After the brief 30-second drum intro of "black stooges", Melvins' new album starts off with a barrage of guitar riffing and drum accents on the untitled second track. The title of this record is a bit misleading especially if you're a stoned raver, since it's not what people usually mean when they say "ambient" nowawadays: don't expect any soothing synth pads or mellow chill-out beats, the key word in the title is "Hostile" not "Ambient".Ipecac
The majority of the tracks seem to have more of a precision riffing than the grinding assaults that the Melvins have been known for in the past, like the almost rockabilly "Dr. Geek". At moments the guitar and bass staccatto unison riffs recall nothing so much as a really slowed down, more menacing and brutish Black Sabbath ("foaming") and other times the wailing screech of guitars slowly segueing into a slow repeated riff gives the vocals an added menace before a brief jaunt into some perverted disco ("the fool, the meddling idiot" which ends with a reprise of the opening "black stooges"). The grand finale is the fantastic 15-minute album closer, "the anti-vermin seed" which has some electronic noises (courtesy of Tool's Adam Jones, who also collaborated on the Melvins' previous effort, Collusus of Destiny,) blended along side the precise, plodding riffing and often sparse sonic landscape laid down by drummer Dale Crover and bassist Kevin Rutmanis, which justifies the 'ambient' part of the title. The result is a suitably dark ending to a dark album. The bright contrasting colors of the album art and cover aside, this is a beautifully dark album. If dark slow pounding sounds good to you, so will this album.
 
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