The Motörhead/Melvins-loving, Savannah, Georgia-based stoner/sludge/punk metal unit's much anticipated sophomore studio outing, Pillars of Ash is a straight-up haymaker of an album; an oil-stained middle finger rising out of the brackish water of a swamp forest.
The last Black Tusk offering to feature bass player Jonathan Athon, who passed away in November 2014 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, the 11-track set is both workmanlike and punitive, and its charms are rank and crust-lined.
Stand-out cuts like "God's on Vacation," "Black Tide," "Still Not Well," and "Desolation in Endless Times" are blast furnace-forged and spilling over with pit sweat, and what they lack in melody and nuance they more than make up for in pure, groove-laden hardcore goodness.
Like their fellow Peach State decibel-pushers Baroness, who also had to overcome a bout with misfortune, Black Tusk have found that the best way to distill despair is via absolute volume, and Pillars of Ash is defiantly cacophonous.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God's on Vacation | Black Tusk | Play | 02:48 | 6 MB | 19 MB |
| 2 | Desolation in Endless Times | Black Tusk | Play | 02:24 | 5 MB | 17 MB |
| 3 | Bleed on Your Knees | Black Tusk | Play | 04:04 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 4 | Born of Strife | Black Tusk | Play | 03:06 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 5 | Damned in the Ground | Black Tusk | Play | 02:59 | 6 MB | 20 MB |
| 6 | Beyond the Divide | Black Tusk | Play | 02:35 | 6 MB | 17 MB |
| 7 | Black Tide | Black Tusk | Play | 03:53 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 8 | Still Not Well | Black Tusk | Play | 03:28 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 9 | Walk Among the Sky | Black Tusk | Play | 04:10 | 9 MB | 30 MB |
| 10 | Punkout | Black Tusk | Play | 02:15 | 5 MB | 15 MB |
| 11 | Leveling | Black Tusk | Play | 02:52 | 6 MB | 16 MB |
| 34 mins | 81 MB | |||||
| 34 mins | 238 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Athon | Bass, Group Member, Vocals |
| 2 | Black Tusk | Primary Artist |
| 3 | Brad Boatright | Mastering |
| 4 | Chris Coyle | Percussion |
| 5 | Andrew Fidler | Group Member, Guitar, Piano, Vocals |
| 6 | Joel Grind | Engineer, Guitar, Mixing, Producer |
| 7 | Jeremy Hush | Artwork |
| 8 | Geoff Johnson | Photography |
| 9 | Kim Kelly | Liner Notes |
| 10 | James May | Drums, Group Member, Percussion, Vocals |
| 11 | Jacob Speis | Illustrations |
Black Tusk
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |