Norwegian stoner rock band Siberian Tusk heat up the strings for their new album Reapers By Trade.

Siberian Tusk was started by three members from the band Traktor in 2014. Two years later they released their first EP, Mammuthus Subplanifrons, and two years after that, another, Paved Ground and Desert Sounds. With the groundwork firmly laid and right on schedule, the band’s debut long-player came out in 2020, Save My Soul. The musical style is stoner rock and adjacent lands. The band is Begil (guitar, vocals), Inge Morten (bass, vocals), Kent Rune (guitar), and René (drums).

“Rich & Poor” starts the set off with a firm hand, laying down rugged riffs and insistent vocals on the heavy side of stoner rock with a steady groove. It is a high-energy song, driving and urgent. The guitar lines move together and alongside the vocals, with a lead flourish breaking out toward the end. “Goes Around” has a more mystical tint. The musical narrative is determined, and here the guitars speak earnestly. And then with “Desert Sun” drama heats up and you can feel jeopardy in the air. Three different looks from the very beginning give you a fair notion of what is to come.

Siberian Tusk works to combine rugged and emphatic elements with memorable grooving riffs in a way that other bands don’t. The unique presentation they achieve is very impressive. They can take a standard set up and turn it in surprising ways, like on “Reaper Blues,” for example, where traditions are both celebrated and expanded upon. Really, on any track you will hear rustic beats of one stripe or another alongside or in tandem with melodic moments, one or the other in prominence, and all working together to achieve a bigger outcome than could have been had alone. It is in this endeavor that the band excels. Recommended.

Reapers By Trade is out now through Hidden Noise Records. Check it out at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://siberiantusk.bandcamp.com/album/reapers-by-trade

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/SiberianTusk

Hidden Noise Records, http://www.hiddennoiserecords.com/

© Wayne Edwards