PANTERA - Far Beyond Driven (6.7 on the Richter Scale)

The force of a run away freight train! The combined musical weight of PANFUCKENTERA on their first 'proper' CD is amazing. Dimebag chews through the guitar riffs like its fucken playschool, Rex commands the bass with killer licks, Vinnies' drumming buries into your skull like bullets, and finally.. last but not least, Phils' vocals� metallishit� eat your shitty little hearts out! Phil's tremendous vocal capacity kicks the shit out of any other power/progressive metal band. In the words of the song, 'I'm Broken', "Look at you now, you're broken!" and you will be. We have kick ass tracks like '5 Minutes Alone', 'I'm Broken', 'Becoming', and 'Throes of Rejection' which are in the normal in-your-face style of the boys. Then you come to cool tracks like 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' and 'Planet Caravan (an old Black Sabbath classic) which are new for PANTERA (well.. were new when this CD came out, now we have songs like Drag The Waters, This Love, Suicide Note Pt1 & 2 and Floods). I can't really explain 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' Phil doesn't really sing the verses, he just speaks it like he's narrating a story. Planet Caravan is just a really cool - soulful, trippy track. It could be compared with something like, 'Floods' (off PANTERA'S 'The Great Southern Trendkill' Album) It's awesome, check it out.

Highlights of this cd are the variety of songs, price (20 bucks), art work and songs like 'Becoming', '5 Minutes Alone', 'I'm Broken', 'Hard Lines and Sunken Cheeks', 'Throes of Rejection' and 'Planet Caravan'.

Reviewed by Alex The Liar