Random Metal Thoughts

the sentinel wrote:

Is it really trendy to bag on them? I am asking honestly and not in a smart ass way, I really didn't think it was. In fact, that's why I wrote what I wrote. I definitely do acknowledge their contributions and holding the flag high in a time when it wasn't popular to do so. Cowboys through Driven ruled my world for nearly a decade. I should have clarified more in my previous post that if I were them I would have been trumpeting the fact that I have been here all along and go back to the early eighties and wear my influences proudly on my sleeve as an homage to my faves and persevered through line up changes to reach my goal. This is what baffles me.

In college back in 1992 I went to breakfast in the cafeteria and one of the girls working there saw my Pantera shirt and we struck a conversation. I thought she was messing with me when she told me that CFH was not their first album. I didn't believe her until she brought her albums in from home and then dubbed me copies. I loved it. It was more awesome music from one of my faves.

I agree that they shouldn't disown their past, but I can understand why they did from a marketing standpoint. In the year 2015 it seems completely pointless to not re-release those first four albums.

It's definitely trendy to slam Pantera. Check out the reviews here: http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Pantera/77

Of course, their favorites on that site are Power Metal and Trendkill. Power Metal appeals to the "I love troo arcane steel" crowd and Trendkill appeals to the "I like the grimdark sounds of eternal entropy" crowd.

My real complaint is many people who hate Pantera usually slam them for cultural reasons rather than musical reasons. It's never enough to merely say you don't like their music, it has to be one or more of these reasons:

1) Their fans are all rednecks from the South!
2) I don't like Phil's tough guy antics!
3) Dimebag sux! Dude was not a good guitarist!
4) They stole Exhorder's sound!
5) Only jocks listen to Pantera and jocks beat me up in high school!
6) They created nu-metal!
7) They should be called Glamtera not Pantera!

And so forth and so on.

Pantera fans are the worst, with their mob mentality and overall rejection of logic.

It blows my mind how these morons can post on public message boards, or Facebook pages saying "Say another word about Dime, and I'm gonna find you and blow ur brains out with muh shotgun" without getting in trouble with the law.

Hero worship is extremely unnecessary, and I'm sure he wouldn't want people threatening/hurting others in his name.

With that being said, "Cowboys from Hell" is the shit.

I like Pantera although I did lose interest in them over time.I was a fan the first time I heard Cemetary Gates.Cowboys and Vulgar are great albums.
Of course I like them, I'm a redneck from the south! Haha

Sacrament should put out another album.Haunts of Violence has got to be one of the best albums ever.

Quote :

Sacrament should put out another album.Haunts of Violence has got to be one of the best albums ever.

YES

Quote :

I don't care if you don't like them, but acknowledge what they did.

Most people can't do that. If they don't like it, "it sucks".

Witchfinder wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

This isn't directed at the previous two posts specifically, but just on the subject of Pantera generally.

Pantera was one of, if not the most, influential metal bands in the last 25 years.  I like all of their material, but their pre-Atco albums were derivative of popular bands and they didn't come into their own sound until Cowboys.  Nobody sounded at all like them at the time (not even Exhorder) and everybody wanted to sound like them post-1992, but nobody ever managed to replicate them.  They changed the game completely.  I loved them in 1990 and I love them now.  Dime had his own unique and totally gonzo sound.  Phil's lyrics were thought provoking and in no way cheesy.  Rex and Vinnie could lock into a groove like no other band, and they used that ZZ-Top, Texas shuffle to great effect.  They were also proud to be a metal band when the majority of their peers couldn't flee the term metal fast enough.  That meant a lot to fans that felt completely abandoned by the popular music scene.  It might seem dumb now, but it wasn't in '94.    

It has become trendy to bag on them now, but the reasons giving for hating Pantera are usually utter nonsense.  I don't care if you don't like them, but acknowledge what they did.  I hate Rush, but I understand that they are insanely talented, they just don't appeal to my tastes.

Well said. Totally agree.

But I would still love to see those first four albums re-released. Derivative? Yes. Mostly the first three. But they are, in my opinion, still great albums. Really good to great, I should say.

I am a huge fan of Power Metal and I really like the other three.  I would definitely buy official reissues.

Agree with all that's said here. I discovered Pantera in 1992, soon after a friend picked up Vulgar and Cowboys. I heard them at his house and bought them immediately after. Could not get enough. I picked up FBD and GSTK too, though by the time RitS came out, I had fallen out of love with the band. I was out of love with the band for quite some time. Partly due to just overplaying them but also as I mellowed out, what I perceived as the overly macho, tough as nails lyrics, attitude, etc, didn't really appeal to me anymore. A couple of years ago, though, I re-fell in love with them and started listening to the albums almost as much as I did in the early/mid 90s.

