PanterA

Either "Cemetary Gates" or "The Art of Shredding". "Walk" gets honorable mention, too.

Cowboys From Hell 9.75/10
VDOP 10/10

Eh, I tried listening to stuff after Cowboys From Hell but it's like Anselmo forgot how to sing, and learned how to scream and curse a lot. And I don't find that enjoyable.

But yeah I'd say that Cowboys From Hell is a fantastic album and I personally always seem to like listening to Shattered. Not that it's the very best song on the album, but it's usually the first song I'll wanna hear when I start listening to the album.

Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power are two quality records. Everything after that was hit or miss.

xyz wrote:

Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power are two quality records. Everything after that was hit or miss.

Exaclty. Far Beyond Driven had a handful of good songs but for the most part was unforgettable and everything after was sub par. Especially the last album which got a few listens before I unloaded it to a used store. As was already said, after Phil lost the ability to sing (in the live album when he sang he sounded like a drunk sailor) they went downhill. Dimebag's solos were still great but not enough to salvage the songs.

I saw Pantera open for Black Sabbath on the re-union tour and they were so bad it was almost unlistenable. Phil was so strung-out he couldn't sing at all...and kept screwing up the lyrics.

If I never hear Pantera again it will be okay with me.

Jedilink wrote:

Eh, I tried listening to stuff after Cowboys From Hell but it's like Anselmo forgot how to sing, and learned how to scream and curse a lot. And I don't find that enjoyable.

That's me as well. I enjoyed COWBOYS a lot, thought VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER was mediocre at best, and it seemed that on every album after that they were simply trying to be more screamy and abrasive than the last record, so I walked away.

Cowboys From Hell: Awesome Overall albums
Phil CAN sing, Dime's riffing out the ying-yang and soloing of the walls. Awesome Texas metal.

Vulgar Display: A very ANGRY follow up. Very in your face, especially with the change in phils image, going from this long hair mowhawk in shorts, to a buzzed head and a long sleeve in some cases. Dime tunes Drop-D a bunch of times and lets it get punchy, while doing those interesting solos on the Blues progressions (e.g. Walk)

Far Beyond Drive: CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!!!!
Holy smurf poo this album is heavy. Just a distorted crunch fest. Phil's vocals complement this style.

The Great Southern Trendkill: A Couple heavy as hell tracks, some nice slow tracks, i wouldn't rate it on the same level as Far Beyond Driven but it's solid.

Reinventing the Steel: heayv, but it doesn't look like they tried their hardest on this one.

I think 'Reinventing the Steel' is the sound of a band imploding and it was no surprise when the band called it a day soon afterwards.

It was also no secret that Phil was more interested in Down, Superjoint Ritual and being all around a$$hole than being a part of Pantera.

I love seeing Anselmo in interviews because he always puts on this "Look at me, I'm so tough and I'll kick your ass for looking at me funny" front that only makes him seem like he's badly overcompensating for something. Lighten up, Francis!

Quote :

Lighten up, Francis!

What movie is that from?

It's from Stripes

I want to clarify that I do like Pantera's music. It's just that I find Anselmo's posturing tedious.

Phil was really kewl, once

When he first showed up in Arlington. I am still confused where his cajun accent went when he speaks. Seems he worked on making that disappear and the prison yard shot caller persona appear in it's place

Reading in the back posts of this thread I found that at one time I said concrete sledge was my favorita...dont know where that came from, to straighten it out though, I HATE pantera and ALL groove metal.

manny wrote:

I think 'Reinventing the Steel' is the sound of a band imploding and it was no surprise when the band called it a day soon afterwards.

It was also no secret that Phil was more interested in Down, Superjoint Ritual and being all around a$$hole than being a part of Pantera.

RTS is an amazing album with some killer hooks and riffs.

I am not sure if I ever said much about Pantera here before. They might have been one of the only bands that got airplay and tried to keep real metal alive in all of the 1990s, but I never liked them much. Dimebag was a good guitarist and was probably a good guy from everything I have read and heard about him, but I don't see why he's a guitar hero.

recently, I got in the mail, PANTERA "Proud to be Loud The Best of Pantera" CD-R.
I don't know if it's a fan made compilation, or a copy off a bootleg CD, but am finding it really enjoyable.
Pretty much like good KISS, ANVIL, early WASP or CRUE, etc
So far, the catchiest song that should have gotten these guys known worldwide was "p*ssy Tight Tonight". Yes, silly lyrics, but great rocking, headbanging tunes usually are not politically correct.


