As many of the heritage bands start to shuffle off towards the great gig in the sky, there’s currently a big void in the world of hard rock just waiting to be filled. Enter stage left Royal Tusk, a band from Alberta, Canada who are primed to become future festival headliners. With their third album Altruistic living up to the hype, the band have produced a long player that’s the perfect calling card and it’s not so much if they’ll fill the arenas and stadiums, but when.

Attesting to a sense of urgency, there’s no time to waste on fancy preliminaries or elongated introductions, just a crunchy guitar riff to fire things up and then the band are off. Powered by an energy that seeps through every note, ‘Fire In Your Veins’ has a forward motion, and one that drags the listener along in its slipstream. Hold on tight because the band crash through the gears mixing up tempos with some neat drum patterns and riff that rotates and cuts the air like a circular saw, and if ‘Fire In Your Veins’ doesn’t ring your bell then you really need a new set of ears. It makes a nifty one-two punch with the following ‘Hated’, a more moody number that acts as a foil to add contrast, and if there’s a common thread running through this record, then it’s a mild eclecticism. Royal Tusk have definitely developed their own signature sound and when they unleash cuts such as ‘Relegate’ it couldn’t be anyone else pumping from the speakers, yet none of these ten tracks inhabit the same sonic space; it’s a constant evolution, and one that’s guaranteed to hold your attention.

With only two of the songs (barely) breaking the four minute mark, the tracks comprising Altruistic don’t overstay their welcome. It feels like there’s been some judicial pruning going on with each song being distilled into its purest form, and this adds an overarching feeling of urgency, that when combined with the band’s hard-hitting sound ensures that the likes of ‘Here On Out’ really pack a punch. Yet, Royal Tusk aren’t all heavy artillery and closer ‘Something Like The Truth’ delivers a more measured, thoughtful cut which is the perfect vehicle for vocalist Daniel Carriere whose warm tones are exceptionally poignant here and makes for an emotional experience, and one that’ll haunt you long after the disc’s stopped spinning.

Having toured with the likes of Slash and Monster Truck, Altruistic is an album that should turn Royal Tusk into headliners in their own right.

• Altruistic is released via MNRK Heavy on 23rd February 2024.
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Track List:

1. Fire In Your Veins
2. Hated
3. Head Up
4. Relegate
5. All My Life
6. The Death Of Common Sense
7. Here On Out
8. Altruistic
9. Breathe
10. Something Like The Truth