BLACK TUSKEN RAIDERS

Black Tusk’s Taste The Sin now streaming online

BLACK TUSK: Taste The Sin Streaming Online
Savannah, GA’s BLACK TUSK is currently streaming their Relapse debut Taste The Sin in its entirety via Stereogum.com. Taste The Sin will see its North American release date next Tuesday, May 25th (May 31st internationally) and will be available digitally as well as on CD and gatefold LP. Additional release information can be found here.
BLACK TUSK are about to embark on a run of dates with PENTAGRAM in support of Taste The Sin starting this weekend. Immediately following, BLACK TUSK will support EYEHATEGOD for a string of dates before heading out on a co-headlining US tour with Atlanta’s ZOROASTER in June. A complete listing of confirmed BLACK TUSK tour dates can be found below with more to be announced soon.
BLACK TUSK recently filmed the first video from Taste The Sin, for the track “Red Eyes, Black Skies”, with director Kevin Custer (FLOGGING MOLLY, HATEBREED, TOMBS) in Austin, TX. The video is expected to see its premiere imminently.
BLACK TUSK Tour Dates:
***All dates from May 21 thru 29 w/ PENTAGRAM***
May 21       Raleigh, NC                   Volume 11 Tavern
May 22       Savannah, GA               The Jinx
May 23       Orlando, FL                   The Backbooth
May 25       Houston, TX                   Walters On Washington
May 26       Austin, TX                     Emo’s (w/ RWAKE)
May 27       New Orleans, LA            The Hanger
May 28       Nashville, TN                 The End
May 29       Newport, KY                  Southgate House
May 30       Johnson City, TN           Hideaway

***All dates from June 5 thru 9 w/ EYEHATEGOD***
June 5        Raleigh, NC                   Volume 11 Tavern
June 6        Louisville, KY                 Headliners
June 9        Richmond, VA               Alley Katz
***All dates from June 15 thru July 10 w/ ZOROASTER, DARK CASTLE***
June 15       Birmingham, AL           The Nick
June 16       Memphis, TN                 Hi Tone Café
June 17       Oklahoma City, OK        The Conservatory
June 18       Dallas, TX                      The Lounge On Elm
June 19       Austin, TX                     Emo’s
June 21       Albuquerque, NM           Burt’s Tiki Lounge
June 22       Scottsdale, AZ               Rogue
June 23       Ramona, CA                  Ramona Mainstage
June 24       Hollywood, CA               Viper Room
June 25       Oakland, CA                  Oakland Metro
June 26       San Francisco, CA         Thee Parkside
June 28       Portland, OR                 Satyricon
June 29       Seattle, WA                  Funhouse
July 1         Salt Lake City, UT          Club Vegas
July 2         Denver, CO                    Larimer Lounge
July 3         Kansas City, MO           Riot Room
July 4         St. Paul, MN                 Turf Club
July 6         Chicago,  IL                   Empty Bottle
July 7         Newport, KY                  Southgate House
July 8         Pittsburg, PA                 31st Street Pub
July 9         New York, NY                Webster Hall
July 10        Philadelphia, PA            Khyber
July 11        Harrisonburg, VA           Blue Nile

“Meet Mastodon’s backwater brethren. This power trio — the rising star of Savannah’s metal underground — mix heavy metal and hardcore sounds into a frightening blast of hellfire” – Spin.com

“Black Tusk is poised to conquer the world” – Flagpole

“Mind-blowingly fun” – BrooklynVegan

REPOSTED FROM AVMANIACS.NET

WHAT THE ZELL?

MINSK
THE RITUAL FIRES OF ABANDONMENT
I bought this album simply due to the sticker on it. It said for fans of Neurosis, Isis, and etc. They belong to Relapse which releases some pretty good stuff if you know what you are looking for. In this case it was HEAVY AS FUCK DOOM! I hate how people just stereotype this band as an Isis or Neurosis clone cause they are not. What seperates them from those bands are the tribal beats. I really do believe if it wasn't for the drumming this album wouldn't stand out so much. The beats have a psychedelic feel to them. Not trippy and full of reverb and delay sort of thing but sounding like they came from a 60s album. The riffs are plenty in dynamics and are extremely diverse in what they do. Some moments you have a very clean guitar and then you get a very very heavy guitar tone. The vocals on this album is very clean at times and then others a droning metal yell like Hetfield. The songs are usually 10 minutes and they go all over the place. There isn't a single bad track on this album. If you listen to this album, you will see why the bassist/producer, Sanford Parker, was chosen to be the producer for Nachtmystium's Assassins : Black Meddle Pt 1. He can help achieve very spacey/psychedelic tones like Hawkwind yet make it as heavy as a Randall Dunn album(Boris, Wolves In The Throne Room, Sunn O))) ). (ZELL SABREHAVEN)
RELAPSE RECORDS
www.relapserecords.com, relapse@relapserecords.com, http://shop.relapse.com/artist/artist.aspx?ArtistID=10180, www.myspace.com/minsk

