The Melvins

They didn't put Aberdeen on the musical map with their 1987 debut -- it took Nirvana to do that. All the same, the Melvins' place in rock cultdom is assured for being the first post-punks to make it safe to like slow and plodding metal bands like Black Sabbath. Arguably, they were every bit as responsible for removing metal from Dungeons & Dragons as the hair farmer bands of the late '80s. I see you out there mouthing the words "influential," and prove me wrong if the Melvins didn't leave whole schools of heavy music in their wake. It's only fitting that in 2004, they return heavy music to its creepy medieval context with Pigs of the Roman Empire, a collaboration with Lustmord, the noise experimentalist behind Throbbing Gristle and SPK. The result sits somewhere between delicious Melvinian sludge, like "The Bloated Pope," and less atypical ambiance, like the 22-minute epic title track -- all of which should translate in a metal house of worship like the Big Fish Pub.