{"id":24336,"date":"2012-12-10T07:43:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T12:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=24336"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:46:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T21:46:17","slug":"texas-hippie-coalition-peacemaker-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/texas-hippie-coalition-peacemaker-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Hippie Coalition | Peacemaker<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TexasTexas Hippie Coalition refer to their loud, oversized, and utterly infectious brand of heavy rock as \u201cred dirt metal,\u201d a tip of their Stetsons to the Red River Valley where they originated, but most hard rocking hell-raisers will probably just call it southern-fried groove metal, because that\u2019s what it is. If you borrowed some DNA from ZZ Top and Johnny Cash, cranked it up to eleven, and then spliced it with the powerhouse guitars of Pantera and Hellyeah, you might end up with something along the lines of THC.<\/p>\n

Peacemaker<\/em> is the band\u2019s third album and it does not stray far from the red dirt road they have traveled before. Once again you have headbanging guitar riffs flying at you like bullets from a Gatling gun, a rhythm section that knows how to put the smack down on your ears, drums that explode like cannon fire, and the gravelly, barrel-chested voice of Big Dad Ritch belting out the tunes with the kind of unapologetic badass attitude you can only find in Texas. It worked for the band in the past and it should work for them now, especially since this happens to be the best album of their career. The songwriting has improved and now incorporates some really strong hooks that stick with you like a steer horn to the crotch.<\/p>\n

For fans of the southern-metal subgenre, this is prime stuff, because THC can really tear it up. When Big Dad Ritch bellows, \u201cI\u2019m an outlaw \/ on a long hard ride \/ Yeah, I\u2019m an outlaw \/ Until the day I die,\u201d you may at first scoff and roll your eyes at the Bad Boy 101 lyrics, but as one rollicking rocker after another rolls from your speakers, you might just find the band making a believer out of you. They sound authentic, no small feat in a culture where so many \u201chard-ass\u201d personas are carefully cultivated rather than genuine and pureblooded.<\/p>\n

Sure, you could make a case that THC\u2019s relentless outlaw-loving lyrics are clich\u00e9d and about as subtle as a shotgun blast to the face, but that is in keeping with the genre. If you want to hear introspective navel-gazing about the meaning of life, go crawl into a closet with a stack of U2 records. Those of us who are just looking to have a hard rocking good time will be over here listening to THC roar about a preacher\u2019s daughter who starts stripping when she gets her first dose of Texas metal.<\/p>\n

You may not start peeling off your clothes when you play these songs, but naked or not, there should at least be a smile on your face. Whether it\u2019s the full-auto riffing of \u201cDamn You To Hell,\u201d the fist-pumping chorus of \u201cTurn It Up,\u201d or the \u201880s-style rock ballad \u201cThink of Me,\u201d the quality remains high from start to finish. Peacemaker has got big bulldog balls, plenty of crunchy clenched fist bombast, and more roughneck attitude than a rabid rattler.<\/p>\n

Like a poker player who knows he has the winning hand, Texas Hippie Coalition have upped the ante with this album. The band was good before, but now they\u2019re even better. There\u2019s nothing novel here, but it\u2019s all delivered with heaps of hooks and unfettered ferocity and brings the southern-metal fun in spades. To paraphrase John Lennon, let\u2019s all give Peacemaker<\/em> a chance. <\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal, Southern Metal, Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nRitch (a.k.a. \u201cBig Dad\u201d)\u2014vocals
\nCrawfish\u2014guitar
\nJohn Exall\u2014bass
\nRyan Bennett (a.k.a. \u201cThe Kid\u201d)\u2014drums<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Hands Up
\n2. Damn You To Hell
\n3. 8 Seconds
\n4. Outlaw
\n5. Turn It Up
\n6. Wicked
\n7. Don\u2019t Come Lookin\u2019
\n8. Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll
\n9. Paw Paw Hill
\n10. Peacemaker
\n11. Think Of Me<\/p>\n

Label: Carved Records<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.thcoutlaw.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — Texas Hippie Coalition refer to their loud, oversized, and utterly infectious brand of heavy rock as \u201cred dirt metal,\u201d a tip of their Stetsons to the Red River […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[1103,2491,5978],"class_list":{"0":"post-24336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-hard-rock","8":"tag-heavy-metal","9":"tag-southern-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}