Pelicannot
Tusk
Get Ready
(He Who Corrupts)
Seventy-five percent of instru-metal giants Pelican make up this screaming quartet.
Without a vocalist, Pelican are the prog-metal kings of Chicago; with, they are just another screaming, down-tuned outfit, known only as Tusk. The reissue of 2002’s grindcorin’ Get Ready (repackaged with six live cuts) takes atonality to a level measurable only by how well in sync the musicians are. If that sounds like going to a symphony proficient in speed, you’re only a hundredth of the way. Tusk manage songs when boredom gets too raw, and only then do you find you’re hearing guitar effects rather than anything engaging. Chicken or the egg? We’ll take the chicken. Or egg. Whichever came second.
— Steve Forstneger
