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| A lunch rich in all the required nutrients. Even metal. |
Old Father Blogger
Went to the cupboard,
To get himself a sandwich
When he came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so he did the only logical thing, and went to Panera Bread.
I can usually fake my way through lunch on a Saturday. Random leftovers, grilled cheese, old forgotten cans of soup that fell behind the boxes of mac and cheese. OOO...mac and cheese! Ahh crap! We don't have milk. I know, I know, some of you will say 'just use water, it tastes the same.' That statement is more false than 1+1=3. Kraft Mac and Cheese made with water instead of milk is terrible and basically ruins an otherwise decent box of food.With options quite limited Beth and I have resorted to the final option. The Omega Plan of lunch around here is: Pantera Bread, no...wait, Panera Bread, that's it. It's right around the corner, its consistently delicious, and it always makes me think of Pantera. A list of differences between Panera and Pantera are numerous...so numerous that to make things easy I'll just make a list of similarities instead.
Similarities between Panera and Pantera:
1. Both started in 1981.
Well, that was easy, now for a few things about Pantera. This band is not for everyone. I can admit that because, when music is this aggressive and abrasive, it doesn't find favor with every listener. I myself have to be in a pretty rare mood to listen to Pantera. Usually its a Friday night 'get cranked for the weekend' kind of mood. It also can be when I'm really tired at work and in need of a boost. Their music is better than five hour energy...with no sugar crash! Though, try to avoid singing out loud while listening, your coworkers will not appreciate this. Originally a glam metal act, by 1989, Pantera was looking for something new with their major label debut. What they created was something called "Groove Metal." It was fast, it was loud, and it was intense and on "Cowboy's From Hell," it finally spelled platinum success for the band. PLAY!
Side One starts out with a great combo of guitars and a fairly simple but fast riff. From there, the rest of the band explodes onto the scene and you get a heavy dose of the Pantera sound. The guitar sound is very tight and controlled but still extremely intense. Dimebag Darrell certainly has his chops down. He also has his tone down. When imitating Dime's sound on my own setup, I typically reach for my solid-state Peavey amp. Dime has stated that tube amps can be a headache because of their stability issues and solid state is reliable, effective, and easily manipulated. While tube tone is often unique and individualistic, solid state is more of a blank slate, to which you can add any effect or digital sound you want. You could see him using solid state now and then, and honestly, I'm not gonna argue with his results. Vocal wise, Phil Anselmo's voice is rarely an easy delivery, often a yell and sometimes falsetto death shouting. At least that's what I'm going to call it. Rex and Vinnie Paul, the rhythm section, keep this train on the tracks with amazing precision. Dimebag's guitar playing is so fast that without a grounding rhythm it would just sound like some toolbox trying to show off by playing a lot of notes. I'm usually the type guitarist who likes a minimal style. If you can get the sound you want with only two notes, then use two notes. Dimebag is the exception, he can do whatever he wants. If it can be done with 20 notes, but Dimebag says use 200, than dammit, use 200.
"Primal Concrete Sledge"features a grinding guitar riff and an intense rolling of the bass drums. I'm not quite sure what is going on here lyrically. My best guess is this song is about someone who's messed up in the head, and he's inviting you to see what its like. Or it could be about the effects of adding chemical admixtures to concrete in order to alter its strength and flexibility properties. I'm really not sure. "Psycho Holiday" uses a somewhat slower approach, but still just as heavy. The greatest part of the song is the descending riffs at the close of the intro and a few other times in the song. The drums tumble down the toms while the guitar is running down scales very fast. Its probably half speed for Dimebag, but for most players, its at max power. The chorus has a great feel that gives us a very anomalous rhythm. It feels like its slow, but the drums are still pounding away fast on the double bass. The way they achieve the slower feel is with the guitar. The sustained powerchords draw your attention away from the drums and distract you from the fact that the tempo of the song hasn't really changed. The guitar solo is...well...its Dimebag, not too much else to say about it. Coming out of the solo, Phil is pealing the paint off walls and driving dogs insane with a high scream coming from somewhere deep within. I'd have to say that this song really fits the name 'groove metal' to a T. As you can see, three songs in and we're already off to the races. FLIP!
Side Two starts with "Heresy." The song begins with a great harmonic riff on the guitar before going right into what Pantera does best. Fast double bass, precise riffing and finally, high/low vocal delivery. The vocals even start with that falseto death shouting! Woo! The basic structure of the verse is a very well structured powerchord riff that follows the pulsing of the bass drums perfectly. The chorus switches to a thrash drum beat for a few bars before going into very fast double bass rolling. The chorus is very reminiscent of 80's Slayer. The solo is slower with what sounds like a harmonizer on the guitar. Does Dimebag have a digitech whammy pedal? I'm thinking he does. Next up is the best thing that Pantera has ever done...ever. "Cemetery Gates," starts very quietly and is one of the few 'ballad' style songs Pantera has done. The song includes several guitar tracks, acoustic is prominent in the beginning, but then the electric comes in very strong with some cathedral like harmonic notes hovering above the mix. Soon, this descends into the heavy part of the song. First it uses a great pinch harmonic riff before going into the main heavy groove. It doesn't last long before the verse returns. This time the acoustic is gone and a clean electric takes its place. Back to the heavy part! At this point its worth noting a few of the lyrics. I don't usually pay much attention to lyrical meaning with Pantera, generally I'm here for the riffs. However, this song is the exception. Phil really has something to say. Its not very happy, but it seems to be like a suicide note. Someone close has died and now the 'narrator,' is that the right word? Whatever, the guy singing is considering joining them in the afterlife, sooner than later. The song ends on a high note, literally. The guitar and vocals both show off their range. Okay, making a guitar play really high notes is not hard, especially with a suspected digitech whammy bending the pitch even higher. However, vocally, its a little harder. Phil hits what has to be his absolute peak on falsetto vocal death screaming, and its impressive. It shouldn't be noted that Dream Theatre has covered 'Cemetary Gates' in their concerts and that is a national tragedy. I can only imagine how irritating they could make this awesome song. Straight up speed metal is the only way to describe the next track. "Domination" is just that, a dominating track that is just fast, start to almost finish. I remember a band played this song at the middle school talent show. I honestly can't remember how well they did, I don't think anyone payed attention to those metal guys, playing their metal music. Once again, this song uses that excellent metal technique of powerchords intimidating the beat of the double bass drums. The solo is...well again, here am I trying to type about a Dimebag guitar solo. It can't be done, so I'm just gonna say, its pretty boss. The song ends with an interesting grinding drum beat with rhythm guitar crunching away. The lead guitar over the top is just firing out notes at machine gun pace. Finally, after the slow grind has crunched along for about a minute, the song and side concludes. FLIP!
