Over the past decade heavy metal has enjoyed one of the largest resurgence in popularity and critical acclaim in the genre's history. Since it's inception with bands like Black Sabbath and Pentagram, metal has come and gone in waves. Following in Sabbath's wake, a slew of lesser bands watered down their original devil's blues, until the New Wave of British Heavy Metal at the end of the 70s and early 80s revitalized and helped reshape the genre. Bands like Motorhead, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest introduced speed and melody into metal. Once again, though, lesser bands took to the field, dumbed down the product and eventually cast the mid-80s into the dark ages of hair metal. The devil horns up beast was far from finished. Almost to spite CC Deville, it came back as ferocious as ever with the advent of thrash at the end of the 80s. The unholy trinity of Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth stormed the debauched castles of bands like Motley Crue and Poison, laying waste to everything. Marrying punk with metal, nothing had ever sounded as brutal, evil, or wonderful as thrash. Fast forward a few years and Metallica had sold out, Megadeth had sobered and softened up, and Slayer? Well, Slayer remained Slayer, but even they hit a rough patch with a few weak albums in the 90s, before their glorious rebirth in the aughts. Metal appeared once again banished to the underground. But metal has always feed in the shadows and throughout the 90s, while grunge became the new hair metal, the genre was mutating and changing in increasingly extreme permutations. Doom, Stoner, Grindcore and Black Metal, most of which began in the late 80s, flourished in the 90s underground, and laid the groundwork for what was to become, thus far, metal's longest and most successful overground campaign lasting throughout the aughts.
Arguably beginning with the highly lauded critical reception of Sunn 0))) in the early aughts, metal slowly but surely began working its way toward a respectable position in the independent music world. In Sunn 0)))'s wake bands like Boris and Earth found their place in record collections across the country rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sonic Youth and Arcade Fire. It certainly wasn't due to lack of heaviness that a band like Sunn 0))), who are - bar-none - the heaviest band to have ever produced music, were able to enjoy acceptance from Belle & Sebastian fans; if anything it was exactly the opposite. There was a pure and unadorned quality about the band's sound, as well as a deep intelligence that informed the band's art. Furthermore, the aughts found the world plunged into dark times economically, politically and environmentally. It was little surprise that even twee poppers needed something heavier now and then to get them through the day. As a result, metal once again seemed viable, and not just any metal, but extreme metal. The rise of Noise and United States Black Metal capped things off by bringing the ugliest, scariest and most brutal sounds yet into the light of popular independent culture.
Yet, while noise terrorists dressed in robes, corpsepaint or skinny jeans were shattering ear drums, another more traditional band of metal heads were making inroads as well. Bands like High on Fire, Mastodon, and more recently Baroness and Black Cobra combined so many of the genre's elements into a wholly original sound that can only be described simply, once again, as heavy metal. These bands' sound is not doom, not thrash, not black, not stoner, but something acknowledging all of those subgenres, while forging a middle path for the next wave of pure fucking metal.
In the wake of this wave now stands Black Tusk. Hailing from Savannah, Georgia the band has been fine tuning their sound since their inception in 2005, growing increasingly precise and stronger with each release. "Taste the Sin," is their second full length, and first for metal powerhouse Relapse Records, who has housed bands like High on Fire, Mastodon and Baroness. With "Taste the Sin," Black Tusk prove themselves more than worthy to stand in the shadow of those powerhouses.
With 10 songs clocking in at under thirty-five minutes, Black Tusk have crafted an album that calls to mind one of the most hallowed metal albums of all time: Slayer's "Reign In Blood." Before anyone loses their shit over what I just said, please hear me out. Like "Reign" "Taste the Sin," contains 10 tracks of punk-infused metal that barely goes over the half hour mark. It hits hard and it hits fast and packs more into the time it takes to watch a crappy sit-com than most double or triple albums. Furthermore, guitarist/vocalist Andrew Fidler's bark is reminiscent of Tom Araya's vocals at times, and the band's hairpin stops and starts bare more than a striking resemblance to Slayer's razor sharp precision. Still, this isn't a thrash album, and it is nowhere as dark and evil as "Reign." Instead the band infuse their punk-thrash with a little swamp boogie, similar to the southern fried feeling of Baroness at times, as well as the viking rock of High on Fire. It makes for a mean mix, and one that sets Black Tusk apart from their contemporaries, because unlike High on Fire and Baroness, these guys get their thrash lessons from Kerry King, not Lemmy, making them just a tad more furious at times than either High on Fire or Baroness.
Songs like "Embrace the Madness" and "Red Eye, Black Skies," combine the anarchy of punk with the brutality of hardcore and thrash creating a juggernaut of sonic violence. "Snake Charmer," on the other hand, introduces complex song structures, with twists and turns throughout. "Unleash the Wrath" finds the band at their most High on Fire moment with a mid-tempo burner that will have listeners beating their brains against their skulls. That is just the first half of the album. The second half rocks even more. The final four pieces "Redline," "The Take Off," "The Ride" and "The Crash" are all parts of a song suite titled "Double Clutchin (In Four Chapters)" and sound as furious and insane as the blacktop death ride those titles invoke. It's dizzying how good this is.
Black Tusk are yet another reminder of why metal continues to enjoy its longest reign of popular (at least in indie terms) and critical acceptance yet. Following in the wake of High on Fire, Mastodon and Baroness the band take those bands' pure metal sound and spice it up with an even heavier thrash influence, creating the most exciting balls to the wall heavy metal album of the year. These guys may not have the years and stature yet of those aforementioned bands, but just wait - they will.
"Embrace the Madness"
"Snake Charmer" live
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