Review: Texas Hippie Coalition, "Peacemaker"

If somewhere in the Lone Star State there were a city where Pantera Boulevard crossed Skynyrd Street, at that intersection, you’d probably find the world headquarters of Texas Hippie Coalition.

The band describes itself as Red Dirt Metal, and it’s as good a description as any. Like the bands that are often identified as part of the red dirt movement, THC has elements of southern rock, country and other genres, but they also add a bit of extreme to the mix, drawing on the power grooves of Pantera, the heavy rock of Black Label Society and even the occasional modern metal influence.

Review: Chris Knight, "Little Victories"

Chris Knight actually does what most of the Nashville songwriters think they’re doing. He connects with country’s perceived blue-collar audience.

But real connection doesn’t come through lyrics about pickup trucks and dirt roads. It comes through truth, honest emotion and hitting people where they live. Knight has always excelled at those things, and that doesn’t change on his latest record, Little Victories.

 It’s very much an album for the times. A great many of the songs focus on the down economy, hard times and social strife, but instead of blaming one politician or another and spouting a bunch of rhetoric, Knight sings about cinching up your belt, pulling yourself up and getting it done. That is, after all, what the vast majority of Americans are doing.

Review: Crazy Lixx, "Riot Avenue"

Maybe it’s a longing for simpler, better times, but I’ve found myself listening to a lot of 1980s-influenced hard rock lately, both comebacks from bands of the era and newer acts that play the style. Perhaps no one I’ve heard nails it better than Sweden’s Crazy Lixx.

Riot Avenue is the band’s third release, but it’s my introduction, and I may have to go back and check out their previous albums. What we’ve got on this record is a very faithful reproduction of the better aspects of the glitzy 1980s hard-rock scene. The songs here are all catchy numbers with great guitar riffs, tight harmonies and big hooks. Had it been released 25 years ago, no doubt it would have been a huge record. This is a band that sounds like it actually belongs to the era rather than a group of guys who were probably toddlers during the heyday of the scene.

Review: Jackyl, "Best in Show"

The output from these Kennesaw, Ga.-based rockers has often been uneven since their 1992 debut, but when they hit their stride, it’s great fun. They hit it hard on Best in Show, possibly the best record they’ve put out since their 1994 sophomore outing, Push Comes to Shove.

Best in Show delivers exactly what you’re looking for in a Jackyl album – sleazy party anthems that owe more than a small debt to the likes of AC/DC and classic Ted Nugent.

You have to listen no further than the first single from the record, “Screwdriver,” to see what this album is all about. Yeah, singer Jesse James Dupree’s pregnant pause in the delivery of the chorus – “I wanna screw … driver” – is completely predictable, but it doesn’t make it any less entertaining.

Review: Blackberry Smoke, "The Whippoorwill"

I apologize in advance if this review becomes very personal, but there are just some times that you listen to a record and know that it’s going to be a big part of your life for a long, long time.

It hasn’t happened to me in quite a while, but the feeling was instant on my first run through the latest from Blackberry Smoke. The songs on The Whippoorwill hit me right where I’m living right now, which makes it mean a little more to me. That aside, it’s just filled with incredible songs, funky Southern grooves and hooks that the original Skynyrd lineup would be envious of.

This is Blackberry Smoke’s third full-length album, and while I’ve enjoyed their previous records, I’ve never come close to loving them this much.

Review: ZZ Top, "Texicali"

Now this is more like it.

When we got our first taste of new ZZ Top music a few months back with “Flying High,” I was seriously disappointed. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t even close to what I was hoping for from the pairing of Top and Rick Rubin.

Then came the Jeremiah Weed spot featuring “Gotsta Get Paid,” and my interest level immediately jumped back up. After watching the commercial a couple of times, I couldn’t get the “25 lighters on my dresser, yessir” refrain out of my head and searched in vain for a full version of the song to hear, right up until the four-song EP Texicali dropped.

Review: Firewind, "Few Against Many"

While Gus G’s debut with Ozzy Osbourne was a pretty disappointing mess, with Gus as primarily a hired gun playing other people’s riffs, his other outfit, Firewind, has yet to disappoint.

It’s not that they do anything out of the ordinary or innovative in the power metal world. It’s just that they do what they do so well. It’s a very guitar-driven, traditional-influenced power metal sound, and they’re one of the most consistent acts out there doing it.

Few Against Many gets started right where you expect it to with first single “Wall of Sound.” There’s a very awkward part in the first verse where vocalist Apollo Papathanasio delivers this strange “yeah, yeah, yeah” line. After that it recovers quickly and settles into the band’s niche with a big chorus. It might not be their best effort from a lyrical standpoint, but gets things started on a good foot.

Review: Prong, "Carved Into Stone"

I was less than impressed with Prong’s last outing, Power of the Damager. I preferred it to the more industrial stuff they’d been doing, but it hasn’t returned to my rotation in the nearly five years since it came out. I thought it was OK, but didn’t have a lot of passion or energy.

So I approached the new record, Carved into Stone, with only moderate interest. Tommy Victor and Co. fixed my lack of interest with the first track “Eternal Heat,” which blasts out of the gate with a squealing, energetic guitar riff and pummels the listener over the head for about four minutes. The message at the end of the song is clear – the energy and fire are most definitely back.

Review: Slash, "Apocalyptic Love"

After being less than impressed with Slash’s last solo album and its parade of guest stars, and being only a marginal fan of Velvet Revolver or Slash’s Snakepit, I didn’t go into Apocalyptic Love with my hopes too high.

Sure, I figured there would be a few good songs among a lot of uninspiring filler, but I was completely unprepared for what I got: This, friends and neighbors, may well be the best record that Slash has been involved with since Appetite for Destruction.

