If aggressive rock and roll drives you, the Melvins have proven themselves a steady machine to depend on. “Nude With Boots,” the now-L.A.-based band’s 19th album is no exception. It offers everything fans and newcomers could love, even if it comes off a little sloppy and unsharpened.

To those not in the know, the Melvins offer gut-kicking, crunchy guitar riffs like any of the other best rock bands out there, but they know how to dice them up into more experimental tunes that are as much influenced by Black Sabbath as they are Can. Many still recognize the band as some of the forefathers of the Seattle grunge scene, but a closer inspection of their music proves them more of a sludgey, classic rock-influenced, art-metal band (the first of that genre, I believe). Given the nature of their established sound, it’s pretty hard to argue their latest offering doesn’t push the envelope enough. To the converted it might only like more of the same in a slightly different tone, but to new listeners it could be in a world of it’s own—yet one completely accessible and easy to gain citizenship to.

If you must read the stream of consciousness of a music critic to gain interest in their sound before listening for yourself, I’ll inform you that guitarist and vocalist Buzz Osbourne tends to lay down effortlessly brutal and catchy guitar riffs while drummer Dale Crover weaves completely sporadic, never-the-same-beat-twice drumming that always manages to feel oddly in place in between. Nude With Boots uses the same rhythm section as their last tighter, somewhat safer, but more focused album “A Senile Animal:” Coady Willis and Jared Warren of the excellent Big Business. Jared packs his usual, completely fitting with the Melvins thick bass lines while Coady seamlessly fills the elder Dale’s off-kilter drum crashes (yes, the Melvins record and perform with two full drum kits now). All four of the members sing as well.

Nude With Boots isn’t so much about writing clear and concise rock and roll jams—it sounds more like a couple of experienced musicians successfully throwing the paint of their sound around in fun ways. In other words, it rocks, and even offers some of the catchiest hooks they’ve come up with in their career so far, but few of the individual songs will stay completely in tact in your memory.

Songs like the ear-sweetening opener “The Kicking Machine” and the half-way marker “The Suicide Machine” sound heavily soaked in a more Led Zeppelin influence than usual. “Dog Island” is a bit more akin to their familiar, sludge-melody groove, and other tracks like “Billy Fish” and “Smiling Cobra” may not stand out on their own, but still sound completely suitable and appropriate as background rock music. The title track “Nude With Boots” offers enough dual-drumming and bizarre, not-quite-properly-sung vocals to keep it away from a radio station, but offers a rare, more easy-going rock groove that your Allman Brothers-approving dad might nod his head to.

Their cover of the classical piece Dies Iraea (you probably heard it in the opening credits of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining) is perfectly enjoyable, but manages to feel completely random even amidst the album’s already slightly unfocused theme. The closers “The Savage Hippy” and “It Tastes Better Than The Truth” might be the biggest treats for long-time fans, but are bound to throw off first-time listeners from the entire Melvins catalogue if they aren’t brave enough to bare a second listening. Both tracks sound wholly experimental and unfitting with any of their other 18 albums, but aren’t quite as harsh or completely spastic and removed from the rock genre as, say, The Stooges Funhouse closer “L.A. Blues.” The two tracks are awesomely powerful, but definitely require multiple listens to decipher.

Thankfully this second pairing with Big Business refrains from merely being “A Senile Animal Part II,” but at the same time one could argue the punch isn’t quite as direct and wholly memorable as the previous effort. Overall, newcomers to the Melvins might be pleasantly surprised by Nude With Boots’ unconventional, yet totally accessible rock sound. It’s definitely a Melvins record in that it packs plenty of groin-churning, swinging rock grooves arranged in non-pop sequences, but in some ways it might be unsurprising to fans—and by no means is that a bad thing. We can still drink beer and bang our heads to it, which might be the only criteria necessary for judging solid rock and roll.

Make sure to catch the band play an in-store appearance at Amoeba Music in Hollywood on July 15th.