Melvins

LP version. Stoner Witch is the second album the Melvins made for Atlantic, recorded and mixed at A&M Studios in Hollywood and released on 18 October 1994. Major-label money changed little in the trio's method. Short, crushing songs sit next to long passages of noise and drone, so the record reads as a map of what the band had been doing since the late eighties. The title comes from a term Dale Crover and his friends used for the stoner girls at their high school. Sales were modest, around 50,000 copies at first, and the album was largely out of print until Third Man reissued it in 2016. Its standing has grown since, and Spin ranked it ninth among the greatest grunge albums in 2004.

The line-up is King Buzzo (Buzz Osborne) on vocals, guitar and bass, Dale Crover on drums, guitar and backing vocals and Mark Deutrom on bass, guitar and backing vocals. The band produced it with GGGarth Richardson, and Joe Barresi recorded and mixed it. Paul DiCarli added Moog and digital editing, and Scott Humphrey is credited with door squeaking and pencil sharpening, while the Magic Eight Ball receives thanks for spiritual guidance. Queen and Revolve were the singles, the second built on a set of riffs with a Southern rock edge. At The Stake stretches to almost eight minutes of slow, grinding weight. Between the heavy pieces sit miniatures such as Skweetis and Sweet Willy Rollbar, barely over a minute each, and side two opens with the longer Magic Pig Detective and Shevil. The closing Lividity loops a menacing bass figure over nine minutes of ambient noise, which ties the record to the abstract drone of the band's early work. Robert Christgau, unconvinced, described them in 1994 as "always slow, always ugly, always protodeath, always protoindustrial", which is close to a fair account of their appeal. Decibel later inducted the album into its Hall of Fame.

This Music On Vinyl edition (MOVLP2131), licensed from Atlantic, is a 180 gram pressing in a gatefold sleeve with a black poly-lined inner sleeve.