I’ll admit up front that I’m not sold on Myles Kennedy as a vocalist for this style. There’s no denying that the guy has a fantastic voice, but there are still times here when I’d much rather he use a little less range and a little more attitude. That said, I think he manages to provide a very good foil for Slash, and the record is much the better for it.

Review: Bob Wayne, "Till the Wheels Fall Off"

There could be no better way to open Bob Wayne’s upcoming album than with the title track, “Till the Wheels Fall Off.”

If you don’t know anything about Wayne going into this song, you’ll know everything you need to know about him once it’s over. It pretty much sums up how the former guitar tech for Hank III approaches music and life.

The song starts with Wayne making loud train whistle noises. It’s a warning that the album is chugging down the rails at you like a runaway locomotive. The ride begins with this rocking, uptempo country anthem to Wayne’s love of life on the road and his dedication to keeping it going “till the wheels fall off this motherfucker.” It tells you up front what you’re getting with Till the Wheels Fall Off, and Wayne fans would expect no less.

Review: Tenacious D, "Rize of the Fenix"

With album art that gives new meaning to the term “cock rock,” Tenacious D rises again from the ashes. With Rize of the Fenix, they’re destined to rule the rock world like the cocks of the walk. They release their inhibitions and rock out with their … OK, enough bad jokes about the cover.

It is, however, a near-perfect summation of what the team of Jack Black and Kyle Gass are all about. Crude? Yep. Juvenile? You bet. Hilarious? Most definitely. There’s also a devious intelligence in their lampooning of the rock-star attitude as they pay homage to some of the very people that they’re poking fun at and deliver songs that worm their way into your brain — despite your best efforts to keep them out.

Review: Shooter Jennings, "Family Man"

Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that Shooter Jennings was done with country music. He had formed a new band, Hierophant, and put out Black Ribbons, a record with very little resemblance to country. It featured experimental and trippy numbers, art rock, industrial-tinged songs and even some heavy Black Sabbath-like guitar riffs. I did, and still do, really like the record, but I also thought it signaled the end of his country career.

Fast forward a few years, and he’s now trying to become the champion of underground country artists. His new album Family Man returns to roots with something very much in the vein of his first couple of records.

Review: Lacuna Coil, "Dark Adrenaline"

As Lacuna Coil’s sound has drifted more and more commercial, my opinion has been here and there on them. I love Comalies, but the bouncy, nu-metallish stuff of Karmacode didn’t connect with me. The catchy melodies of Shallow Life, though, managed to win me over despite the fact that it was easily the poppiest release in the band’s catalog.

Dark Adrenaline blends all of those elements. There’s some of the bouncy stuff, there are some very commercial numbers, and there’s a little bit of that goth rock slipping back in around the edges.
Things start well. First single and first track “Trip the Darkness” is probably the best song Lacuna Coil has recorded since Comalies.

Review: Pharaoh, "Bury the Light"

There are some bands out there that really don’t need a review. When you hear the name, you know it’s going to be quality. Pharaoh has become one of those over the years. But, since it’s my job here, I’m going to give you a review anyway.

Pharaoh is dependable. So much so that I wanted to say that they do on Bury the Light pretty much what they’ve done since they released 2003’s After the Fire, but I went back and took a listen to that record in preparing to review this one. What I realized was the band’s sound has evolved quite a bit since those days, but it’s been in a gradual way. So if you’re familiar with Pharaoh, no, you won’t be surprised by anything you hear on Bury the Light. But there are nuances.

Review: Lillian Axe, "XI: The Days Before Tomorrow"

Growing up in rural northern Louisiana, I didn’t often get to see my guitar heroes live. Maybe that’s one reason Lillian Axe’s Steve Blaze became one of them. I could be guaranteed to see the New Orleans-based band at least a couple of times a year somewhere, and Blaze’s, well, blazing fretwork was, and still is, impressive.

There was a little dive bar called the Cartoon Lounge tucked away next to a highway overpass in Monroe. It’s long been closed and demolished, but I have fond memories of it. I didn’t go there to drink. I didn’t go there to socialize. I went there for music. You’d often find me by myself, leaned up against one of the poles that ran through the middle of the building, in my own little world, intently studying whatever band was playing. Yeah, I was that guy.

Review: Van Halen, "A Different Kind of Truth"

Note: This review originally appeared at Something Else Reviews. When you're finished here, head over there for a couple of other takes on this one.

I stand corrected – and pleasantly surprised, too.

When I went into my first listen of Van Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth, I was expecting a steaming pile of mediocrity. After a few spins, I think the team in charge of promoting the record has done a big disservice to it in the clips that they’ve allowed to dribble out to the public. Those clips, with the exception of “The Trouble with Never,” which I’ll get to in a minute, have largely been forgettable and often not even the best parts of the songs.

Take “Stay Frosty,” for example. The clip out there makes it sound like a weak attempt to recreate “Ice Cream Man.” It is, of course, an attempt to recreate that song, but by the time you get to the turbo-charged hard rock section later in the tune, you don’t really care. It’s great stuff, and it’s what Van Halen should sound like.

Review: Nightwish, Imaginaerum

When Nightwish’s Imaginaerum came out in Europe back in November, I didn’t pay much attention.

I had a fling with Nightwish quite a few years back, but it didn’t last long. I know it will be sacrilege to a certain segment of the band’s fans, but it was really Tarja Turunen’s vocals that did me in. Her soprano, while impressive, was almost too pretty, too perfect. It didn’t have the expressiveness that I thought the music needed, and after a while, her vocal lines sort of blended together for me, no matter what the music sounded like. This isn’t a knock on Turunen, just a matter of personal taste. I’ve got the same problem with just about every female vocalist that sings operatic soprano lines most of the time. I just need a little more variety and maybe, occasionally, a little grit.