it safe. Since forming in 1983, Osborne and company have reinvented themselves countless times, pulling in influences from punk, doom, noise, and beyond. Thunderball follows Tarantula Heart (2024), Bad Mood Rising (2022), and Five Legged Dog (2021), proving that four decades in, the band is still restlessly creative.

Over the years, the Melvins have been many things - sludge pioneers, avant-garde pranksters, a revolving-door collective of misfits and legends. Today’s core lineup features Osborne, Dale Crover, and Steven McDonald, but the spirit of the band remains the same: push forward, keep experimenting, and never settle.