Savannah is apparently becoming a new blip on the metal music radar as of late. Hometowners Baroness released The Blue Record last year to across-the-board, critical praise, and rightfully so. For a genre so muddled in one-trick-poniness, The Blue Record ‘s unrestrained creative scope and fucking brutal delivery could easily serve as a songwriting-by-numbers for all wide-eyed up-and-coming metal acts.
Listening to Black Tusk’s Relapse Records debut Taste the Sin all week it’s apparent someone was taking notes. Alongside Baroness and similar Savannah outfit Kylesa, Black Tusk have wedged themselves quite nicely in this shared southern spotlight. But, while a band like Baroness vigorously hacks through the metal thicket into new sonic territory, it seems Black Tusk are simply content following the path.
Regardless, they have no qualms about making an impression with the introductory track “Embrace the Madness”. Personified, I imagine this track as a dude barging into the room, foam-soaked beer can in hand, uttering a quick “sup”, and proceeding into a mad fury of balled fists and flailing face hair, and I mean this in the best way possible. The energy is relentless and almost invigorating.
Sadly, as the tracks pile on, the party begins to wear thin. Every song, more or less, sticks to the same familiar schematic as the first; blistering tempos, speedy power chords, stoner-y break downs, rinse, wash, repeat. Fun? Definitely. But as far as achieving greatness, carrying the genre new places, Taste the Sin does not.
…Which is fine. You can’t dismiss every basketball player as shitty or not good enough just because they aren’t Lebron or Kobe. At this juncture, Black Tusk brings a relentless sense of energy and an adroit knowledge of familiar metal tendencies to the table. If they could just inject something uniquely their own, something head-scratchingly awesome into the mix, they’ll rise from the swampy depths of “pretty good” to “effin great”.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.