Black Tusk - Taste the Sin

Release Date: May 25th, 2010
Label: Relapse Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Embrace the Madness
2.  Snake Charmer
3.  Red Eyes, Black Skies
4.  Way of Horse and Bow
5.  Unleash the Wrath
6.  Twist the Knife
7.  Redline
8.  The Takeoff
9.  The Ride
10.  The Crash

Total playing time:  56:00

April 26, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

“Swamp metal” is the term Georgia’s Black Tusk affectionately calls its music, while we label it the more accessible “sludge metal”. Taste the Sin is the band’s sophomore effort.

Following the solid Passage Through Purgatory release back in 2008, Black Tusk has created another plowing effort that often resembles Black Sabbath on amphetamines (wait, weren’t they on those anyway?), but with entertaining results. With vocals that often resemble Tom G. Warrior (that’s going on a lot lately) and Tom Araya meshing with a less volatile Billy Milano Taste the Sin is one of the more interesting albums of its type. While sludge is the term of endearment for the band I hear some elements of hardcore fused with a thrashy-doom feel sporadically intermixed throughout. Again, a talented trio from the U.S. makes an interesting and capable album - who’d have thought it? 

“Way of Horse and Bow” is a fast-paced, bluesy metal track that rummages through your house and eats your food while wrecking your tastefully-decorated living room. It’s somewhat ugly, repulsive sounding (hence the sludge/swamp tag) but nonetheless good music to get the old blood pumping through the system. The next track, “Unleash the Wrath” is aptly titled, providing a serious head-banging song you can use to clean up the aforementioned mess the previous track made of your home. All the right elements make up this CD and it has lasting ability and can reassure more than one or two listens. When “Twist the Knife” flies out of your speakers and into your head you’ll honestly think you’ve been hit by the truck that brought them to your house to begin with; it’s a track that feels both its punk and metal roots, speeding like locusts on PCP into your face at top speed. I also see a resemblance to Tom Araya in the vocal delivery on this one. I’m really impressed with the album and this band. Whatever your mood you can definitely dig Taste the Sin.

Other tracks of notice are “Redline,” “Embrace the Madness” and “The Crash,” which is a perfect ending to this album, one that took me by surprise and impressed me with both its simplicity and its diversity. I think you might enjoy it as well if you’re a fan of the genre or just like cleaning your house every time some band from Georgia decides to come over and wreck stuff.    

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