‘Swamp metal’ is a term you have to be comfortable with if your band is to wear it with style.

It’s not the most glamorous of genre definitions to shape your musical career for years to come. However, the swamp is something that Georgia’s Black Tusk thrive on – and their stellar combination of ear-melting riffs and hard work has helped establish them as one of the most efficient and determined bands of the last ten years. With the release of their latest album Pillars Of Ash, drummer Jamie May says Black Tusk are proud of the tag they’ve earned, but they really have no-one to blame but themselves.

“Where we stay at is surrounded by swamp, and it’s very humid here all the time,” he says. “It pretty much came up one day when I was getting interviewed on how I would describe our sound, and I didn’t really know how to. I suppose it’s thick, like a wall of heat. So it just came out, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, swamp metal!’ It just kind of stayed with us from there. We’ve printed it on a couple of things since, sewed patches – man, that was almost a decade ago now.”

While being plagued by misfortune and the heartbreaking events that led to the death of bassist Jonathan Athon, who sustained irreparable brain damage from a motorcycle accident in 2014, May says the band became closer than ever. Taking the positives out of a negative, May and frontman Andrew Fidler managed to finish Pillars Of Ash with the final recordings by the friend who meant the world to them.

“Jonathan ended up dying about a month and a half after the album was recorded,” May explains. “It got mastered and mixed without him there, but he got to play through the whole thing. Of course it’s something you don’t ever think is going to happen, but you know, there’s not really anything we could do about the situation. At least he was there.”

In the immediate aftermath of Athon’s death, Black Tusk were in disarray. With tours scheduled to promote the new album, it wasn’t clear whether the band would even continue. May says the decision to plough ahead came down to the music itself.

“We’re the type of band that have always respected other bands that stick together through all the bullshit and keep the same members, because there’s always fights and everything, but to watch your friends grow as musicians is a really cool thing. But someone dying is completely unavoidable.

“We had thought about breaking up briefly, but if it was me that died, I’d want Black Tusk to keep going. And I know Jonathan would want the same. You know, what do we even do all this stuff for? I would rather it have continued with the same members, but it just didn’t get dealt that way. We had some massive tours coming up right around the corner, so we had to make a quick decision on what to do. And we had just finished the new album. What were we going to do, just release it and let that be it? No way.”

That next tour was a support slot for the legendary Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society, something May says was a turning point in Black Tusk’s career and helped usher in Corey Barhorst as an official touring member. Despite the chaos and stress of the hard times, they were determined to perform the shows as a ‘thank you’ to their fans for sticking by them through the darkest time in their ten-year presence.

Black Tusk are now bringing their positive energy to Australia for the first time, and May is excited to be performing for the fans who have waited so long in this part of the world.

“We’re expecting the unexpected,” he says. “All we know of Australia is stuff we see on TV, but we know we have a lot of fans there. We’re completely stoked.”

[Black Tusk photo by Geoff L. Johnson]

Black Tusk’sPillars Of Ashis out now through Relapse; and they appear at The Bald Faced Stag on Saturday August 6, with Witch Fight and Dispossessed.

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