There are tough reviews to write and then there are really really tough ones. Ones where you listen to an album over an over trying to find a place to dive in and start collecting your thoughts and piecing together something cogent to read. This is one of those times and T.C.B.T., by Black Tusk is the album of the moment for me. They came out of Savannah, Georgia at a time when that scene was “the next big thing” you often hear about in music, along with Baroness, and Kylesa. Except these guys were the real deal and more out of the box radical sounding than their peers. From their early EP When Kingdoms Fall, a bunch of split’s and EPs, and four full-lengths later, these southern sons strutted their stuff, waved their flag of harsh and heavy and made it on their own. And just when things could not be going better for them on the heels of their nasty album Pillars of Ash, the beautiful soul Jonathan Athon was snuffed out and taken from them and us fans too. Beat up, but not broken, the band came back together to create new music and fly the banner higher than ever on T.C.B.T. (Season of Mist).

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