Lyell E. Petersen @93octane

You know that skull being pierced by two swords? Yeah, that’s Black Tusk, the Savannah, GA, trio that comes at you with three vocalists, an army of tattoos, and a scream-heavy fusillade of bottom-heavy riffage that set the entire crowd at Encore in motion. They call it “swamp metal,” but that’s almost misleading — the way guitarist Andrew Fidler and bassist Jonathan Athon fold their notes into the precise pounding of drummer James May is anything but murky. An underground Mastodon? — KB

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