Texas Medicine (Year of the Sun)

On its follow-up to 2004’s CTG, this ferocious quartet defends old-school American metal values like it’s under siege at the Alamo. As a result, you’d never guess the 11-track disc was produced by Strapping Young Lad’s Devin Townsend and is actually a Vancouver product. Pantera fans will relish how guitarist Denis “Sasquatch” Barthe breaks out a sludgier version of Dimebag Darrell’s Far Beyond Driven–era tone for the nasty groove metal of “Broken God”. Barthe is equally potent when conjuring up vintage Exodus and Testament in the thrashy central lick of “I Am Nothing”.

Vocalist Greg Cavanagh might need to guzzle some throat lozenges along with his Jack Daniel’s, as he rarely lets up with his impressive screams on skull-imploding rockers like “At War With Myself” and “Light”. The overall highlight, though, is the epic concluding track, “Beheaded in Paris”, which abounds with the kind of authoritative, chugging riffage that Metallica aficionados would die to hear on that band’s next album, Death Magnetic, this fall. “No mercy, no hesitation, no regret,” Cavanagh growls repeatedly, reinforcing Cradle to Grave’s status as the soundtrack of choice for your trip to the electric chair.