SilentScream213 The Great Southern Trendkill. What the heck does that even mean? Pantera had a penchant for album names that almost made sense, and this was the wackiest. Similarly, the music within is some of their most extreme and eclectic. It’s got easily their heaviest song ever in Suicide Note Pt. 2, whereas Pt. 1 is a calm, slow rocker. Floods is one of their longest songs, almost Progressive in nature and containing one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. The album is surprisingly consistent given the varying styles present here.

That being said, there is still a fair amount of “generic 90’s Groove Metal” here that doesn’t really stand out. Not exactly filler, but songs we’ve all heard many times that don’t offer much to people who aren’t die hard Pantera or Groove Metal fans.

The album has a dark, manic quality to it that probably mirrors the alleged turmoil within the band member’s lives at the time. It sounds like a death throe, and nothing against the underrated Reinventing the Steel, but it would have been a perfect swansong to end their career.

UMUR "The Great Southern Trendkill" is the 8th full-length studio album by US groove metal act Pantera. The album was released through East West Records in May 1996. It´s the successor to "Far Beyond Driven" from 1994, which proved to be a great commercial success for the band, but during the tour supporting the album, things began to change between the members of the band. Lead vocalist Phil Anselmo started acting strange and distancing himself from the rest of the band, and his performances also started to suffer. Anselmo suffered from a back injury (sustained because of his energetic live performances through many years), and had begun self-medicating with alcohol, but soon turned to heroin...and that´s when things really went south. Animosity and resentment grew between the four members of the band, to a point where the material for "The Great Southern Trendkill" were recorded at two seperate studios. The instrumental part of the music was recorded in Dallas, Texas, while Anselmo recorded his vocals at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Stylistically "The Great Southern Trendkill" also comes off a bit disjointed and it´s definitely Pantera´s most experimental album. The core style is still groove metal, featuring the trademark heavy blues based riffs by Dimebag Darrell. The heavy grooves are however only a part of the sound on "The Great Southern Trendkill", which also features more experimental riff types, adventurous guitar solos, acoustic parts, and a wide range of raw, screaming, and aggressive vocals. Anselmo also delivers some clean vocals on the album, so overall "The Great Southern Trendkill" is a varied release.

"War Nerve", "Drag the Waters" (the only track off the album which was made into a music video), "13 Steps to Nowhere", "Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)", "(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin", and "The Underground in America" are all groove laden and riff heavy aggressive tracks, while both the opening title track and "Suicide Note, Part II" are faster paced and more experimental in nature, featuring crazy screaming vocals. The album also features a ballad type track in "Suicide Note, Part I" (which wouldn´t have felt wrong if it was placed on the predominantly acoustic "Jar of Flies (1994)" EP by Alice in Chains) and two dark power ballads in "10's" and "Floods". I´m not sure power ballad is the best way to describe the two latter, as they are quite twisted and dark, but it´s the closest to a generic description I can find.

"The Great Southern Trendkill" features a powerful and heavy sound production, which suits the material perfectly, and paired with the strong musicianship, and the adventurous songwriting, the album is a high quality release. It did not sell the numbers that "Far Beyond Driven (1994)" did, and did not feature as many "hits" as the predecessor, but to my ears it´s probably the stronger of the two. It definitely doesn´t show a band who have lost their nerve or will to experiment with their sound, and it ends up being both a weakness and a strength. It´s a weakness because "The Great Southern Trendkill" is not a particularly accessible album nor is it as catchy as much of the material on the last three releases, and at times it does feel a bit incoherrent, but it´s a strength because Pantera still sound hungry, aggressive, and playful. It´s certainly a bold release at this point in their career. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

SilentScream213 The legendary Vulgar Display of Power. The TRUE original tough guy metal album, and the bottom line set for all of Groove Metal. Does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no.

