Black Tusk

Taste the Sin (Relapse)
By Mike Delano

There’s definitely something in the dark water down in Georgia, what with all of these sludge-happy metal bands bashing their way into the spotlight (along with a fixation on prehistoric signifiers like tusks and giant wooly beasts). Mastodon certainly popularized the grimy, distorted riff-o-rama that Savannah’s Black Tusk trades in, but with those guys currently on a detour to focus on the proggy side of their sound, the immediate touchstone for Taste the Sin is fellow Georgians Kylesa. Everything here, from the compact song structures to the stylishly gritty vocal roar, recalls that band’s excellent 2009 entry Static Tensions. It’s hardly a problem: That’s a sound well worth having, and while Black Tusk don’t quite have the imagination (or the interest) to pull off some of Kylesa’s less-straightforward compositions, they already show a penchant for experimentation (shades of Black Flag and Monster Magnet at times) that could lead to some interesting detours of their own.
(www.relapse.com)