Pantera is the most famous metal band to ever come out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Their influence on metal is still being felt decades after their last album, and everyone who's been in the scene doubtless has his or her own opinion on what constitutes their best work. This is my take on their legacy in terms of what represents them at their best, and what represents the worst they had to offer. Here are all nine of Pantera's studio albums, ordered from worst to best. A few of these placings will no doubt be controversial to more hardcore Pantera fans!
The epitome of bad Pantera, the very worst the band ever had to offer, is represented by this sophomore effort. It is plagued by decidedly unmemorable tunes; overindulgent, self important performances; and incredibly insipid, asinine lyrics which are silly to the point of near self-mockery. The lyrics in particular often sound like they belong in something by Bon Jovi or Justin Bieber or some cheesy boy band-type pop singer's catalog instead of in a metal album, even one of this vintage. Vocalist Terrence Glaze's performance is ear piercingly shrill, and he seems to never tire of taking every opportunity to wail in his upper register whether or not the material arguably calls for it. In my opinion, Projects in the Jungle represents a precipitous fall from the nascent but promising sounds heard on Metal Magic the previous year. I get that the metal scene in DFW was still young and comparatively underdeveloped in 1984, but there WERE better pickings to be had at the time. Projects is hard to listen to in one sitting, or in multiple sittings, or in any sittings at all. It fails on all counts and is just not good at all, and it's hard to imagine a worse introduction to the Pantera catalog.
This final album with Terrence Glaze absolutely oozes 1980s hair metal excess in songwriting, performance, and production. I can't comment on Glaze's stage presence or on how animated or great a showman he was, but I can say that I really hate a lot of the vocals on this album. It's not that they're BAD - they are, in fact, wholly appropriate for this genre of metal - it's that I can't stand the ostentatiousness of the attitude evinced in songs like "Hot and Heavy" and "Valhalla." In my opinion, those are prime examples of the very epitome of hair metal triteness that has absolutely not aged well. There's video footage on the internet of of Phil Anselmo singing "Hot and Heavy" with the band in 1988 at Dallas City Limits, and he does quite well with the material in what is overall a very kick-ass set. The song undoubtedly worked better live than it does here, but it's just not my cup of tea as presented. As for the rest of the album, there are a couple of near direct hits that are unfortunately marred by over the top vocals and painfully dated production claptrap. "Onward We Rock" is practically a hair metal anthem, despite its silly "We're metal, hear us roar!" attitude and lyrics, and it is easily the catchiest tune on the album. "Down Below" is similarly trite lyrically, and the high-pitched vocal shrieks in Glaze's performance really grate on my nerves. Nevertheless, it too is a fairly solid song at its core. Phil Anselmo would sing a much better version of it on Power Metal two years later. Even album closer "Forever Tonight" is actually fairly strong, but like the others it is marred by the vocal stylings of Terrence Glaze and the unfortunate 1980s glam trappings that ooze throughout its production. I actually like the main guitar hook on "Come On Eyes," though I have little good to say about the rest of it, including the guitar solo. Other songs, particularly "Daughters of the Queen" and "Valhalla," are just plain stupid and best served up with a healthy helping of the mute button (or, better yet, skipped altogether). I first got my hands on a copy of this album in 1995. Had this been the first thing I'd ever heard from Pantera, I would have closed the door on this band for good.
Down Below
Daughters of the Queen
Valhalla
I remember being excited to buy this one when it first came out. I picked it up brand new, all songs unheard, with an eagerness that found encouragement in my love for Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power. I also distinctly remember the overpowering sense of dismay that enveloped me as I listened through one song after another, disappointed again and again. Maybe I just never "got" this one. I've heard that it was misunderstood and underappreciated in its time, and that it grows on you, but for me it simply never has. I see it today largely as I did in 1996: a lot of noise, a lot of genuine "WTF?!" material, and a few killer hooks and ideas that are criminally underutilized across the work as a whole. Album opener "The Great Southern Trendkill" bursts out of the gate with a mindless scream from Phil that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album. Follow up track "War Nerve" starts out strong, but loses it for me as soon as Phil's vocals come in. It's honestly material like this that makes me miss the days when he utilized his full vocal range from low growl to Halford-esque falsetto. "Drag the Waters" has one of those killer hooks, but I'm tired of it and of the song long before the end of its nearly five minute run time. The same applies to "13 Steps to Nowhere." In fact, if there's one way for me to sum up this album, it would be "inspired but tired." Some it is just noise to me ("Suicide Note Pt. II"), and some of it starts out catchy and strong but soon devolves into Far Beyond Driven style sludge ("Living Through Me (Hells' Wrath)"). A lot of the vocal performances in particular sound like drug-addled, moronic blubbering. If not for the cringeworthiness of some of their glam era stuff, this would easily be Pantera's worst album. It's a genuine disappointment on all levels.