Vulgar Display of Power is actually one of the first metal albums I’d heard, thanks directly to three of its songs inspiring music in Doom. Back then, Phil’s harsh vocals bulging with testosterone were too tough for middle school me. I couldn’t handle the masculine aggression in that creature, but the riffs were awesome enough to get me to stay until my ears were able to withstand the full-on assault of his drug infused gorilla arms. The music was practically seeping with bull semen and stale alcohol, the guitar tone a disgusting buzzsaw drawl, and the drums hitting like concrete. The cover represents the music well.

The album jumps between aggressive Thrash beats and sharp riffs to plodding, sludgy groove sections; this pretty much set the standard for Groove Metal to follow as Thrash’s slower brother. For me, the Thrash bits are the best part. Songs like “Rise” are perfect example of unrelenting aggression. The pure Groove tracks like “Walk” do very little for me, and it’s that aspect of the album that makes it weaker than Cowboys from Hell to me. However, slower numbers “This Love” and the devastating “Hollow” are super unique and very well-done examples of Pantera’s slower side.

So why do I say “yes and no” as to whether this album lives up to the hype? Well, because across the span of many websites and circles, Vulgar Display of Power is actually not rated insanely high, usually sitting around the “great album, but no masterpiece” numbers. And that’s exactly what it is, simply an unprecedented, flawed, off-center punch in the face like no other. It is unabashedly itself; no masterpiece, but a very vulgar display of power that you can’t look away from, and will certainly never forget.

Unitron "I'M, shedding skin, changing within, falling in"

No other band sings to the anger, frustrations, and deep inner emotions like Pantera for me. They hit hard both physically and emotionally on such a primal level, It's always a release of all the built up emotions ready to come out.

Far Beyond Driven is the band at their most thunderous production, on a good stereo this has the resonance of a cannon blast or an explosion. There's really cool atmospheric touches, mainly on Shedding Skin, probably my favorite song on here if I had to pick. The echo effect on Phil's vocals when he says "I'm" is a small detail yet enhances it a lot and compliments the crawling main riff.

Dimebag's guitar riffs are at their sludgiest, dripping with heavy weight and combined with dissonant screeching and breakdowns. Rex Brown's bass shows its true groove and great hooks, always complimenting Dime's discordant solos. The drums as always pack a punch, going from double kick to a syncopated swing. Phil's vocals though are what completes the extreme fury of this album, with some of the most intense vocals ever put to record, especially with the likes of Slaughtered.

There's so much variety throughout the album, yet always the same energy. Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills is noisy, chaotic, and incredibly dissonant. It reminds me of Slab!, with the combination of spoken word, huge drums, and screeching feedback. Some of the riffs sound a bit southern like something from Down, most notably on I'm Broken, but with the added extra aggression. The contrast is great, especially with 25 Years which always gets me pumped at the end, it's like the musical equivalent of a street brawl. Sometimes the variety is within one song, short songs like Strength Beyond Strength are as if they're split into different sections. It's something I haven't heard elsewhere other than some Megadeth songs like Wake Up Dead.

Ending with a mellow cover might seem odd at first, but with this album, Planet Caravan is a perfect finale. This album is so intense that it's near impossible to sit still, and the Black Sabbath cover acts as a perfect cool down after never letting up for 50 minutes. Far Beyond Driven was the band becoming even more than a fantastic thrash/groove metal band, and really can't be compared to anyone else.

SilentScream213 Another one of the biggest shocks of the 90’s. Sleaze metal losers Pantera decide to reinvent themselves as some sort of cowboy metal saviors, become about 3 times as heavy and start cranking out sludgy mid-tempo riffs as if they’d been doing it all along. The drumming, despite being the same guy as always, takes on a much different flavor here, making way more use of double pedals, Thrash beats and occasionally some technical prowess as well. Phil’s vocals evolve from the generic Glam croon of the last album into some rancid, dehydrated desert monster hell bent on ripping your face off.

All in all it’s just one of those huge wtf transitions that somehow went from the worst aspects of machismo in music to the best. There is little substance here, but there’s some great fun and ass kicking music that was without peer in 1990.