They intro their cover of Metallica's Seek and Destroy as Drink and Destroy and the repeat through out after "alright" with "p*ssy tight", or "p*ssy time", so I guess American underground heavy metal/glam-hair metal bands that also liked some heavier stuff like Metallica, still wanted to keep their original fans ?

Now, that I am getting a good dose of what they were like, I definitely want to collect all the original albums, pre-Cowboys From Hell, as I was never a fan of that stuff. In fact, I always hated Pantera's "heavy"/"thrashy" material a LOT ever since 1990/91.
"Mouth For War" was riffy, but I can't remember anything else I liked by them besides that and one (mellower) tune on a metal radio show I heard once called "Cemetary Gates".

Fat Freddy wrote:

I enjoyed COWBOYS a lot, thought VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER was mediocre at best, and it seemed that on every album after that they were simply trying to be more screamy and abrasive than the last record, so I walked away.

I never posted in this thread but thought I'd put my 2 cents in. What you said about them I'm in total agreement. Cowboys is fantastic from beginning to end. Vulgar was a slight step down but still listenable. Far Beyond Driven was a used store purchase and very disappointing. For some reason, I bought Trendkill as a new release and was extremely disappointed. I held onto it for a while hoping it would grow on me but ended up getting rid of it. I never bothered with Reinventing The Steel.

The ones I'd like to hear someday are the pre-Cowboys releases.

Huh, another band that I pretty much don't care about, although they were huge in my highschool, along with White Zombie and Sepultura by the very few metalheads there (everyone else listened to country). I will mosey on up to the altar of confession and say that I did buy the Greatest Hits when it was offered on Amazon for $5. There are a few songs that are ok, my favorite being the cover of Cat Scratch Fever followed by Walk and CFH. Beyond that I just don't listen to it. I have heard most of their stuff at one time or another and Phil desperately needs to invest in a dictionary so he can increase his vocabulary beyond words that start with "F".

SuprimuS wrote:

why would you even open this page if you dont like them?
if you dont like sombody
let it be
dont rip on em

whatever happened
to
this guy?
I dug
his haiku style
of posting

Guess he was "becoming" "shattered" by others "hollow" opinion(s) of Pantera and had to "walk" ?

S.D. wrote:

I saw Pantera open for Black Sabbath on the re-union tour and they were so bad it was almost unlistenable.  Phil was so strung-out he couldn't sing at all...and kept screwing up the lyrics.  

If I never hear Pantera again it will be okay with me.

Funny. I saw them on that same tour and it was seeing them live that actually made me a fan. Prior to that, I didn't really know them, just knew of them. If Phil was messing up the words, I couldn't tell.

As for the albums...
Still love Cowboys and Vulgar, still don't care much for the 2 that followed and I'm apparently one of the few that actually likes Reinventing the Steel. Go figure.

James B. wrote:

Guess he was "becoming" "shattered" by others "hollow" opinion(s) of Pantera and had to "walk" ?

He just needed 5 Minutes Alone before he became F*cking Hostile.

mc666 wrote:

James B. wrote:

Guess he was "becoming" "shattered" by others "hollow" opinion(s) of Pantera and had to "walk" ?

He just needed 5 Minutes Alone before he became F*cking Hostile.

thumbs up Monty

mc666 wrote:

James B. wrote:

Guess he was "becoming" "shattered" by others "hollow" opinion(s) of Pantera and had to "walk" ?

He just needed 5 Minutes Alone before he became F*cking Hostile.

Paid  

A 20th Anniversary edition of Far Beyond Driven is coming out March 25th for those interested. Same album with a 2nd live disc added. Meh.

"Far Beyond Driven: 20th Anniversary Edition" track listing:

Disc One - Original Album Remastered

01. Strength Beyond Strength
02. Becoming
03. 5 Minutes Alone
04. I'm Broken
05. Good Friends And A Bottle Of Pills
06. Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks
07. Slaughtered
08. 25 Years
09. Shedding Skin
10. Use My Third Arm
11. Throes Of Rejection
12. Planet Caravan

Disc Two – "Far Beyond Bootleg - Live From Donington '94"

01. Use My Third Arm
02. Walk
03. Strength Beyond Strength
04. Domination/Hollow
05. Slaughtered
06. f*cking Hostile
07. This Love
08. Mouth For War
09. Cowboys From Hell