Living Through Me (Hells' Wrath)
The Underground in America
Suicide Note Parts I and II
Floods
Far Beyond Driven is (in)famous for being one of the most - if not THE most - extreme albums to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. In 1995, when I went to my first "big" concert, it was to see Pantera (with Type O Negative opening) playing in support of this album. It's definitely well known as a brutal, hard-hitting, extremely aggressive collection of tunes. But despite that, and despite my attempts during my teenage years to reprogram my tastes to the contrary, I've just never really liked this one all that much. In my opinion, it just doesn't have the catchiness of anything on Vulgar Display of Power or Cowboys from Hell, or even on Power Metal, for that matter. And although some of the more ferocious numbers are absolutely KILLER metal that really get you pumped up and exhilarated (e.g., "Strength Beyond Strength" and "Use My Third Arm"), they are all too often ruined by a transition to slow, energy-sapping sludge a few verses in, or given over to a long, monotonous repetitiousness that just drags on and on (the ending to "5 Minutes Alone"). If not for that emasculation of initial head banging intensity, and the inclusion of the "Planet Caravan" cover, a song I've never liked to begin with whether performed by Black Sabbath or anyone else, this album could have easily ranked at the #3 position on my list. As is, it comes in in the bottom half, ahead of the D and F tier efforts but far, far behind the early '90s classics.
Slaughtered
Shedding Skin
Planet Caravan
That's right, one of Pantera's glam era albums actually makes the top five on my list (if this upsets you, just wait). This seemingly inauspicious debut, listened to today, sounds very unexceptional and unmemorable, but it does in fact have a few quite catchy tunes to its name. This is especially true if one considers the point in their careers that the Abbott brothers and Rex Brown were at when it was recorded. "Diamond" Darrell was all of sixteen years old, and still managed to shred with a dexterity that foreshadows the great things to come just a few more years down the road. Metal Magic is also thankfully light on most of the horrible glam metal trappings of its era: triggered-sounding toms, excessive reverb, and the heavy use of synthesizers. The synths do make appearances on a few songs, but thankfully only four of them, and not nearly as egregiously as they could have been. Even Terrence Glaze's vocal performances are kept within reasonable bounds on this one, and as tamed here, his singing has a bit more punch and a whole lot less ear-piercing shriek to it. Of course, it goes without saying that the cover artwork is beyond dreadful, looking a lot like something an adolescent middle schooler might have drawn inside his Trapper Keeper while doodling during study hall.
Metal Magic
Widowmaker
Nothin' On (But the Radio)
Biggest Part of Me
As Pantera's final studio album, Reinventing the Steel is something of a return to form after the disappointing Trendkill four years earlier. Phil is in 100% growl/scream mode here, with all vestiges of his earlier Rob Halford-esque range now firmly in the rear view mirror. That's a shame, because that range, properly utilized, was easily one of the biggest selling points of his earlier efforts with Pantera, but at least here the catchy riffs and actual melodies (something absent in a lot of today's metal) return to center stage. This isn't Trendkill Part II - this is actually pretty good. Things get off to a really shaky start with "Hellbound," easily my least favorite track on the album and something that might have been more appropriately included on its predecessor, but musically things redeem themselves quickly beginning with the second track, "Goddamn Electric." Track number five, "Revolution is My Name," ranks as one of the best tunes the band ever recorded, in my opinion. I absolutely love the groove and the riffs on that one. Also cranking up the intensity in a good way are plenty of other offerings - "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit," "Uplift," and indeed most of the rest of the album save for the aforementioned "Hellhound" and "It Makes Them Disappear," the other song on Steel I can most do without. All throughout, Pantera succeeds where so many of today's metal bands fail with their cookie monster vocals and headache-inducing battery of undeveloped guitar riffs shoved at you unrelentingly to the point of listener fatigue. Pantera still understood that the backbone of any real song is an actual melody, with recognizable and catchy hooks that draw you in as a listener and keep you there. Where this album fails the hardest is in the lyrics. A lot of them seem to call back to the earlier '80s shtick of partying hard and being metal badasses (e.g., "Goddamn Electric," "I'll Cast a Shadow," etc.) I'm not sure what happened to the lyrical acuity demonstrated in Phil's earlier efforts, but Vulgar Display of Power-esque these are not. As long as you can get past that, this is a fairly solid album, though not as good as the top three on my list.
