The Low Anthem
Smart Flesh
Bella Union

The Low Anthem have a real knack for choking me up before the first song on their albums is even halfway over. First it was “The Ballad of the Broken Bones” on 2007′s What the Crow Brings, then it was (arguably the most gorgeous of all of The Low Anthem’s songs) “Charlie Darwin” from 2008-09′s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and now it’s “Ghost Woman Blues” (originally written by George Carter) from their latest album, Smart Flesh. Simply put, the indie Rhode Island band instills a breathless yearning into their music that rivals any other kind of emotional response you will get from any other kind of music. And it’s not just the haunting piano ballads, either. The power of their softness carries itself throughout each of their albums, but never has it been more prominent than it is on Smart Flesh, where even the country-folk of “Apothecary Love” and brassy flare of “Boeing 737″ evoke the same visceral response as the soul-touching songs “Love and Altar” and “Matter of Time.” That probably has something to do with the band recording this album over a three month span in an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the affects of that particular environment no doubt enhancing their preferred lonesome-but-beautiful, weepy mustache, Sunday morning, old-timey aesthetic and love for influences like Tom Waits (“Smart Flesh”), Bob Dylan (“Hey, All You Hippies!”), and Leonard Cohen (“Burn”). Genuinely amazing and poignant stuff from The Low Anthem that will leave you reeling once again.

Check out TWO videos for “Ghost Woman Blues” and “Boeing 737″ from Smart Flesh!

Blacktusk
Taste the Sin
Relapse

Beastly Georgian trio, Blacktusk, bring hell’s hammers down heavy on their sophomore effort, Taste the Sin, like they’re taking out a whole bushel of rotten peaches in one abominable swing, splattering black juice and insidious worms all over the goddamn place. Baizley wrapped and disastrously brackish, Taste the Sin picks up where ‘08’s debut, Passage Through Purgatory, left off by heaping a whole mess of redneck rage onto the sludge metal artistry of bands like Baroness and Torche. The angry, pounding riffs burn like fire on the surface of an oily swamp and every one of the album’s 11 songs seethe and foam like acid on an open wound. Imagine the Cancer Bats with longer teeth or Zoroaster with shorter songs and you’ve got the Southern stoner death thrash of Blacktusk.

Note: I’ve seen the band’s name written several different ways, including Black Tusk and BlackTusk, but I have opted for Blacktusk. If any of the fellas in the band would like to offer up the official spelling of the band’s name, please drop me a line. Until then, I will stick with the one word, lower case ‘t’ version. For better or worse.

Listen to “Snake Charmer” from Taste the Sin!