Pantera

Reinventing The Steel

Pantera: Reinventing The Steel

Review Score:

(2/10)
Before I begin, I would like to mention that I am burnt out with Pantera these days. "Vulgar Display Of Power" was a great album at first, but the music got REALLY old. Their concert CD had quite a negitive impact on my stance with Pantera in general. Filled with yelling interludes about trends and how they are kings of metal and all that nonsense coming from the annoying voice of Phil Anselmo, I immedietely lost all my respect for the band.

Simply put, this album would be more appropriate if it were just a really bad autobiography of the band. "Yesterday..." is a track condemning everyone initially turned off by their music. In particular, the lyrics tell that the genesis of Pantera (glam rock band without a trace of the style used by them now) is irrelevant to the fact that they are still "brutal metal music", and that the people that say they are fakes or posers due to their past, should forget about it and see what they are now as opposed to before. The song could've given an accurate and completely defensive message to those to only pay attention to their history and backround and not their music. Unfortunetely, due to Phil Anselmo's arrogance and fixed pursuit of being hardcore and tough (even though he was only in 2 of the albums made during their glam era, before turning it around), it remains a blatant attempt to try and keep people from questioning his masculinity. Besides, I've heard that they beat down fans or interviewers who ask about their glam period, proving that they have not yet gotten over their involvement with it. You could argue that they abuse these people in order to try and snap them out of their questions of the past and to make them look at the present, but the way I see it, they have remember that the past doesn't mean anything.

"Goddamn Electric" has references to Black Sabbath and Slayer, and is just a track basically telling you to be laid back and to enjoy life.

I've only commented lyrics up to this point in my review, and there is good reason for it. The music here serves no real purpose but to just fill up the backround. If there is a track telling you to be laid-back and to enjoy life, then perhaps the "intense and brutal" guitar riffs are woefully out of place. For good measure, writing a song addressed to fans telling them who they are and to accept them for who they are and what they do is fine. But putting these loud guitar-noises in the backround to it, and even screaming is just over-reacting.

Lyrics aside, the music is a mixture of Far Beyond Driven and Cowboys From Hell. Dimebag's guitar-riffs are grating and annoying. In "Vulgar Display Of Power", they were smooth, but not incredibly heavy, but this just sounds awful. I can't help but compare them to earlier Slipknot's guitar riffs. Guitar solos are nothing special. Vinnie Paul was always a great drummer, so I don't find his work here to be too shabby at all. But Phil Anselmo sounds just the same as always with his unskilled, throaty screaming, and awful singing.

The songs here are just pitiful. Lyrical emphasis is good for rap music, but it certainly isn't here. If you want anything from Pantera, I would suggest you stick with Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power. Hell, maybe even Far Beyond Driven. My perspnal recommendation to you is to stear clear of Pantera. Hypocritical, worn-out, and boring are keywords describing them. Not untalented by any stretch of imagination, but just annoying.

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