Black Tusk Hang Tough on “Gallows Hill”

Black Tusk kick ass. The Savannah-based sludge metal outfit put out the excellent TCBT record last year, and now CVLTNation has premiered their new track. It’s not just a random single, however — “Gallows Hill” is part of a compilation to benefit the construction of the Graveface Museum in their hometown. Graveface Records & Curiosities founder Ryan Graveface hopes to use the museum to preserve his adopted city’s history of oddities and weirdness.

Black Tusk’s contribution to the comp (which also features non-metal artists like Casket Girls and Valley Gals) features the first writing credit from their new guitar player, Chris “Scary” Adams. Guitarist/vocalist Andrew Fidler says the band used the opportunity to talk about something important to them.

“In Colonial America in from 1692-1693, our country underwent an actual witch hunt that has repeated itself, in various forms, over and over again up to the present day. ‘Gallows Hill’ is inspired by the history of the Salem Witch trials, in which innocents were persecuted by those who were afraid of anything different. When we were asked by Graveface to contribute a song to a comp dealing with the subject matter of cults and serial killers and fear of the unknown, we felt it fitting to write about an event that truly cemented the rule of mass hysteria into our cultural and political systems, while highlighting a segment of our society’s penchant for persecuting a set of ideals or belief system or even just the way a person identifies themselves or how they choose to live outside a set of norms established by religion.”

You can listen to the new song below and preorder the comp through the museum’s IndieGogo campaign here.