BURIED AT SEA
GHOST
So I drove two hours to Chicago to go see Nachtmystium's Assassins CD release party. So I went there by myself because of stupid friends. I get there and drink a beer and watch the first band. Well after they played I went to the merchandise booth and started talking to the guy working the booth. I recognized him immediately and starting talking to him. He was Sanford Parker. So we started talking about heavy music and shit. Well I complimented him on how good the Minsk album was. So he asked me my opinion on the first which I said I didn't own. He quickly pointed how that he had it in stock with him so I bought it. Next he asked me if I have listened to BURIED AT SEA which I said no. He told me it's heavy drone like Sunn O))) but had the Hawkwind feel of Minsk. Plus it's the band he plays guitar in and sings. So I bought it. Fast forward to later that night. I get home at 2 am and decide to listen to this album. I found it weird that it was 2 seconds short of 30 minutes and it was ONE TRACK. So this is how I can describe it. It drones, it's spacey, and heavy. You won't hear the vocals until 14 minutes into it. It's like a very large classical piece where it builds up to a point and sortof explodes. In this case the explosion is the metal bit otherwise this is an ambient piece. I highly recommend this for people who like stuff that is a bit out there for most people yet want something heavy. Otherwise go back to your radio rock. (ZELL SABREHAVEN)
NEUROT RECORDINGS
www.neurotrecordings.com, customerservice@neurotrecordings.com, www.myspace.com/buriedatsea


AMENRA
MASS IIII
This is a hard album to describe. I think their myspace page describes their sound on simple terms. Down-tempo/Trance/Hardcore yet it's a little complicated from that. You can hear those sounds but it's a little bit more than that. One thing I do like is the religious ties on the album. The songs have a tendency to go into religious bits but instead of sounding happy, it sounds like they mourn religion. "I bare.my arms.now drive your nails through my palms.when we meet.drive those.nails right through my feet.I have given you something real.you thought that you'd never feel." The guitars are deep and sound like most doom metal bands but they have a tendency to play something lighter yet still overdriven. It's somewhat shoegazey at times. I love the sound and the emotion they convey but at the same time I keep getting images of this would be the soundtrack to self mutilation or death. Not a "rest in piece" kind of death but the act of falling from grace. (ZELL SABREHAVEN)
www.hypertensionrecords.com, info@hypertensionrecords.com, www.churchofra.com, www.ritualofra.com, www.myspace.com/amenra

ZOROASTER
VOICE OF SATURN
Ok so I bought this album from the drummer right when they were in Chicago. They played this album live for the show. They were awesome live. So on this album they once again changed their sound. Most doom or sludge bands don't progress much at all, they usually tend to release the same stuff over and over again like most Darkthrone worshiping black metal bands. With Zoroaster, this time they use more Moog synthesizers and such. Vintage analog sounds which are so much better than synths used in this digital age. The first song begins of noodling of a synthesizer. When the second song begins it's some nice midpaced doom with some interesting bits. Near the middle of the song it gets quiet and then a piano and acoustic guitar begins to play. After a few seconds of that they go into a shoegaze moment. A FUCKING SHOEGAZE MOMENT! I love shoegaze so this bit is a great way to end the show. Most of the songs follow the doom metal route that the second song had but they mix it up a bit with the synthesizers and stuff. Another thing that should be mentioned is this album is slightly faster than Dog Magic.(ZELL SABREHAVEN)
TERMINAL DOOM RECORDS
www.terminaldoomrecords.com, terminaldoomrecords@gmail.com, www.myspace.com/thezoroaster

ZELL'S ON FIRE!

