Black Tusk

Black Tusk is a sludge metal band from Savannah, United States, active since 2005. The group’s line-up includes Cory Barhorst, Christopher Adams, Jonathon Vincent Athon, Andrew Fidler and James May.

Formation and early releases

The band forms in Savannah in 2005, when the members live on the same street. Andrew Fidler and Jonathan Athon are then playing together in a crust punk band, while James May is in a street punk band. They go to May’s house, ask him to play with them, and begin jamming over the next few days. Within a few months they record the EP When Kingdoms Fall, which appears on Wrecked Signal. Two years later they self-release their first full-length album, The Fallen Kingdom, and the following year they release Passage Through Purgatory on Hyperrealist Records.

Relapse Records period

In 2009, Black Tusk releases a set of split recordings with groups including ASG, The Holy Mountain and Fight Amp. Later that year the band signs to Relapse Records. Its first release for the label, Taste the Sin, appears in 2010, followed by Set the Dial in 2011. The band also releases the EP Tend No Wounds in 2013. That recording is made with producer Phillip Cope at the Jam Room in Columbia, South Carolina, and features artwork by Brian Mercer.

Style, associations and live activity

Black Tusk is associated with the Savannah metal scene and with Baroness and Kylesa, partly through a shared hometown and a heavy sound that blends sludge metal with hardcore and stoner metal. The band describes its music as “swamp metal”. Its links to Baroness also extend to guitarist and vocalist John Dyer Baizley, who creates Black Tusk’s artwork. The group tours extensively and plays with acts including Pentagram, Down, Weedeater, High on Fire, Mastodon, Red Fang, Eyehategod, Tombs, Municipal Waste, Royal Thunder, Intronaut and 3 Inches of Blood. It appears at Scion Festival, SXSW, Roadburn Festival and Metallica’s Orion Festival in 2012.

Loss of Jonathan Athon

Bassist and vocalist Jonathan Athon dies in 2014 from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. He is placed in a medically induced coma and later removed from life support after severe brain damage is found.