Pantera

Reinventing The Steel

Pantera, the band of the fans, and their near-perfect gem

Review Score:

(8/10)
My only gripe with STEEL is the lackluster lyrical content, (mostly drug-related nonsense) but other than that, this record kicks major ass as only these Dallas Cowboys from Hell can! The production is crystal clear, Vinnie's drums are bigger than Texas, Dime's guitars are heavier than molten iron, Rex's bass sounds like a bass and rhythm guitar playing at the same time (AMAZING!), and Drill Sergeant Phil lays down the law in this heavy metal boot camp!

Ten tracks with blast beats that remind you of salvo after salvo of enemy machine gun fire, guitar solos that shred your
soul into a billion trillion fragments, grinding riffs from the
deepest chasms of Gehenna, punch-you-in-the-jaw-and-
break-all-your-teeth vocal delivery, a sonic and athletic performance that Metalli-crap and the rest couldn't match to save their life (I dare say, not even Slayer/Death Metal)... but only the lyrics don't do me justice. But
that's okay because STEEL, like all true masterpieces, have at least one flaw that actually gives the work its beauty, no matter how twisted that may sound.

We all found out the ugly truth about Metallica even as far
back as '91: they are only in it for the money. Pantera came
as the "messiah" of all that is good and pure about heavy
metal. And, (gasp) believe it or not, these guys actually
appreciate their fans! (well at least Vinnie and Dime do)
It's too bad these guys had to break up. It wasn't Phil's
fault or anyone else's fault. It was drugs. Vinnie and Dime

know the truth about drugs but Phil is enslaved by heroin
and thinks anyone who does not use is less than human. That's
bulls*** bigger than Texas. (hell, even the whole damn
South!) But Pantera made the best damn heavy metal in all of
God's green earth and NOTHING can take that away.

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