Pantera - Cowboys from Hell
(Atco) 1990
1. "Cowboys from Hell"
(4:06)
2. "Primal Concrete Sledge" (2:13)
3. "Psycho Holiday" (5:19)
4. "Heresy" (4:45)
5. "Cemetery Gates" (7:03)
6. "Domination" (5:02)
7. "Shattered" (3:21)
8. "Clash with Reality" (5:15)
9. "Medicine Man" (5:15)
10. "Message in Blood" (5:09)
11. "The Sleep" (5:47)
12. "The Art of Shredding" (4:16)
I remember hearing a local band play "Cementary Gates" in a club and totally impressed with their rendition of it. What an incredible song. So, of course, I had to find out who that song was. Come to find out it was PANTERA?!? Wow! I always blew off Pantera as a weak glammy power-metal band that my college room mate was into. So I checked out the album "Cowboys from Hell" and was very impressed with the bands mix of melodic metal and pure aggression. The vocals were so awesome. They were brutal and at times shouted, but at others times the guy could sing. Check out the high pitched vox in "Medicine Man" or the beautifully sung "Cemetary Gates." Phil Anselmo could hold his own with most of the more melodic vocalists of the late 80's and early 90's. The guitar riffs also set this disc apart from what many other bands were doing at the time. Well it seems others agreed with me as this was the band's big breakthrough album, with the songs "Cemetery Gates", "Psycho Holiday" and "Cowboys from Hell" all being put on regular rotation on MTV's Headbanger's Ball and the album went on to sell gold in a relatively short period of time with little or no radio play and has now been confirmed platinum plus.
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power (Atco/Atlantic) 1992
1. "Mouth for War"
(3:56)
2. "A New Level" (2:57)
3. "Walk" (5:15)
4. "F***ing Hostile" (2:49)
5. "This Love" (6:32)
6. "Rise" (4:36)
7. "No Good (Attack the Radical)" (4:50)
8. "Live in a Hole" (4:59)
9. "Regular People (Conceit)" (5:27)
10. "By Demons Be Driven" (4:39)
11. "Hollow" (5:45)
Hearing this for the first time I thought to myself, "wow, these guys are really ticked off". "Vulgar Display of Power" is an extremely heavy album, far heavier than the album that proceeded it. Dime has such a brutal guitar tone on this CD. Just listen to the riff in "Walk" and see if it doesn't send you into spastic headbanging fits. This album is most certainly driven by Darrell Abbott's simple grooves and that intense guitar tone. Unlike their preceeding album, this CD doesn't seem to have the melody or quality songs like "Cowboys for Hell" or especially "Cemetary Gates". Phillip Anselmo's mix of singing and hardcore yelling was decent on that CD. On this one Phil pretty much drops the singing for the angry yelling that pretty much works hand in hand with the equally angry lyrics. There are some spots where Phil shows that he can still sing such as in "The Love" and album closer "Hollow". I think I am one of the few metalhead alive who thinks that Phil Anselmo is one of the most overrated singers ever. (This was especially proven true to me when I saw him perform with Superjoint Ritual at Ozzfest. The new metal god? Not even.) The lyrics one this album are perfectly summed up by the album title. Anger, anger and more anger. Vulgur for sure! The band's timing was perfect. The tone was changing at the time. Whereas in the 1980's, heavy music was either about good times or was some sort of b-grade horror Satanism, Pantera appealed to an angry generation who were looking for something different and dangerous. Amazingly this album became a huge seller for the band with several singles being generated. A couple cuts from this CD were used as theme music for "Headbanger's Ball" in the 90's. (Thanks Kieran!)
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