Big Business

After relocating to L.A. from Seattle to join the Melvins last year as permanent members, bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis disengage themselves temporarily to record and tour as their original two-man band, Big Business. The highly anticipated Here Come the Waterworks doesn’t try to shake the Melvins influence, though their strain of Neanderthal groove metal is likened to High on Fire’s relentlessness ("Just as the Day Was Dawning”) with Torche’s pop tendencies ("Start Your Digging”). Much like power duo Early Man, who eventually added a guitarist to expand their sound, Big Business welcome Melvins/Fantômas collaborator David Scott Stone to play guitar and Mini-moog on all cuts. "Just Another Fourth of July… Ruined” smacks of the Melvins’ "Night Goat” on a military march and "Another Beautiful Day in the Pacific Northwest” is a lengthy, prog-ish instrumental, which closes the album. With amps cranked to 11, Big Business show in loud detail that they’re not merely a splinter group of King Buzzo Inc. (Hydra Head)