Don't you just love this band? Despite the fact these Texans
showed extraordinary little talent throughout their entire career they're still
regarded as one of the major players in metal. A more ludicrous thing is hard
to imagine, except for maybe Sepultura being dubbed as the most melodic metal
band. Speaking of Sepultura, these guys here are doing the same old mistakes
as all thrash/grindcore bands do. So lemme count them then. Let's see. Mistake
one - their singer Philip Anselmo sucks with vengeance. I mean, this guy doesn't
have a single redeeming point. He mostly growls, but when he "sings" (take this
dubious statement with a hearty grain of salt), it sounds even worse than Blaze
Bayley while he's vomiting. In other words, it's pretty fucking bad. Ugh...
and I don't want to speak about the vocal harmonies at all. Mistake two – this
band puts an awful lot of emphasis on the ass kicking side of the whole shebang
and while doing so they pretty much abandon any involving content that should
be found within the songs. No atmosphere and no depth whatsoever. You might
enjoy this band if you're here for the grumbling riffs and aggressive attitude
alone, and while you'll certainly get that in spades, you can kiss the word
melody goodbye.
Okay, the story of Pantera goes as follows. Prior to this record which was their
debut on a new label, they've released a handful of power/glam/whatever metal
albums that might be masterpieces but they also could be the very ugliest-looking
shit of their catalog, but I dunno cuz I didn't listen to them and if their
later work is any indication of quality – I doubt I ever will. Anyhow, the guys
dumped the spandex and decided to be as nasty as possible and this is where
this abomination comes in. Musically this is thrash metal more or less at its
finest, but only musically, and in the sense of the sharp guitar work. Dimebag
Darrell is a damn cool player, but sheeez, would ya ditch that Anselmo character
already? He totally wrecks all the enjoyment I might have and he does so with
style. So there's plenty of crunch here and while the one dimensional sound
isn't especially heavy they make up for it with the extremely loud mixing approach.
Onto the songs then! The ripping title track plain smokes and spots an catchy
riff so I proclaim it to be a winner. Cool, huh? It started pretty darn fine,
BUT... then the band loses that little amount of melody they had on the opener
and various kinds of shit starts to happen.
"Primal Concrete Sledge" is just aggression for the sake of aggression with
little point or sense of direction. It just grinds around a bit and immediately
fades away from my memory. "Psycho Holiday" is a trifle more memorable, but
not enough for me to actually remember any of it right now. Another pointless
bruiser then. Aw hell, I could continue in this manner until the very end but
luckily the next two songs are pretty good, albeit dull. "Heresy" is yet another
rocker that's practically just a distorted mess but is injected with some harmonic
elements, so okay, it does manage to stick in my mind a somewhat. The all-too-famous
semi- ballad "Cemetery Gates" actually blows as I'm not impressed by Anselmo's
pseudo-emotional vocals in the least. The buildup intro is smooth and cool but
the song simply lacks melody, at least when compared to the stuff thrash masters
like Metallica were churning out. In fact, the only reason why I wouldn't put
this song in the waste bins is the inclusion of a really prime mastodontic riff,
probably the best one on the record, if not the best of their entire career
(so that explains why I've put it in the "best song" section). Also, most of
these tunes have powerful solos wrapped around them, although that's not reason
enough for giving the album more than a passing grade.
The other stuff on here (basically countless noisy rockers) constantly have
their ups and downs, but, all things considered, there's much more downs. I
suppose I should make mention of "The Sleep" which I hoped it would turn out
to be a ballad, but the wonderful acoustic intro is soon spoiled by more hardcore
wankery. Obviously they needed another chaotic mess as the album was about to
end. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the crunch, but I'd like to hear some
inspired crunch for a change. In similar respect "The Art Of Shredding" begins
a bit softer but is followed by an onslaught of, imagine this, good riffage,
so I'm more than happy they chose it as the closing number. All in all, there's
too much mindless wandering (especially in the lyrical department) and indulging
in ominous yet tiresome grinding. It could have been good, but they ain't no
Metallica and they sure wont clobber anyone over the head with awesome melodies
anytime soon. There's much room for improvement over here, that's for sure.
Mail your comments and reviews!
More hard-core wankery from everyone's favorite noise band.
Chaotic as usual the only positive thing about the album is Dimebag Darell,
an guitarist that deserved a place in some better outfit. Ah well, so what do
we have here then? Have they made any progress? Ehm, probably... I guess. Anselmo
growls much more than on the previous album but that shouldn't be a problem
as his voice stinks one way or the other. I suspect it's as good a time as any
to tell you that I have serious problems with thrash/death/black metal bands.
