EP REVIEW: The Tide, Beneath, The Wall – Tuskar

There are those rare times when you stumble across a band who, despite not hailing from your chosen genre, are suffused with such presence, such talent, and such sheer volume that’s impossible not to be impressed by them. Surrey by way of Milton Keynes duo TUSKAR are one such band. They’ve been steadily ripping apart stages across the country with their thunderous live show, building a considerable reputation in the underground metal scene as titans to be.

They’re also dreadful teases. Sure, they might only have existed since 2017, but the two short and sharp EPs they’ve thrown down just don’t seem enough; once you’ve heard their roiling blend of sludge, stoner and doom, you’ll be clamouring for an album’s worth at least.

Latest addition to their sonic arsenal, sophomore EP The Tide, Beneath, The Wall might weigh in at under twenty minutes, but it’s heaving with muscular riffing. Opener The Tide groans with feedback and shimmering cymbals, opening out into a grinding wall of sound and doomy held chords. Tentative cymbals creep and build tempo, shoved bodily aside by rumbling toms that stutter under grinding guitars. Shouted vocals echo in from the void, fighting the aural onslaught of clattering snare rolls. Sprinting foam mouthed into dense chugging, the track abruptly slows and expands, allowing a moment to catch breath before yet another thick set groove powers in.

Beneath is an immediate blow to the chops; pounding, tribal drums emerge from listing, painful feedback that materialises into hefty palm muting. Mutating into an unstoppable bouncing bomb of a riff, peppered with held chords, barked vocals and descending drum fills. Just when you things couldn’t get any more feral, the track explodes into a scrappy, scraping, maddening riff, cascading drums heavier than cement shoes. Morphing again into a racing, needling riff and building swell of drumroll, pummelling with a final huge groove before abruptly ending, likes its collapsed under the sheer weight of riff.

Closer The Wall (we see what they’ve done here) is a different beast entirely; more restrained, but no less brooding. Melancholic, shifting guitars grow into the negative space surrounding them, thick and jagged like a bundle of rusting razor wire. A syrupy, doomy crawl emerges, unhurried in it’s predatory stalk. Vocals call from the distance as the inexorable, subterranean groove prowls on, huge cymbals swallowing the guitars only to get swallowed by feedback in turn. As the drums pick up pace, Tom Dimmock’s guitars descend into a creeping noise-scape that locks into some serious 5IVE vibes (the good post metal band, not the boy band).

While it would be impossible to capture the towering sound and blistering live energy TUSKAR give off, Sam Thredder has done a truly respectable job of distilling the duo’s density and alchemy into a mix (which is no surprise, coming from SLABDRAGGER’s six stringer). A breathless and accomplished statement of intent that will leave you wanting much more, but also feeling intensely glad you’re not Tyler Hodge’s drum kit. Battered.

Rating: 8/10

The Tide, Beneath, The Wall is out now via Riff Rock Records. 

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