Tusk

Tusk is a name used by several different acts across heavy music, experimental music, and related electronic styles.

Sludge, grindcore, and experimental metal

One Tusk is an avant-garde heavy band from Chicago suburbs, associated with sludge, grindcore, experimental music, noisecore, and post-metal. Its sound combines fast, precise blasting, harsh vocals, and highly technical guitar work with less typical elements such as sitar, slide guitar, mandolin, and layered keyboard passages. The group is linked to a wide range of reference points, from extreme noise and hardcore to progressive and experimental rock. Its vocalist describes the lyrics as moving toward chaos and collapse. Members of this version of Tusk are also involved in Pelican, and have previously played in Hinckley, Disembodied, and Long Live Nothing.

Synthwave project

Another TUSK is the synthwave and future pop alter ego of singer and producer Benjamin Teicher, who has also worked under the name Aurora Kiss. Teicher collaborates with Mary Ocher and V, and also remixes material for Tigerbeat6. In this project, TUSK is presented as a transdimensional character, and live performances pair Teicher with Swedish dancer and choreographer Ellinor Ljunkvist, who functions as a stage counterpart. The music is described through bright but bleak synth textures, heavy bass, and an interest in 1990s electronic styles. The project is based in Berlin, and an album is set to appear on Ramin Ton.

Japanese hardcore punk and related solo work

One Tusk is a Japanese hardcore punk band active in the early 1990s, with releases on Overthrow Records. Another is a solo artist known mainly as the frontman of Japanese rock band Zi:Kill; under the name TUSK, he issues a single titled “3songs” in 1996.

Other uses of the name

The name Tusk is also used by a power metal band from Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a sound similar to Running Wild. A further Tusk is a sludge and doom metal band from Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. There is also a harsh noise project by Trip Hill, founder of Alien Punk Records, based in Mansfield, Ohio; this project focuses on power electronics and harsh noise.