TEXAS METAL OUTLAWS is a project lead by Robert Williams featuring prominent musicians of the Texas metal scene.  That sentence might mean more to me if I was from Texas but I just don't know who most of these guys are.  After hearing this ho-hum middle of the road album, I also don't have a desire to check out the bands they are from.  Sometime the songs sound like a discount PANTERA, other times they sound like an even more bland version (I didn't think that was possible) of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY.  Based on the lyrics, I'm not sure if this band is serious; is this sarcastic?  Are they making fun of Texas?  Do they even like Texas?  Does Texas like them?  Just so many questions that I don't really want the answers to.

It isn't all bad, however.  The first song, "Texas Metal Outlaws," is actually musically decent until the vocals come in and I lost interest.  The main problem is there are way too many people playing on this album for it to sound cohesive.  I wouldn't even call them a super group...more of an all-star project with too many people saying too many things.  If they had a more consistent sound, I could see myself enjoying this more than I do but not too much more. Isn't the point of a project like this is to get a group of well-known musicians with huge fan bases together?  Aside from Ross "The Boss" (MANOWAR), JAMES RIVERA (HELSTAR), LARRY BARRAGAN (HELSTAR), ORLANDO OLIVERO (AGAINST THE PLAGUES), and JASON MCMASTER (Watchertower,) I don't know who these guys are and I would imagine most other people don't either.  Amazingly, these guys are barely on the album in the first place.  It just seems like a waste of talent and time to not use the most talented members more than a handful of times.

"Malt Liquor Maniac," not only has a cringe worthy title but the lyrics are so bad I could feel bile coming up from my stomach.  Musically, it has a nice tempo and it is heavy but the music is exceedingly bland.  This is one of the songs that play at bonfires of late 40's early 50's tough guys while they drink Colt 45 and Bud Light and talk about how many deer they have eaten alive. "Sound of Scorn," is actually a good song.  The main riff is a nice slow groove and the hints of melody really carry the song. It reminds me of PANTERA mixed with CROWBAR and if more of the album had this sound, I could had enjoyed it a lot more.

"Echoes of Memory" is also a great jam because of the speed metal guitar and HELSTAR's JAMES on vocals but there is some sort of...wait for it...echo on his voice.  I see what they did there.  Still, the song is musically tight and well written especially the melody behind the chorus. In the end, I just can't take all the contrived "Tough Guy Southerner" themes, even though I am a Southerner (but I'm not tough).  If just four or five of these guys sat down and jammed out together, it would probably be different but as it stands there are too many hairy, dirty hands in this pot stash jar to make anything more than a jumbled mess.