Dallas band SiK will lead a posse of Lone Star holdouts across the Red River for the "Texas Metal Invasion" this Saturday, proving that metal is alive and well.

"It's homegrown Texas metal," said SiK drummer Keith Wishon. "We're going back to the original Pantera sound, with that southern metal feel.  Not southern rock, southern metal."

SOUND
That hard-edged Texas sound, according to lead guitarist Dano Hibbs, is crunching guitars, arena-sized drums and growling vocals seasoned with "Texas twang." Hibbs said good heavy metal isn't just playing fast and loud, or copied and pasted from what's fashionable on rock radio.

"If you try to sound like what's popular at the time, you'll just sound fabricated," he said. "If you shoot from the hip, let what comes out come out, then it'll sound true, and people respond to that."

FANS
Hibbs and Wishon boast that the band wins fans across party lines because it can fit in with just about any live lineup.  

"We played on a bill with death-metal bands one night and we told the manager, 'We may not be the hardest out there, but I assure you that you'll be able to understand our music and what we're saying,'" Hibbs said. "He ended up liking us the best." "Charles Martin