Black Tusk is an American heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 power trio

Power trio

A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...

 from Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

. The band was formed in 2005, when its members were all living on the same street. With the dissolution of Andrew Fidler (guitar, vocals) and Jonathan Athon (bass, vocals) crust punk

Crust punk

Crust punk is a form of music influenced by anarcho-punk, hardcore punk and extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the mid-1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills...

 band and James May (drums, vocals) street punk

Street punk

Street punk is a working class-based genre of punk rock which took shape in the early 1980s, partly as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the Oi! style, performed by bands such as Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney...

 band, Andrew and Athon went down the street to James' house and asked him if he wanted to play with them. During the next few days they jammed

Jam session

Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...

 continuously, and within a few months they had recorded the EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 When Kingdoms Fall, which was released on Wrecked Signal. Two years later the band self-released their first full-length studio album, The Fallen Kingdom, followed by another a year later with Passage Through Purgatory, released through the local label Hyperrealist Records. In 2009, Black Tusk released a series of split album

Split album

A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...

s with bands such as ASG

ASG (band)

ASG is an American rock band signed to Volcom Entertainment, originating from Wilmington, North Carolina. It is a four-piece band, with Jason Shi on vocals and guitar, Andy Ellis on bass, Scott Key on drums and Jonah Citty on guitar...

, The Holy Mountain, and Fight Amp, before sign to Relapse Records

Relapse Records

Relapse Records is an independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990.-History:The label was started by Matthew F. Jacobson in August, 1990 in his parents' basement in Aurora, Colorado...

 in November. The band released its debut for Relapse, Taste the Sin, in May 2010.

Black Tusk is mostly associated with Baroness

Baroness (band)

Baroness is a band from Savannah, Georgia whose members grew up together in Lexington, Virginia.-Formative years:Baroness formed in mid-2003, founded by former members of the punk/metal band Johnny Welfare and the Paychecks...

 and Kylesa

Kylesa

Kylesa is a metal band that was formed in Savannah, Georgia. Their music incorporates experimentalism with sludgy riffs, drop-tuned guitars and elements of psychedelic rock. The group was established in 2001 by the former members of Damad, with the addition of guitar player Laura Pleasants who is...

, for their shared hometown of Savannah, as well as for their sludge metal

Sludge metal

Sludge metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that melds elements of doom metal and hardcore punk, and sometimes incorporates influences from southern rock, stoner rock and grunge. Sludge metal is typically abrasive; often featuring shouted vocals, heavily distorted instruments and sharply contrasting...

 sound. The band is linked to Baroness' guitarist and vocalist John Dyer Baizley

John Dyer Baizley

John Baizley is a painter and musician based in Savannah, Georgia. He is notable for his album cover art and t-shirts for artists including Kylesa, Pig Destroyer, Darkest Hour, Daughters, Skeletonwitch, Torche, Cursed, Black Tusk, Kvelertak, Vitamin X, Flight of the Conchords, The Red Chord,...

, who is also a painter and creates all of Black Tusk's artwork. Black Tusk's members describe their music as "swamp metal," a term that has been described by Allmusic as "the murkiest, dirtiest sludge [metal] to come out of Savannah since Kylesa". The term is a reference to the climate of Savannah in relation to the music that the band create. Reviewing the album Taste the Sin, Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 stated that the band's blend of hardcore punk

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

 and stoner metal "works to capitalize on the immediacy of its chosen genres and not to bend them into obscurity." Black Tusk acknowledges its punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 origins, but prefer not to cite a list of bands that influence them because they feel that it is ineffective since they are not "trying to emulate any one bands style or any one genres sound."

Personnel

• Andrew Fidler – guitar, vocals
• Jonathan Athon – bass, vocals
• Jamie May – drums, vocals
• John Dyer Baizley
  John Dyer Baizley
  John Baizley is a painter and musician based in Savannah, Georgia. He is notable for his album cover art and t-shirts for artists including Kylesa, Pig Destroyer, Darkest Hour, Daughters, Skeletonwitch, Torche, Cursed, Black Tusk, Kvelertak, Vitamin X, Flight of the Conchords, The Red Chord,...
  
   – artwork

Discography

Albums

• The Fallen Kingdom (2007)
• Passage Through Purgatory (2008)
• Taste the Sin
  Taste the Sin
  Taste the Sin is the third full-length album of the sludge metal band Black Tusk. It was released on May 25, 2010 through Relapse Records. It blends elements of sludge metal, stoner metal and hardcore punk combined with vocals by all band members to create a sound similar to Kylesa and Baroness...
  
  (2010)
• Set the Dial (2011)

EPs

• When Kingdoms Fall (2005)

Splits

• Low Country, with ASG (band)
  ASG (band)
  ASG is an American rock band signed to Volcom Entertainment, originating from Wilmington, North Carolina. It is a four-piece band, with Jason Shi on vocals and guitar, Andy Ellis on bass, Scott Key on drums and Jonah Citty on guitar...