Revolution is My Name
It Makes Them Disappear
Yes, that's right. I've placed Power Metal higher than Reinventing the Steel in my rankings. My top five Pantera albums include two of their 1980s efforts (I told you this list might be controversial!). Power Metal is very much a transitional album, made with one foot in '80s hair metal and the other in the burgeoning groove metal sound that would come fully into its own on Cowboys from Hell two years later. Nevertheless, there's plenty here for fans of the major label era Pantera to enjoy if they like the Cowboys album. "Over and Out" and "Death Trap" could easily have found a place on Pantera's major label debut in a bit more refined forms. On the other hand, there are selections that are most definitely steeped more in the hair metal subgenre than in groove, chief among them album opener "Rock the World" and side one finisher "Proud to Be Loud," the two weakest cuts on the album. "Down Below" is the same song previously included on I Am the Night, though the interpretation here is better in every possible way when compared to the original. Overall, Power Metal is a solid collection of cuts from an era when you could actually understand the lyrics and identify the melodies in heavy metal. And gone are most of the worst trappings of '80s glam, including the triggered-sounding toms, the gratuitously sappy synth lines, and the earache-inducing, high-pitched wails of former lead singer Terrence Glaze. Phil Anselmo's range is better, his high notes are actually euphonious for the material and don't grate on my nerves like those of his predecessor, and the compositions themselves are overall much, much stronger than anything on the band's first three efforts. I understand that a lot, if not most, of this material was already written by the time Phil joined the band, and that this is, by his own admission, his least favorite of his five albums with them. Nevertheless, those who appreciate a wider vocal range, less insipid lyrics, and a healthy dose of metal ass kicking should find themselves pretty happy with this early Phil Anselmo era outing. Power Metal was the first Pantera album to be released on compact disc, and copies of it are still floating around on eBay and in the secondhand market. It's worth a pickup if you can find it.
Death Trap
Hard Ride
Proud to Be Loud
This was Pantera's breakthrough album, their first major label outing, and the release that was retroactively christened their "real" or "official" debut as part of their subsequent efforts to erase their glam metal past. Cowboys was a commercial success, thrusting the groove-based metal sound front and center and putting the boys from Texas firmly on the national map for the first time. As with Power Metal, Phil's impressive vocal range is on full display, this time augmented by top notch production and a far stronger collection of material that does it better justice. And it's all present here: everything from the high-pitched wails on "Shattered" to the deep, sinister growls of "Medicine Man" (amazing versatility in that one!). Phil's vocal dexterity in his prime was phenomenal for the genre, and it was an absolutely perfect fit for the material. I really wish he hadn't completely abandoned this style in later years, though I understand the need to change in order to better suit the harder, more aggressive tone that characterizes the band's later work. And of course nothing can be said of "Diamond" (not yet "Dimebag") Darrell's stunning and ferocious guitar work that hasn't already been said before. There's something here for everyone: the extremely catchy, nearly dance-worthy infectiousness of album opener and eponymous track "Cowboys from Hell," the pounding grind of "Primal Concrete Sledge," the tribal rhythms of "Medicine Man" (one of my very favorite songs on this album), the vocal crescendos and ascending guitar wails of standout track "Cemetery Gates," the dark, moody uncertainty of slower power ballad "The Sleep," and so on and so on. The production and performances are all fantastic, and the bass sound is just the kind I like in metal - beefy, crisp, clean, and on point (though to be fair, the bass is the one thing that sounds consistently good across Pantera's entire discography). In a certain sense, this is where things really began for the band, or at least kicked into high gear. They were riding high from this point forward, and this album most definitely represents a high point in their catalog and career.
