TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION

If you even considered for a moment upon reading the name TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION that the style of music played on "Rollin'" had anything at all to do with peace, love, flowers, and/or granola, such thoughts were crushed into dust upon taking a gander at the album cover. That is, if doubts remained after you figured out the part about the T, the H, and the C and its relation to the album title. The Texas part is in fact of great import, as PANTERA and Lone Star State attitude bleed all over this album's collection of whiskey-swillin' southern groove metal that'll get the toes tappin' and the horns thrown with regularity.

So is TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION the second coming of PANTERA? Nah; cowboys and Hell are involved, but only because of some of the riffs (the groovier end anyway),some of Big Dad Ritch's vocals (think Anselmo, especially the croaky speak-sing parts, meets CLUTCH's Neil Fallon),the occasional six-string Dimebag squeal, and — without a doubt — the guitar tone. Referentially, you'll hear a little BLACK LABEL SOCIETY and a smattering of southern rock tendencies too. Those smattered tendencies become the focus on the album's most melodic, southern style rock cut "Groupie Girl", which should be getting significant FM radio play, if it's not already. For the most part though, "Rollin'" is about bigness, badness, and riffness, all three of which are injected into basic and entirely bullshit-free song structures that more often than not will have you singing along.

The story of the album revolves around THC's desire to remind folks that metal can still be hedonistic, guiltless fun. And it sure doesn't have to be complicated and self absorbed. Blunts and bluntness count for something here too. You'll pick that up from the "Children Of The Grave" offshoot-riff and marching cadence of "Intervention", which opens the album in a manner befitting THC's proud loudness. Grit and swagger abound, memorable lines appear with some frequency (e.g. "Saddle Sore", "Flawed", "Pissed Off And Mad About It"),and the hooks stick and stay All of it meets in the middle on an oppositional, defiant, and metallically righteous track called "Jesus Freak". How many more reasons do you need to try a little THC? Everybody's doing it.