LEVIATHAN - MASSIVE CONSPIRACY AGAINST ALL LIFE
Finally, this album is released! I have been waiting for a new full-length from Leviathan to come out for the past four years! I remember when I bought "The Tentacles of Whorror" in a local mom and pop store. I drove around listening to it at 10:00 at night. It was outside that day from rain so the creepy atmosphere present in the music was the soundtrack to my driving, whether in was out in farmlands or in the suburbs. So what is different this time 'round, you might be asking? Well at times I want to say that compared to "The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide", Wrest may have gone back to his roots black metal wise. The album begins with an ambient section and then starts blasting but there are weird noises throughout to add to the atmosphere already present from instrumentation. The things that always catch my ear is is he will play the regular riffs and then he will harmonize it with either a keyboard, an ebow, or another guitar riff. It's because of the sporadic use of these harmonies and counter-melodies that I have become addicted to this album. It is very chaotic, but also very melodic. It reminds me of a Joy Division album done up in a black metal fashion, still depressing and suicidal but very hateful and very pissed off. Also, because of the change in melodies along with the noises, it continuously reminds me of an acid trip. I highly recommend this album. I have owned it for three days and have listened to it 11 times already. (ZH)
MORIBUND CULT
www.moribundcult.com, orders@moribundcult.com

DEADBOY AND THE ELEPHANTMEN - WE ARE THE NIGTHSKY
So me being a Dax Riggs fan and all, I picked this up on another day of me stumbling around sedated because of my hate for the public. Anyone who knows Dax Riggs knows he is very versatile. He can go from hardcore-ish screaming death to depressed bluesy howls. Well "We Are the Nightsky" tends to follow the blues part mixed in with the raw feel of punk. It has a very southern bar feel to it. The guitars don't have much distortion to them but it does give the music more of a rock feel. The best comparison I have for this band is The White Stripes. Both bands consist of two people: a male guitarist and a female drummer. It's not bad music in the least. Either the songs have a clean guitar playing with harmonized vocals or it has a hard rocking feel, the rockin' kind of sound you drink to at some bar in the middle of nowhere. I hope that maybe they will gain some some fame after this release because I think they deserve it. (ZH)
FAT POSSUM RECORDS
www.fatpossum.com, justin@fatpossum.com

PIG DESTROYER - PHANTOM LIMB
This is quite a hard album for me to review, to a certain extent. At the time I bought the CD I was heavily medicated on many different medications that seemed to be contradicting each other. So I was a different person and extremely hateful towards anyone who was near me. This album was the soundtrack for me everyday. This is as violent as it gets, I think. You can listen to this album and backstab someone with no regrets, which I did on several occasions. This album reeks of hate, if you hear it you will know what I mean. Pig Destroyer has upped the ante by adding a keyboardist/sample player to the group. Pig Destroyer apparently loved working with Merzbow so they wanted the noise element to be permanent. So here n' there you get static playing with the music. It actually all works very well. Some of my favorite tracks on the album are "Heathen Temple", with its rocking guitar riffs and lyrics like "This heathen temple will stand tall till the day I die!" or "The Machete Twins" which ends the album with the lyrics "They got cornered last year in a Nashville hotel. THEY HAD TO CHOP A WHOLE SWAT TEAM TO PIECES!"What you get in the end is what happens when you give a schizophrenic LSD and a butcher knife. This album is that soundtrack. Enojy it while you're still sane! (ZH)
RELAPSE RECORDS
www.relapse.com, relapse@relapse.com, www.myspace.com/therealpigdestroyer

PIG DESTROYER - TERRIFYER
A friend had recommended this album to me years ago because of my pessimism towards people. Well I refused to listen to it for a while because of its association with grindcore. Well as I got older my taste has opened in many directions. I picked up this CD and this band is high up there on my list of great bands. When you open this album, it comes with a very well-written story of a girl's nightmare about an old boyfriend and soon the nightmare turns into reality. The lyrics within the album revolve around such themes. Women will fuck you over faster than meth addicts seems to be the message written in here. The music is very violent and fast. This helps the delivery of the vocals in the best way possible. Whereas it isn't focusing on the violent action but the mood that is in place when doing violent actions. The album is pretty short at being 32 minutes long while having 21 songs on it. On the other hand, the album comes with a DVD titled "Natasha" which seems to bring it all to an end that is very doomy in sound. (ZH)
RELAPSE RECORDS
www.relapse.com, relapse@relapse.com, www.myspace.com/therealpigdestroyer