Cemetery Gates
Medicine Man
This is it, and you knew this one would be at the top of the list. Vulgar Display of Power is hands down one of the most influential metal albums of the 1990s, one that helped power the genre through the dark days of grunge and nu metal domination of the rock charts, and which also served as my introduction to Pantera back when I was in middle school. They actually played a track from this album ("Hollow") on the radio at the time, and little did I suspect that this one metal album would have such a lasting impact on my appreciation for the entire genre. My biggest gripe with Vulgur, and it's not really a gripe so much as it is a lamentation, is that this would be the last time Phil would actually sing in a normal singing voice, and the last time he would really show off his impressive vocal range. Everything after this is mostly shouting and yelling, or in the case of Trendkill, high-pitched screaming (think "Suicide Note, Pt. II"). It definitely wears out its welcome after a while, and can have the effect of making some of the later Pantera material tiresome to listen to in a single sitting. But here, there's just the right mix of aggressive vocal posturing, yelling, and occasional singing to pull things off without getting too monotonous. And the material has just the right amount of variety in both style and execution, while not running afoul of the album's titular theme. This, much more so than on any other album, is the Pantera we all know and love.
Walk
No Good (Attack the Radical)
Regular People (Conceit)
Hollow
9. Projects in the Jungle (Metal Magic, 1984)
The epitome of bad Pantera, the very worst the band ever had to offer, is represented by this sophomore effort. It is plagued by decidedly unmemorable tunes; overindulgent, self important performances; and incredibly insipid, asinine lyrics which are silly to the point of near self-mockery. The lyrics in particular often sound like they belong in something by Bon Jovi or Justin Bieber or some cheesy boy band-type pop singer's catalog instead of in a metal album, even one of this vintage. Vocalist Terrence Glaze's performance is ear piercingly shrill, and he seems to never tire of taking every opportunity to wail in his upper register whether or not the material arguably calls for it. In my opinion, Projects in the Jungle represents a precipitous fall from the nascent but promising sounds heard on Metal Magic the previous year. I get that the metal scene in DFW was still young and comparatively underdeveloped in 1984, but there WERE better pickings to be had at the time. Projects is hard to listen to in one sitting, or in multiple sittings, or in any sittings at all. It fails on all counts and is just not good at all, and it's hard to imagine a worse introduction to the Pantera catalog.
Best songs:
Blue Lite Turnin' Red [guitar solo with no vocals or other instrumentation]
Worst songs:
[Everything else]
8. I Am the Night (Metal Magic, 1985)
This final album with Terrence Glaze absolutely oozes 1980s hair metal excess in songwriting, performance, and production. I can't comment on Glaze's stage presence or on how animated or great a showman he was, but I can say that I really hate a lot of the vocals on this album. It's not that they're BAD - they are, in fact, wholly appropriate for this genre of metal - it's that I can't stand the ostentatiousness of the attitude evinced in songs like "Hot and Heavy" and "Valhalla." In my opinion, those are prime examples of the very epitome of hair metal triteness that has absolutely not aged well. There's video footage on the internet of of Phil Anselmo singing "Hot and Heavy" with the band in 1988 at Dallas City Limits, and he does quite well with the material in what is overall a very kick-ass set. The song undoubtedly worked better live than it does here, but it's just not my cup of tea as presented. As for the rest of the album, there are a couple of near direct hits that are unfortunately marred by over the top vocals and painfully dated production claptrap. "Onward We Rock" is practically a hair metal anthem, despite its silly "We're metal, hear us roar!" attitude and lyrics, and it is easily the catchiest tune on the album. "Down Below" is similarly trite lyrically, and the high-pitched vocal shrieks in Glaze's performance really grate on my nerves. Nevertheless, it too is a fairly solid song at its core. Phil Anselmo would sing a much better version of it on Power Metal two years later. Even album closer "Forever Tonight" is actually fairly strong, but like the others it is marred by the vocal stylings of Terrence Glaze and the unfortunate 1980s glam trappings that ooze throughout its production. I actually like the main guitar hook on "Come On Eyes," though I have little good to say about the rest of it, including the guitar solo. Other songs, particularly "Daughters of the Queen" and "Valhalla," are just plain stupid and best served up with a healthy helping of the mute button (or, better yet, skipped altogether). I first got my hands on a copy of this album in 1995. Had this been the first thing I'd ever heard from Pantera, I would have closed the door on this band for good.