They're simply there for the aggression, sacrificing everything else (including
melodies) for the greater good... er, evil. Basically they're always dark and
incredibly noisy. Heaviness reigns. I don't have a problem with that, but hell,
those songs are just senseless expressions of violence that fail to leave any
deeper impact on me or anyone else for that matter (except for psychopaths,
of course). You'll like them while they're on but when the dust settles you
wont remember a darn thing about the music, and this album is almost a stereotypical
example of that. After all, they don't do anything else besides endless and
quite annoying grinding. I must say that from all similar bands the only one
I really love is Testament since their singer Chuck Billy has a exceptional
voice and they're brutally heavy yet amazingly melodic.
Anyway, since I've mentioned some progress, here it is. I gotta admit that Pantera's
songwriting took a turn for the better and while doing so accomplished some
mighty fine results (unlike the lyrics which are now more pathetic than ever
as shown here: "No fucking surrender, can't lose, life kills."). There's a massive
amount of biting grooves in most numbers, and, get this, they've even imported
some neat melodies! Granted, these songs are still somewhat tiresome but almost
all of them are highlights in their own right, but just not as good as anything
on Metallica's Ride The Lightning. Let's give them names then. Okay,
so you've got your typical stunning opener in the form of "Mouth For War" first,
which has great riffage but sounds extremely one dimensional as far the mixing
is concerned, much more than other tracks which is a pity seeing the riffs only
got worse from this point on. Elsewhere you'll get stuff like "Walk" which is
hilarious in its seriousness and "tough guy" lyrical contents so it remains
simplistic angry drivel like anything off Cowboys. Aw... of course I
can't deny the groove, but still, it's so goddamn primitive that it makes me
sick. However, when you get pass that crappy number you'll actually find that
most songs on the album are rather cool with "A New Level", "Rise", "No Good
(Attack The Radical)" and "Regular People" all being moderate top draws. First
of these is especially interesting featuring a stellar guitar solo, while "Regular
People" possesses a crunchy chorus well worth listening to.
I don't think I've yet mentioned this is a quite heavier release than Pantera's
previous chunk of steel. Also, Dimebag Darell plays differently this time, abandoning
mind-blowing guitar solos, which could be a step back, but isn't cause the powerful
grooves save the day. Anyway, there's a couple more rockers on here but they're
not too interesting so let's tackle the obligatory semi-ballads now. Like I've
expected, there's not many of them. "This Love" is probably one of them and
it's rather bland, I must say, even though the combination of the gentler and
harder parts does make up for some, well, not exactly diversity, but it sure
lowers the annoyance factor generated by this album... ehm, somewhat. Regardless
of this not-so-successful experiment the absolute highlight here is "Hollow",
Pantera's first truly memorable stab at semi-ballad epics. It starts with downright
beautiful echoey guitar lines which I know I've heard somewhere else, but nevertheless,
even Anselmo's voice sounds appropriate this time so I was more than ecstatic
upon hearing it. I really enjoy the harmonies here, and the heavy riffage that
follows fits in nicely. It's a perfect closing number that waters down the venomous
tensions somewhat and gives a slight nod to a more gentler side of the band.
If the unnecessary violence on most of the tracks irritated me this last song
convinced me to give Pantera another chance and not to strictly look upon them
as a rednecky band they actually are. Maybe there's hope for them yet.
Mail your comments and reviews!
I must say I've always wondered just how does Pantera approach
the process of recording a new album. It's a question worth of an answer since
in their essence this band is merely a passable one and as such it's frequently
only saved by Dimebag Darrell's fiery guitar playing. Without the doubt on all
of their earlier albums his, well, unique guitar work was just about the only
thing worth mentioning since the words "inspired/intelligent metal" could all
but apply to them. Don't think that the rest of the band was incompetent either,
they're all good if generic players. But one thing that's comforting is that
a generic player from the nineties has certainly heaps and heaps more of charisma
and, dare I say it, technical precision than your average seventies player.
