(Andy Synn reviews a new two-song offering by Tussk from Staffordshire, England.)

So last Friday I played my first show of 2015 with Beyond Grace, alongside fellow Nottingham natives The Five Hundred (think a more melodically-inclined Lamb of God) and The Winter Hill Syndicate (melodic/metallic/misanthropic hardcore), and bewhiskered Staffordshire riff-mongers Tussk… and it’s the latter band I’ve come here to talk about today.

Now Tussk don’t claim to be reinventing the wheel in the slightest, and their whiskey-soaked strut and shimmy certainly bears more than a few similarities to the cock-sure chaos of Every Time I Die… but after knocking back a couple of heavy doses of their high-proof, high-voltage riffery, each one accompanied by a chaser of smooth, bluesy swagger, I doubt it will matter to you whether you’ve been down this road before or not… what’s important is who’s doing the driving! Continue reading »