Best songs:
Onward We Rock!Down Below
Worst songs:
I Am the NightDaughters of the Queen
Valhalla
7. The Great Southern Trendkill (Eastwest, 1996)
I remember being excited to buy this one when it first came out. I picked it up brand new, all songs unheard, with an eagerness that found encouragement in my love for Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power. I also distinctly remember the overpowering sense of dismay that enveloped me as I listened through one song after another, disappointed again and again. Maybe I just never "got" this one. I've heard that it was misunderstood and underappreciated in its time, and that it grows on you, but for me it simply never has. I see it today largely as I did in 1996: a lot of noise, a lot of genuine "WTF?!" material, and a few killer hooks and ideas that are criminally underutilized across the work as a whole. Album opener "The Great Southern Trendkill" bursts out of the gate with a mindless scream from Phil that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album. Follow up track "War Nerve" starts out strong, but loses it for me as soon as Phil's vocals come in. It's honestly material like this that makes me miss the days when he utilized his full vocal range from low growl to Halford-esque falsetto. "Drag the Waters" has one of those killer hooks, but I'm tired of it and of the song long before the end of its nearly five minute run time. The same applies to "13 Steps to Nowhere." In fact, if there's one way for me to sum up this album, it would be "inspired but tired." Some it is just noise to me ("Suicide Note Pt. II"), and some of it starts out catchy and strong but soon devolves into Far Beyond Driven style sludge ("Living Through Me (Hells' Wrath)"). A lot of the vocal performances in particular sound like drug-addled, moronic blubbering. If not for the cringeworthiness of some of their glam era stuff, this would easily be Pantera's worst album. It's a genuine disappointment on all levels.
Best songs:
Drag the WatersLiving Through Me (Hells' Wrath)
The Underground in America
Worst songs:
10'sSuicide Note Parts I and II
Floods
6. Far Beyond Driven (Eastwest, 1994)
Far Beyond Driven is (in)famous for being one of the most - if not THE most - extreme albums to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. In 1995, when I went to my first "big" concert, it was to see Pantera (with Type O Negative opening) playing in support of this album. It's definitely well known as a brutal, hard-hitting, extremely aggressive collection of tunes. But despite that, and despite my attempts during my teenage years to reprogram my tastes to the contrary, I've just never really liked this one all that much. In my opinion, it just doesn't have the catchiness of anything on Vulgar Display of Power or Cowboys from Hell, or even on Power Metal, for that matter. And although some of the more ferocious numbers are absolutely KILLER metal that really get you pumped up and exhilarated (e.g., "Strength Beyond Strength" and "Use My Third Arm"), they are all too often ruined by a transition to slow, energy-sapping sludge a few verses in, or given over to a long, monotonous repetitiousness that just drags on and on (the ending to "5 Minutes Alone"). If not for that emasculation of initial head banging intensity, and the inclusion of the "Planet Caravan" cover, a song I've never liked to begin with whether performed by Black Sabbath or anyone else, this album could have easily ranked at the #3 position on my list. As is, it comes in in the bottom half, ahead of the D and F tier efforts but far, far behind the early '90s classics.
