Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part ♠♠♠♠Pantera - Cowboys from Hell ♠♠♠♠♠
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power ♠♠♠♠
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven ♠♠♠
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill ♠♠♠
Pantera - Reinventing the Steel ♠♠♠♠♠
Pearl Jam - Ten ♠♠♠♠♠
OK, let's get to it! I bought the Deicide album yesterday, and I won't lie, I mainly got it because I didn't want to leave Digital Ferret empty handed when I left yesterday, and because of the Glen Benton for President patch. "Till Death Do us Part" is a great Deicide album; not sure if the claim "heaviest Deicide album ever" is true since this and "Stench of Redemption" are the only two disc I won. It's in part inspired by his recent divorce and the departure of the two brothers who made the band as well, and it is simply incredible!
Pantera... well, what can I say? It's fucking PANTERA!!!!!! No, not PANTERA BREAD, PATERA!!!!!!!!!! Although that "Pantera Bread" video is fucking hilarious!
These albums are classics and aside from the review I wrote on "Cowboys from Hell", there isn't much to say, well, save a few comments. I always thought that "Vulgar Display of Power" was great, but in my eyes, it isn't better than Cowboys from Hell. It's almost like comparing apples and oranges; Cowboys had a sound that mixed thrash with glam, hardcore with power metal, and it was simply an album that was, in the end, the end result of EVERYTHING metal had accomplished in the 80's.
Vulgar Display, on the otherhand, was Pantera taking it to a new level, using their newfound fame, power, and influence to new levels of confidence. It is an incredibly album, one of the angriest things I've ever heard, and its great! The problem is that by half-way through, its just like any tempertantrum of adrenaline rush; it can get old and loose it's luster after a while. Moments keep the disc fresh at times, but when you hit the wall listening to this album, that's it. This disc is like running fullspeed down a crowded street and not caring what happens, but when you hit a wall, well, your done.
Far Beyond Driven has always been the black sheep of the more modern Pantera era, at least, to anyone who knows what they're talking about (sorry if that came off eliteist, but trust me, fans know what I mean). The album debut at #1, went platnium, and shows Pantera trying too damn hard to out-heavy the heaviest album ever. Fuck, it's like fucking Pamela Anderson in 1994 and then trying to fuck someone hotter in 1995; you can get close, but it still ain't no Pam An! Meanwhile, "The Great Southern Trendkill", while better, still lacks the golden touch that Pantera had on earlier albums.
Finally, you have the great "Reinventing the Steel" and to me, this is second only to Cowboys in terms of greatness! Pantera starts out strong with "Hellbound" and never let loose! They took everything that made their last four albums great, got rid of all the filler material, and instead forged, ala the title, Pure Steel. There are very few flaws in this metal blade, and hearing "I Cast A Shadow" is enough to put an exclamation point on their career that many bands to come will have to live in the shadow of.
Lets we forget Pearl Jam in all of this! I'm a fan of the Jam, and Ten is just, quite simply, a legendary album for a good reason. It toned down the more metal aspects, turned up the grunge, wore it's classic rock influences on it's sleave, and resulted in breakthrough hit that still sounds fresh today, even if you have heard "Even Flow" and "Jeremy" a million times already. My favorite tracks? "Why Go" and "Once", tracks that showed not only could they write kick-ass radio-friendly hits that still retained an edge, but that they could write staight-out classics.
No comments:
Post a Comment