Tusk is the equivalent of an audio mugging. They kind of fit in with Mastodon a bit, but are way noisier and way more hardcore inflected. Tusk is beyond heavy, they are enormous. I imagine the last Cavity record was supposed to sound like this in parts. Raw, savage, total rock'n'roll. The riffs are absolute rib-spreaders, laying waste to perfectly maintained physiologies. The bass mainly doubles the guitar, but is beyond thick, and occasionally mangles your senses with a fretboard raping worthy of thrown goats, although the rest of the band is so loud and noisey that you hardly realize the undulating rhythms. The drums, as in Pelican, are devastatingly conservative, although Tusk gets the double-bass treatment nearly non-stop. The vocal assault is mainly driven by meaty-screaming that should embarass most grind frontmen. Evil. The occasional whispers, talking, and insane warblings only add fuel to the fire. Tusk drops the rock right on your mis-shapen skull.

Where Pelican delivers fury with drama, Tusk goes for your jugular and drinks from it after wrenching it from your puny throat, without the fanfare of identifying, stalking, and eventually slaying a victim.

If you've been looking long and hard for a sitar being used to brutalize your senses, listen to "Green Love". The droning indian instrument seems perfectly at place amidst the gang-beating your ears are taking. It's quirky counter-melody fits well and fits not at all within the same breathe. You can expect big doom riffs, grindy progressions, and discordant hardcore stabs as well.