Hotly tipped as one of the most exciting prospects in the UK sludge scene, the duo of Tyler Hodges and Tom Dimmock collectively known as Tuskar finally unleash their highly anticipated debut album Matriarch. Blending psychedelically charged, brooding and relentless riff heavy doom with eerie, post-apocalypse soundscapes warping the world around you and triggering kaleidoscopic visions in your mind as you pass through the highly energetic fuzz. Brimming with ambition and ferocity, Matriarch is a masterclass in conglomerated sonic mass, a finely balanced display of atmosphere and aggression. This fierce and bold collection of songs demonstrate the band’s dedication to their craft, no doubt launching them with considerable ease into the upper echelons of the UK metal scene.
Throughout the album you can feel a monolithic churning energy, slowly creeping around you on all sides. Before the riffs crash around you like the roaring waves on the hardest of sea walls, Tuskar take significant time to build an eerie and ominous atmosphere that drags you into this doom laden world with remarkable ease. Despite being a young band, the duo show an incredible musical and songwriting knowledge that exceeds their years. With an acute knowledge and innate mastery of dynamics, Matriarch’s unique ebb and flow leaves and indelible mark on your mind. The psychedelic atmospherics lead into crushing, hardcore like breakdowns, where the album is channelling the turbulence of primal human rage. Every passage leads to something else, before ultimately being paid off by a riff-heavy climax. With a plethora of influences behind them, the incorporation of blast beats on a sludge record seems out of place, however it works extraordinarily well. Ramping up the energy and chaos before thrusting you back into a comatose state of droning riffs and foreboding, fuzz filled soundscapes. If Matriarch was to be summed up in emotional terms, sombre rage would spring to mind. The very visceral nature of these emotions in conveyed with a distinct maturity, which makes the album remarkably captivating.
Opening up the album with its eleven minute title track, ‘Matriarch’ is a brutal introduction to what the band is about. Lulling you into a hypnotic trance with droning riffs, before exploding into life at unexpected intervals is something akin to an audible whiplash but it is one that you relish. Moving into the grooves of ‘To The Sky’, this offers a view of the other side of the band’s writing. Short, sharp and punchy, it changes your initial expectation of the album as the animalistic vocals are barked at you incandescently over groove laden riffs. The album is also packed with an intimate intricacy, ‘The Trees, The Trees, The Trees’ segment Matriarch by offering up an instrumental ambient track with luscious, psychedelic melodies and dreamy synths. Yet there is still that hint of melancholy and uneasiness that transcends the album.
The album once again roars into life with two heaviest tracks on the album ‘Halcyon Gilt’ and ‘Into The Sea’ utilise mind-bending psychedelic grooves with sinister intent before thrusting you into the chaotic fire of big riffs and thunderous drums. Easily the most Mastodon sounding tracks on the album, they both showcase the Tuskar duo’s cohesiveness as a compositional unit. From dynamic shifts to the inner workings of the hulking riffs, they easily make you want to throw down with anyone who decides to have a go. In ‘Shame’ and ‘Grave’ we see more emotional vulnerability from the band lyrically, yet the words are still tipped with steel barbs as they are venomously delivered. Both songs seem to channel a pain of some sorts that will offer some catharsis to those who have had similar experiences.
There are really no words that could fully encapsulate the Goliath nature of Matriarch. Tuskar have compellingly delivered brutality and delicacy in equal measure, and with that in mind have firmly deserved their hype because they do more than live up to it.