Remarkably, this high-end racket is wrangled by a stripped-to-the-pointy-bone two-piece arrangement of drummer/vocalist Tyler Hodges and guitarist Tom Dimmock. Tuskar was clearly born from their shared love for heavyweight prog, noise-rock and post-metal but, more importantly, it’s powered by an interpersonal chemistry that sees those influences re-forged with polished originality and propelled with juggernaut intensity ravenous hunger.
Into The Sea churns with tempestuous blood and thunder before slowing to the creaking pace of a ship sinking beneath the waves. Shame is a devastating seven-minute confessional that slams in from left-field, undulating between passages of odd, slump-shouldered melody and blasts of caustic self-loathing. Then soul-shuddering closer Grave bids farewell with a descent into the abyss, from juddering panic to purgatorial breathlessness to a brilliant, infernal outro that burns with both finality and promise.
There’s not an ounce of the compromise that normally comes with cult heroes’ emergence into the mainstream metal consciousness about Matriarch, but expect Tuskar to get there anyway. Because these songs need to be heard.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: YOB, Mastodon, Baroness
Matriarch is released on February 25 via Church Road