Black Tusk, Royal Thunder, Savagist and Bask at The Jinx – photos

Wow, Black Tusk‘s return home to The Jinx Saturday night was a sloppy, loud, glorious pile of energy and crushing heaviness. Finishing off their New Noise Magazine sponsored Southeast tour with Royal Thunder and Bask, and adding Athens’ Savagist for good measure, the Tusk trio filled the room with both friendly faces and their signature swamp metal. The set was heavy on the new ones from their long awaited, excellent, and super well reviewed Pillars of Ash. Oh, and a Circle Jerks cover that made this guy more than a little happy. Killer.

Asheville’s Bask was already well into it when I arrived (Jinx shows starting on time can catch the best of us off guard), but the two and a half/threeish songs I caught sounded great. I enjoyed them the last couple times I saw them, but touring with High on Fire(!!) and Black Tusk will tighten up a band that was solid to start with, and it really showed.

Savagist has energy for days and serious chops, and delivers every time I see them. Some killer bands out of Athens currently…uhhh, I guess pretty much all the time, come to think of it, and Savagist is one of them.

I sort of remember Royal Thunder at a Stattsfest several years ago (the one that Floor headlined, I think?), and was definitely impressed with their set at Bragg Jam the year before last, but holy moly did I enjoy their set Saturday night. More heavy rock than metal, their songs are bluesier and catchier than the doom I remember. Frontwoman Mlny Parsonz was captivating and the band looks almost as cool as they sound, and that’s saying something. Great, great, great.

We all know the Black Tusk backstory at this point, and while their Jinx shows were amazing before the accident, they’ve become almost cathartic since. To say that Andrew, James, and Corey are carrying on Athon’s legacy would be an understatement. I miss that dude, but I’m happy to say I don’t miss Black Tusk, because they are still kicking ass.

Okay, I’ll shut up, because Bill and I took a lot of photos, check out a huge gallery after the jump…crowd surfing, circle pit, a weird masked person on stage…the works.

Bask

Savagist

Royal Thunder

Black Tusk