So that's not so bad. Anyway, it seems I've strayed off the topic a bit, but
I'm just thinking to myself.... now, we all know that the foundation for all
metal songs should be some kind of a riff (well, or some power chords but even
those are supposed to sound memorable, even if that happens just rarely, or
close to never, in fact). So I guess it's Darrell's task to come up with a slab
of interesting riffage which he usually achieves, but not always of course and
certainly not here. That said I can almost picture the guys jamming in their
little studio with Anselmo blurting out some "tough guy" garbage and Darrell
noodling away like there's no tomorrow. And this, my friends, leads me to the
opening question: why do I always get the feeling that while listening to virtually
any of their albums it all sounds so goddamn, well, improvised? Even the riffs
are usually kinda melody-less, kinda noisy, kinda half-baked. It's like they
just accidentally found themselves in the same room and then proceeded to waste
some tape on these, err, songs. However, a similar way of thinking is present
on pretty much any Motorhead album too, and yet Motorhead's rebellious rock
'n' roll spirit always manages to overcome any possible inconsistencies within
the songs thusly making them sound sloppy, but also entertaining and exciting.
Pantera doesn't appear to have much "spirit" of any kind, but Dimebag Darrell
doesn't mind playing fast, precise and using various guitar tricks so he almost
always knew how to present Pantera's sub-par material in a way that it will
make it at least look smart. Unfortunately, when he decides to play slow and
to use boring de-tuned "grooves" instead of rapid onslaughts of riffage that's
when all sorts of shit starts to happen. Much to my disappointment that's exactly
what he does on "Reinventing The Steel" rendering much of its tracks to sound
either awkward or just plain dumb. So if you've heard any of their albums, and
if I tell you that Darrell plays at a sluggish pace then you really shouldn't
be surprised to hear that this particular record has as much melody as your
typical Slipknot album (but then again, they were also influenced by the mighty
Panteras...) which is sorrowful to say the least.
Okay, speaking of speed and flashiness I admit that "The Great Southern Trendkill"
was also dragging as hell, but at least that offering had some cool atmosphere
to it, this primitive de-tuned shit just grinds and grinds, and grinds, and
grinds... Of course, don't think that I actually like "The Great Southern Trendkill"!
Hell no! It was a dull tuneless mess, but I guess it was supposed to be an experiment
and I can't blame them for wanting to expand their musical horizon a bit. It's
a different matter that Pantera sucks when they try to escape from their little
thrash/whatever-core box. At least they tried. Anyway, the level of intensity
and senseless violence generated by this stuff is perhaps slightly captivating
but after a few first songs this gets really mind-numbing and rambling. Let's
take a generic grinder like "Hellbound" for example. Well it's not bad cause
it's short but Anselmo's vocals drag it through mud and that riffage is just
way too bland to carry out a song that serves as the album's opener. And it
doesn't get much better later on. According to its lyrics "Goddamn Electric"
is a sort of a tribute to Black Sabbath and Slayer, but it's so goddamn meandering
and quite simply, boring! It is somewhat helped out by Kerry King's guest appearance
tackled at the end of the track where he contributes a soaring guitar solo and
even Darrell picks up the pace a bit, but still, in my opinion, this pointless
wankfest should have been scraped anyway.
I do, however, enjoy "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit" quite a bit since it rides
high on a snappy and very catchy vocal melody courtesy of Phil Anselmo and Darrell's
mid-tempo chainsaw-riffing fits in perfectly. A few others roll along with some
effective riffs as well, including "Death Rattle" and "Revolution Is My Name"
which both evolved in a similar manner since they're also driven by surprisingly
strong vocal hooks and their intense onslaughts of riffage seem to be a tad
faster than usual. Plus, the aforementioned powerhouse of "Revolution Is My
Name" supposedly got some airplay in the States so that proves my "catchiness"
point even further. Elsewhere the songs get even more plodding, yawn-inducing
and horrendously heavy with "It Makes Them Disappear", "You've Got To Belong
To It" and the trippy-titled "We'll Grind That Axe For A Long Time" being prime
examples. Granted, the band does shake off their collective de-tuned shackles
for a split second on "It Makes Them Disappear" where a clean, distortion-free
guitar segment makes an all-too-brief appearance, but the songwriter in charge
immediately hammers it down with enough nuclear power to blow up Nagasaki. So
like I've said, all tracks are incredibly brutal all around but I just can't
stand so much derivative and uninspired hammering. At least when Alice Cooper
went this heavy on his last two albums he sticked to his guns and displayed
a wide selection of vocal hooks, not to mention that his riffs were waaaaaay
catchier. Also, between other misfires, the biggest and the most constant one
is Anselmo's growling vocal work which at this point in Pantera's career almost
always comes across as fucking laughable. Well, I think I wrote a satisfactory
lil' review of this thing so I might as well wrap it up. And for those of you
in need of a closing word I'll say this much; Pantera aren't at all imaginative
but if you're looking for a grinding heavy metal record without much substance
then this drivel definitively qualifies.
Mail your comments and reviews!