That which crushes...

Review Score:

(10/10)
Far Beyond Driven is nearly Pantera's sickest, most disgustingly brutal album. The band's only CD which outdoes it is The Great Southern Trendkill. Far Beyond Driven comes in at a very close second. Thus, this disc is a great place to experience Pantera's crushing wrath.

The guitarwork on tis CD is, obviously, destructively powerful. Dimebag's trademark riffing is present as usual, although his style has developed and matured since Vulgar Display Of Power. The entire band is also much more aggressive sounding, and yet they still keep a hold of their straight-ahead heavy metal feel. Dimebag's solos are viciously powerful, but his true strong point is rhythm guitar work and his creative riff writing. Rex (on bass) also gets a chance to shine on this album more than he did previously. Along with fast thrashing sections, there are also quite a few crunching breakdowns, making the album well rounded and more diverse than Vulgar Display Of Power. As a whole, the disc shows much development - in a more aggressive and a darker direction. Though there are a few weak spots on songs like "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" and "25 Years", these are fairly minor, and the brilliance of the other songs outshines these flaws massively. The disc has a strong sense of personality and emotion instilled in it as well, and you get the feeling that Phil and the band poured all of their effort into creating this work.

As a sort of bonus, the last track on the CD is a cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan". It is a very well done cover, and does a nice job of finishing off the album with a different, softer, more introspective mood.

The production on Far Beyond Driven could be better, but it's nothing to complain about. In some cases the mix overloads because the songs are so heavy, but that's generally the only problem.

Overall, Far Beyond Driven is a great, brutal, and uncompromising album. Anyone into Pantera's ultra-harsh style on The Great Southern Trendkill will certainly love this release, and those more into Vulgar Display Of Power should also enjoy this CD, since it is the next step up in Pantera's progression. This CD is also a good place to start with the band, because of its "bridging the gap" quality.

Nyght.

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