Defiance runs deep in 's DNA but 2012's finds the veteran Southern rockers hunkering down, emphasizing their old-fashioned outlaw ways. All the recognizable redneck rebel sentiments are here -- it's all god, guns, Southern girls, and sweet tea -- but 's signature sound is absent. In this, their third act, the kings of Southern rock have cut out the country and boogie, leaving behind a heavy-booted blues grind and churning hard rock -- sounds that signify the modern South even if they're not classically Southern rock. And that fits for this incarnation of . They may flirt with fleeting references to their past -- the first verse of "Good Teacher" recalling "The Ballad of Curtis Loew," the soaring soul-speckled ballad "Ready to Fly" a distant cousin of "Freebird" -- but , , and aren't in this game just to revive past glories; they're engaging with the modern world, co-opting the leaden stripper rock of for "Homegrown," once again bringing back former guitarist for a cameo, and writing a Tea Party anthem in "Nothing Comes Easy." Certainly, are making sturdy, old-time rock & roll for an audience that's likely peppered with Tea Partiers, the kind of Middle American worried that the world they knew is slipping away, and provides a bit of a rallying point for them: it's true to their roots but living in the moment. If sound a little less nimble than they used to, chalk it up not to age but to the conscious decision to play everything heavier than before; without elements of the backwoods, they're dogged rockers, happy to carry the torch they lit nearly four decades ago even if it doesn't burn as bright as it once did. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine