Album Review: Texas Hippie Coalition – Peacemaker

Well howdy and welcome to the Lone Star State, y’all. If you’re into guns and Stetsons, cowboys and whisky, then you’re gonna just love Texas Hippie Coalition. THC’s frontman Big Dad Ritch has said “We want the people that love Molly Hatchet, ZZ Top, .38 Special, the Van Zandts and those bands that are growing older to know that somebody else out there is already waving the flag high”. Well, from where I’m standing they are doing a bang-up job with this new album, Peacemaker.

This classic rock meets Southern-fried swagger with heaps of riff worship is a big, bad sound that they have termed “red dirt metal” and it is sounding sweet. It’s a combination of Black Label Society’s sass, Monster Magnet’s power, Pantera’s pace and Hellyeah’s crazed edge. It’s an album built on simplicity, grunt and momentum; an album that gets exponentially craftier as time passes; an album that, save for a couple of tracks, is without flaw; an album that will inspire fierce headbanging, air drumming and shit-eating grins.

Let’s get that weak spot out of the way and get to the good stuff. “Think Of Me” is a mood-breaker; completely out of keeping with the rest of the album (THC have tacked it on at the end and I wish they hadn’t bothered). The rest is either no-frills fare like “8 Seconds” and “Sex & Drugs & Rock And Roll” or simply balls-out brilliant. Basically, if you dig the whole bad-ass cowboy shtick then be sure to hit up “Wicked”, “Outlaw” and “Hands Up” for their fat riffs and mean spirits; if you want to get your redneck on, then head straight on to “Paw Paw Hill” where Big Dad Ritch sings of “moonshine” whilst Wes Wallace digs out the bluegrass. Toothless grins all round, I believe.

Yet all these “yee-fucken-has” are a front for the songs you really need to pay attention to. Songs like “Don’t Come Lookin’” and the startlingly classy title-track are both dark and venomous rollers. The former has a hint of Jon Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory about it (back when he was at this storytelling best) with enigmatic lines like “Left town in a stolen Corvette / That lawman, He hasn’t caught me yet” and “And when that man in blue comes askin’ questions of you / You tell him that I was dead / I had no idea there was a price on my head”. The latter tells a story of bloody violence from the point of view of the gun. Both show more lyrical guile and promise than, I doubt, even THC realise. These are serious groovers; crafty little bastards that will stick to your skull like glue.

I’m quite aware that the majority of you blood-lusting, corpse-painted metalheads will view this red dirt metal as anachronistic, generic toss, but for those of you on downtime looking for a crushing driving album, look no further than Peacemaker. Stick this on, ready your middle digits and fucken floor it. Now, go on, git outa here.



Also online @ Ave Noctum = http://www.avenoctum.com/2012/10/texas-hippie-coalition-peacemaker-carved-records/

Album Review: Hellyeah – Band Of Brothers

The Texan supergroup, Hellyeah, have been around for several years so we’re probably all up to speed by now with who they are and where they come from, so for the uninitated, I’ll be brief. They consist of members from Mudvayne, Nothingface, Damageplan and Pantera and when I spied them first on stage at Download 2007 I loved every second of their high-intensity, groove-laden set. With cowboy hats, long leather coats and bandanas everywhere it set me in mind of a hard rock-backed Western movie and I found myself glued to the incredible stickwork of Vinnie Paul for most of the time they pistoned around the stage. They had, at times, an almost laconic, bluesy roll to their music, so when their latest opus Band Of Brothers landed on my desk I was taken aback by just how monstrously aggressive it was. It’s shedloads heavier than previous efforts with a real volatile kick to it.

The title alone hints at just how important the project has become to them and a clear willingness to reveal those close bonds they have formed over time. The component parts, from Chad Gray’s raucous howl through Greg Tribbett and Tom Maxwell’s crushing chugs and howling riffs, to the thundering bottom end of Bob Zilla’s bass and Vinnie Paul’s incredible percussive skills, all come together in a marriage of awe-inspiring assuredness in their ability to raise that collective flag into position time after time. Their impressive focus refuses to let them wander too far from their original design though, so the decision to “metal up” their sound is about as far as we will probably ever see them pushing the boat out.

Laying down the first marker, “War In Me” speed-chugs its way into oblivion with a dark fury, ingesting a solid beatdown and a fist-pumping anthemic quality, whilst for “Call It Like I See It” they slam down a foot on the accelerator and wind down the window to gob vitriol at passers-by. The vocals play just as big a role as the effortless selection of paced groove by rising from the spoken passage to a scouring yelp that scythes down all before it. Most menacing of all, “WM Free” (a reference to the metal-loving / “devil-worshipping” West Memphis Three, imprisoned for murder after a coerced, error-filled confession had been extracted) is a suitably hate-filled crush of a track that, musically, seems focussed on the exact point where Chimaira hits Lamb Of God.

Taking things down a notch the title-track sucks at the Pantera teat to swaggeringly ram its point home – “I got your back and you got mine, as long as we stand together, we’ll be fine” – and “Bigger God” lightens the rhythm, rocking itself up in the verses only to unload in the chorus. Oh, and they’ve still got time for a ballad – “Between You And Nowhere” submerges itself only to reappear at a point somewhere between Alice In Chains and Seether.

Never being ones to upset the applecart, they’ve always had a tendency to become a little predictable and there is an over-reliance on f-bomb fullstops and their rather obvious choices of subject matter. That’s the whole point of their bloody single-mindedness at sticking to their guns though, isn’t it? The alcohol-abusing, rabble-rousing “Drink Drank Drunk” is far less interesting than the introspective musings of “Dig Myself A Hole”, but it’s obvious which one you’re gonna be yelling along and fist-pumping to at their shows. Hellyeah are a riot and the colossal power within Band Of Brothers kicks your arse and hands it back to you on a bin-lid. They clearly have no intentions on slowing their roll at this time and I, for one, am right there with them riding the wave.

Also online @ Ave Noctum = http://www.avenoctum.com/2012/07/hellyeah-band-of-brothers-eleven-seven-music/