Black Tusk
Taste The Sin
Relapse Records
Released May 25, 2010
Need the perfect complement for your backyard yard summer rager with your stankin’ metal friends? Savannah, GA’s Black Tusk have the soundtrack – Taste The Sin. Released on Relapse Records May 25, Taste The Sin is an essence a rock album for metal fans. While comparisons are being thrown left and right to fellow hometown bands Baroness and Kylesa, Black Tusk have their roots firmly planted in the rock world as opposed to the stronger metal and punk influences of their hometown peers.
The guitar sound definitely has taken a page from the Baroness book, but the underlying drum beats and hooks are rooted in old-school rock. You won’t find any complex d-beats or 225bpm blasts on Taste The Sin. The album is nothing if not thematic. Black Tusk have found a sound and they stick to it. Taste the Sin combines elements of old-school, straight-forward rock drumming with sludgy, drop-tuned guitars. The guitar work is mid-paced with elements of doom and southern rock riffin’ that even hits some Motorhead paced stylings as in standout track “The Ride”. Taste the Sin features dueling vocals that cross over from higher-end hardcore tones reminiscent of early Comeback Kid mixed with drummer James’s deep, guttural attack. The dueling vocal element definitely adds a thickness to the record that sounds larger than a three-piece outfit, while Black Tusk avoid any type of cheese that dooms most duel-vocal attacks from the onset.
Taste the Sin is the kind of record you can throw on during a summer shindig to keep the peeps pumpin’. The guitar riffs and vocals are accessible to most any fan of rock music. Not to say that the record is poppy or watered down. Taste The Sin does have enough raw edge to make your metal and punk friends happy campers at your back-yard soiree. What the album lacks by way of boundary pushing and newness, it makes up for with a cohesive sound and deliberate thickness. You won’t find the metal nerds cramped next to the speaker trying to figure out the riffs and beats; but fuck it, it’s time to get out of mom and dad’s house and go party with the crew.
Official Black Tusk Myspace
Buy Taste The Sin at Relapse Records
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