Best songs:
I'm BrokenSlaughtered
Shedding Skin
Worst songs:
Good Friends and a Bottle of PillsPlanet Caravan
5. Metal Magic (Metal Magic, 1983)
That's right, one of Pantera's glam era albums actually makes the top five on my list (if this upsets you, just wait). This seemingly inauspicious debut, listened to today, sounds very unexceptional and unmemorable, but it does in fact have a few quite catchy tunes to its name. This is especially true if one considers the point in their careers that the Abbott brothers and Rex Brown were at when it was recorded. "Diamond" Darrell was all of sixteen years old, and still managed to shred with a dexterity that foreshadows the great things to come just a few more years down the road. Metal Magic is also thankfully light on most of the horrible glam metal trappings of its era: triggered-sounding toms, excessive reverb, and the heavy use of synthesizers. The synths do make appearances on a few songs, but thankfully only four of them, and not nearly as egregiously as they could have been. Even Terrence Glaze's vocal performances are kept within reasonable bounds on this one, and as tamed here, his singing has a bit more punch and a whole lot less ear-piercing shriek to it. Of course, it goes without saying that the cover artwork is beyond dreadful, looking a lot like something an adolescent middle schooler might have drawn inside his Trapper Keeper while doodling during study hall.
Best songs:
Latest LoverMetal Magic
Widowmaker
Nothin' On (But the Radio)
Worst songs:
Ride My RocketBiggest Part of Me
4. Reinventing the Steel (Eastwest, 2000)
As Pantera's final studio album, Reinventing the Steel is something of a return to form after the disappointing Trendkill four years earlier. Phil is in 100% growl/scream mode here, with all vestiges of his earlier Rob Halford-esque range now firmly in the rear view mirror. That's a shame, because that range, properly utilized, was easily one of the biggest selling points of his earlier efforts with Pantera, but at least here the catchy riffs and actual melodies (something absent in a lot of today's metal) return to center stage. This isn't Trendkill Part II - this is actually pretty good. Things get off to a really shaky start with "Hellbound," easily my least favorite track on the album and something that might have been more appropriately included on its predecessor, but musically things redeem themselves quickly beginning with the second track, "Goddamn Electric." Track number five, "Revolution is My Name," ranks as one of the best tunes the band ever recorded, in my opinion. I absolutely love the groove and the riffs on that one. Also cranking up the intensity in a good way are plenty of other offerings - "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit," "Uplift," and indeed most of the rest of the album save for the aforementioned "Hellhound" and "It Makes Them Disappear," the other song on Steel I can most do without. All throughout, Pantera succeeds where so many of today's metal bands fail with their cookie monster vocals and headache-inducing battery of undeveloped guitar riffs shoved at you unrelentingly to the point of listener fatigue. Pantera still understood that the backbone of any real song is an actual melody, with recognizable and catchy hooks that draw you in as a listener and keep you there. Where this album fails the hardest is in the lyrics. A lot of them seem to call back to the earlier '80s shtick of partying hard and being metal badasses (e.g., "Goddamn Electric," "I'll Cast a Shadow," etc.) I'm not sure what happened to the lyrical acuity demonstrated in Phil's earlier efforts, but Vulgar Display of Power-esque these are not. As long as you can get past that, this is a fairly solid album, though not as good as the top three on my list.
Best songs:
Goddamn ElectricRevolution is My Name
Worst songs:
HellboundIt Makes Them Disappear
3. Power Metal (Metal Magic, 1988)
Yes, that's right. I've placed Power Metal higher than Reinventing the Steel in my rankings. My top five Pantera albums include two of their 1980s efforts (I told you this list might be controversial!). Power Metal is very much a transitional album, made with one foot in '80s hair metal and the other in the burgeoning groove metal sound that would come fully into its own on Cowboys from Hell two years later. Nevertheless, there's plenty here for fans of the major label era Pantera to enjoy if they like the Cowboys album. "Over and Out" and "Death Trap" could easily have found a place on Pantera's major label debut in a bit more refined forms. On the other hand, there are selections that are most definitely steeped more in the hair metal subgenre than in groove, chief among them album opener "Rock the World" and side one finisher "Proud to Be Loud," the two weakest cuts on the album. "Down Below" is the same song previously included on I Am the Night, though the interpretation here is better in every possible way when compared to the original. Overall, Power Metal is a solid collection of cuts from an era when you could actually understand the lyrics and identify the melodies in heavy metal. And gone are most of the worst trappings of '80s glam, including the triggered-sounding toms, the gratuitously sappy synth lines, and the earache-inducing, high-pitched wails of former lead singer Terrence Glaze. Phil Anselmo's range is better, his high notes are actually euphonious for the material and don't grate on my nerves like those of his predecessor, and the compositions themselves are overall much, much stronger than anything on the band's first three efforts. I understand that a lot, if not most, of this material was already written by the time Phil joined the band, and that this is, by his own admission, his least favorite of his five albums with them. Nevertheless, those who appreciate a wider vocal range, less insipid lyrics, and a healthy dose of metal ass kicking should find themselves pretty happy with this early Phil Anselmo era outing. Power Metal was the first Pantera album to be released on compact disc, and copies of it are still floating around on eBay and in the secondhand market. It's worth a pickup if you can find it.
