Texas Hippie Coalition - Pride Of Texas (2008)

T.H.C. is often described as the toughest Texan band since Pantera. These guys certainly have the tough redneck image that Pantera had making you want to just down a bottle of Jack Daniels when listening to them but they are much more than just another Pantera clone. These guys go much deeper in the roots of southern metal bringing in some bluesy guitar solos and leads reminiscent of ZZ top and Lynard Skynard. The vocals are not your typical toughguy hardcore shouts that seem to be what southern metal is all about today. Nope the vocalist is more in the vein of early 90s grunge but much more aggressive. He sounds almost identical to the singer of the nu metal band Soil but with a bit more range. This is definitely a good thing for me since Soil was one of my most played bands back when I was listening to nu metal.
The riffs are drenched in a sludgy groove somewhaere between Pantera and Monster Magnet and the twin-guitar attack is done very well with some nice catchy riffs. The bluesy solos are fairly prominent and you can definitely tell they listen to Lynard Skynard.
The songwriting is fairly strong that makes you want to sing along at times, and also bang your head to the heavy groove. None of the songs are duds
and there are some good ballad moments.
It is very refreshing to hear a southern band that knows that Southern metal did not just revolve around Pantera. This is not the most groundbreaking album out but it certainly does bring back some energy into a style that has been very lackluster for years. T.H.C. has a great deal of talent and proficiency and I hope that they continue to improve.