Review by Ian Savage
Release date: 6th November 2015
Having been in existence for a mere couple of years, McAllen TX’s Sons Of Texas have already made some impressive strides in the rock world. Their debut album (released way back in March in the US, but only just making its way across the Atlantic) was produced by Lamb Of God / Hatebreed / Crowbar knob-twiddler Josh Wilbur, achieving a top 40 spot in the American rock charts, and they’ve just come off tour with All That Remains.
Veering from radio-friendly with a tinge of Breaking Benjamin or even (whisper it) Nickleback’s heavier moments (‘Pull It And Fire’, the title track) to the brutality of the band most will think of when you say ‘Texan metal’ (opener ‘Never Bury The Hatchet’, ‘Blameshift’) Sons Of Texas seem at their most comfortable somewhere between the two, meaty riffs and squealing harmonics sitting firmly between solid double-kick-spiced drumming and gravelly vocals.
If you’re a fan of, say, SOiL, Disturbed, or US melodic metal in general then Baptised In The Rio Grande is well worth 40-odd minutes of your time – distinctly American with a touch of something for everyone into the heavier side of things. As a consequence it does sort of struggle to really assert its own identity, but as a debut album from a band only two years into their career it certainly bodes well for the future.
8 out of 10
Track listing:
- Never Bury The Hatchet
- Pull It And Fire
- Baptised In The Rio Grande
- Nothing King
- The Vestryman
- Blameshift
- Breathing Through My Wounds
- Morals Of The Helpless Kind
- Drag The Blade
- September
- Texas Trim
