Artist: Texas Hippie Coalition
Release: Peacemaker (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
This is an album that means business. There’s no point wasting time by explaining to you where this band is from and how long they’ve been around, because the name says it all (except the Hippie part, maybe). This is Pantera style metal laced with southern rock power that’s about as subtle as Jack Daniels on the rocks – no holds barred, distilled, cold and distinctive.
THC are about as Texan as it gets, ‘Hands Up’ and ‘Damn You To Hell’ making a furious opening statement with stomping, bonecrunching riffs and Phil Anselmo style American snarling dominating the album’s opening. There’s no posturing or indulgence here, this is a bunch of guys making ruthless rock and roll and by the sounds of it, having a damn good time in the process.
Each one of the album’s 11 tracks keep this up, rarely showing any vulnerability – ‘Outlaw’ is a convincing testament to the band’s defiant image and it would be as soul-destroying as discovering Santa isn’t real if we saw a member of THC whining to his manager that his rider didn’t have enough Evian in it or languishing in a Wetherspoons with a Sex on the Beach after a gig. This is the real deal, good old Texan rage in music form, in it for the ride and the glory, party rock on a whole new level that should have you reaching for the bourbon and questioning why you don’t have more red meat in your humble abode. Don’t own a barbecue? You should. In fact, there should have been a special edition of ‘Peacemaker’ taped to some steak on a grill. Only then would you be able to appreciate THC to the full extent of their tight, weaponised, 100% party rock power.
‘Don’t Come Lookin’ moves the album off into a slightly less aggressive tone with all the same furious momentum, and from there on out, the pace gets less frenetic. ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock And Roll’ is a little disappointing in that respect, with the rest of the album feeling like such a killer, this track simply feels like a rather melodic rock and roll word association game. ‘Paw Paw Hill’ and title track ‘Peacemaker’ put everything back on the right groove again, outback-born rock that instantly evokes images of a simpler, heavier time for the music industry.
‘Peacemaker’ is a pick -up truck of an album, skidding through roads of winding grooves with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and the wheel in the other, a bikini-clad blonde clutching a guitar whilst she wantonly fires a shotgun out of the back. With this album, THC have well and truly carved themselves a place in the world of metal – and they deserve it.
10/10
Reviewer: Laurence Stark