There is no better album to drive down the highway wearing no shirt and windows down than Vulgar. I think that's the main reason it was recorded for.

Also, as in every Pantera discussion that has come up here ever, I do have to add, I still think they borrowed a bit from Exhorder in the vocal delivery department, for Vulgar only, and no one will ever make me see any differently (in another thread here, there was quite a bit of argument on it, and I got where people were coming from, but just do not agree).

I can take or leave most Pantera. I still listen to Cowboys and Power Metal occasionally but that's about all I'll ever need from them. The earlier records are too cheesy and I'm not angry enough for the later stuff. Haha.

The cult of personality that sprung up around Dimebag after his death (while not unexpected, of course) gets a little tiring after a while though. I belong to numerous metal-related groups on Facebook and at least once a week in each group, someone will randomly post a Dimebag photo for no apparent reason (usually with a caption on it like "DIME BAG 4 EVAR! BLACK TOOTH GRIN MUTHAF*CKAS! GETCHA PULL DOOOOOOOD!") and naturally it gets hundreds of "likes" within a few minutes... I'm like "dude, it's been more than ten years. Let him go, for God's sake."

As a certain former member here who shall remain nameless once said, "Dimebag played guitar. He didn't cure cancer."

Is "hair metal" an
image or is it a sound

I don't always mosh
but when I do...
I slam dance


A possible quote from a drunk Johnny B. from the Twins

Projects in the Jungle is the Pantera album I find myself listening to the most.

It took me a while but Thin Lizzy finally clicked with me. They're fast becoming one of my favorites.

I know a lot of people do not like Super Collider but I found it enjoyable.

Thelemech wrote:

I know a lot of people do not like Super Collider but I found it enjoyable.

+1 

Two bands I never "got" were Fates Warning and Dream Theater. On paper they both seem like they'd be up my alley but I've given them both numerous tries over the years and I'm always like "Meh (shrugs)."

Fat Freddy wrote:

Two bands I never "got" were Fates Warning and Dream Theater. On paper they both seem like they'd be up my alley but I've given them both numerous tries over the years and I'm always like "Meh (shrugs)."

Same here.

I picked up a few Dream Theater albums but like both of you they never really inspired me too multiple listens of them.

James B. wrote:

Is "hair metal" an
image or is it a sound

If everyone had shaved heads
(like Bob Kulick and John McCoy)
back then
would it have been called "bald metal"?

Besides Pull Me Under, I could never really get into Dream Theater either.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Two bands I never "got" were Fates Warning and Dream Theater. On paper they both seem like they'd be up my alley but I've given them both numerous tries over the years and I'm always like "Meh (shrugs)."

I feel the same about Dream Theater. Now Fates Warning, I love them. Especially the first two albums.

I've given DT more of a chance that FW, but neither really appealed to me either.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Also, as in every Pantera discussion that has come up here ever, I do have to add, I still think they borrowed a bit from Exhorder in the vocal delivery department, for Vulgar only, and no one will ever make me see any differently (in another thread here, there was quite a bit of argument on it, and I got where people were coming from, but just do not agree).

The only real reason people say Pantera ripped off Exhorder is the vocals Phil Anselmo had on the albums from Vulgar Display of Power onward (though there were hints of that vocal style on both Power Metal and Cowboys From Hell in some songs).

If Slaughter in the Vatican was an instrumental album, no one would accuse Pantera of ripping off Exhorder.

The Law, Exhorder's second album, does have some similarities to Pantera here and there, but Vulgar Display of Power was actually released a couple of months before The Law was!

Required Fields wrote:

If Slaughter in the Vatican was an instrumental album, no one would accuse Pantera of ripping off Exhorder.

I agree. I did specify that it was vocal delivery where I saw similarities. But I feel the vocal delivery on Vulgar borrows a bit from Vatican. And really only on that album. Phil switches his vocal styles a lot, and while he always sounds like the same dude, he never sounds like he's doing the same thing to me.

It could be coincidence...I just doubt it is. Either way, as I always say, I don't even care. It does not affect my enjoyment of either band in the slightest.

Armored Saint's new album is amazing. I can't believe how good it is.

On a side note of the Exhorder/Pantera thing...

I remember I was at a friend's house a number of years ago, and a mix CD was on with a bunch of metal songs, one of which was Exhorder's cover of "Into the Void". Someone asked if it was Pantera covering Black Sabbath.