Best songs:
Over and OutDeath Trap
Hard Ride
Worst songs:
Rock the WorldProud to Be Loud
2. Cowboys from Hell (Eastwest, 1990)
This was Pantera's breakthrough album, their first major label outing, and the release that was retroactively christened their "real" or "official" debut as part of their subsequent efforts to erase their glam metal past. Cowboys was a commercial success, thrusting the groove-based metal sound front and center and putting the boys from Texas firmly on the national map for the first time. As with Power Metal, Phil's impressive vocal range is on full display, this time augmented by top notch production and a far stronger collection of material that does it better justice. And it's all present here: everything from the high-pitched wails on "Shattered" to the deep, sinister growls of "Medicine Man" (amazing versatility in that one!). Phil's vocal dexterity in his prime was phenomenal for the genre, and it was an absolutely perfect fit for the material. I really wish he hadn't completely abandoned this style in later years, though I understand the need to change in order to better suit the harder, more aggressive tone that characterizes the band's later work. And of course nothing can be said of "Diamond" (not yet "Dimebag") Darrell's stunning and ferocious guitar work that hasn't already been said before. There's something here for everyone: the extremely catchy, nearly dance-worthy infectiousness of album opener and eponymous track "Cowboys from Hell," the pounding grind of "Primal Concrete Sledge," the tribal rhythms of "Medicine Man" (one of my very favorite songs on this album), the vocal crescendos and ascending guitar wails of standout track "Cemetery Gates," the dark, moody uncertainty of slower power ballad "The Sleep," and so on and so on. The production and performances are all fantastic, and the bass sound is just the kind I like in metal - beefy, crisp, clean, and on point (though to be fair, the bass is the one thing that sounds consistently good across Pantera's entire discography). In a certain sense, this is where things really began for the band, or at least kicked into high gear. They were riding high from this point forward, and this album most definitely represents a high point in their catalog and career.
Best songs:
Cowboys from HellCemetery Gates
Medicine Man
Worst songs:
There are no bad songs on this album
1. Vulgar Display of Power (Eastwest, 1992)
This is it, and you knew this one would be at the top of the list. Vulgar Display of Power is hands down one of the most influential metal albums of the 1990s, one that helped power the genre through the dark days of grunge and nu metal domination of the rock charts, and which also served as my introduction to Pantera back when I was in middle school. They actually played a track from this album ("Hollow") on the radio at the time, and little did I suspect that this one metal album would have such a lasting impact on my appreciation for the entire genre. My biggest gripe with Vulgur, and it's not really a gripe so much as it is a lamentation, is that this would be the last time Phil would actually sing in a normal singing voice, and the last time he would really show off his impressive vocal range. Everything after this is mostly shouting and yelling, or in the case of Trendkill, high-pitched screaming (think "Suicide Note, Pt. II"). It definitely wears out its welcome after a while, and can have the effect of making some of the later Pantera material tiresome to listen to in a single sitting. But here, there's just the right mix of aggressive vocal posturing, yelling, and occasional singing to pull things off without getting too monotonous. And the material has just the right amount of variety in both style and execution, while not running afoul of the album's titular theme. This, much more so than on any other album, is the Pantera we all know and love.
Best songs:
Mouth for WarWalk
No Good (Attack the Radical)
Regular People (Conceit)
Hollow
Worst song:
Piss (20th anniversary album re-release only)