Black Tusk, Zoroaster, Dark Castle, Maleveller, Four Days To Burn

Rugged and shouty, the Savannah, Georgia, trio Black Tusk is bent on playing metal that plows blindly ahead instead of plodding atmospherically along. Years of demos and other self-released material led the way to 2008’s Passage Through Purgatory. A second album, Taste the Sin, out earlier this year, was recorded in a South Carolina studio that’s been home to kindred spirits Baroness and Kylesa. Black Tusk bills itself as swamp metal, but there’s more an edge of bygone hardcore than anything else in its muscular, unyielding songs.

Atlanta’s Zoroaster, Florida’s Dark Castle and Dallas’ own Maleveller and Four Days to Burn open this deep bill.