Side Three jumps right back into it with "Shattered." At this point I'd like to mention that on occasion my record player has a tendency to play all records at 45 rpm, even when the speed switch is set to 33. I'm not sure why this happens, but usually you know instantly when its going down. Power it down, wait a second, tap the switch and it should be ready to go again. This song came on, and I seriously thought my turntable was stuck on 45. The drumbeat was so fast, and the vocals were so high...no way this is 33 rpm. Wait, what the hell is going on? Nope, its not my turntable, its just that fast and Phil's vocals are just that high. After the initial assault of high notes Phil does come down a little bit later in the song, but not much. As far as guitar goes, the one extra feature is a wah/volume swell trick that Dimebag throws in right before the solo. Its an interesting sound and something I'm definitely gonna have to attempt. The song continues on its merry way before finally coming to a big grand conclusion of fast guitar, fast drums and shattered glass. Next up is "Clash with Reality," a song that really reminds me of some early Megadeth tunes. Interestingly enough, Dimebag was offered a chance to join Megadeth, but turned down Dave Mustaine when he was told his brother couldn't come along on drums. Wow, what would've that sounded like? This song continues to roll along and continues to sound more and more Megadeth. It might be the reason why I like the song so much. Stop/start drums, intense guitar riffs and a nice stressed out sounding solo all add to the Megadeth dynamic that is created here. "Medicine Man" follows the similar formula of the album. Double Bass, heavy riffs, Phil screams, and Rex does what Rex does. Rex plays bass. I'm not saying this song is bad, but this far into the album, if you're not in a metal mood, you're kind of wondering if maybe you're missing something on TV. Hey look! Beverly Hills Cop is on! Oh man, its the good scene too! Axel has just ordered a bunch of food for Taggart and Rosewood while they wait for him outside the fancy Beverly Hills Hotel. Wait for it...wait for it...banana in the tail pipe! BURN! I haven't seen this movie in like 10 years, at least and I gotta.... FOCUS...BLOG...NOW! Sorry, but this is just a lot of metal in one place. FLIP!
The final side of the album starts with "Message in Blood." The song is about a message, that has been written in blood. Okay, now that we're clear on this, lets discuss the music. Riffs, double bass, screams, Rex. Is anyone else tired of hearing about this album? I really hate to give Pantera the "wrap it up" music like they do at the Grammy's when Milli Vanilli has used up their alloted time in thanking everyone that actually made their album, but this is 57 minutes of metal on a day when I really only wanted 34 at most. Two more songs, might as well finish. The last two songs are "The Sleep" and "The Art of Shredding." The first offers some acoustic guitar for the second time on the album. Well, at least it did for about 20 seconds. Now we're back into Panteraing. See that? There's a word for it now. All these riffs are awesome and I really should learn a few of them at some point, but listening to them all at once, its pretty intense. Oh yeah, the last song on the album is pretty cool too.
Well there it is. One hour of fury on two LP's or one compact disc. I gotta say I wasn't sure if I wanted to listen to Pantera today, but I figured, hey, why not. Plus, Beth pointed out the fact that I love calling Panera Bread, Pantera Bread. That was all the reason I needed to play this album. I enjoyed the first half of this one. It sounds awesome, its so heavy, so riffed, so double bassed. My only issue with the album is I started to fade somewhere after halfway. Its just too much. I know there's an army of Pantera fans out who want to beat the crap out of me for saying that, but honestly I don't care. I like metal, but not JUST metal. There's other stuff out there. There's other metal out there. However, I can talk about repetitiveness and bludgeoning with guitar riffs until I'm blue in the face, it doesn't change the fact that, this is what Pantera does. This is groove metal. There's no sense in complaining about Pantera being Pantera. They're damn good at it. It'd be like complaining that Nirvana is too grunge, or AC/DC is too AC/DC, or Mumford and Sons sucks too much. There's no sense in making that point, because everyone knows that's the way it is.
Strongest Song: Cemetery Gates
Weakest Song: None are all that 'weak,' just repetitive.
Song You Know: Cowboys From Hell
Why You Might Hate It: You hate Pantera. There's not too much grey area in liking Pantera
Buy It? Anyone who will like this album, probably already owns it on CD. For those who don't, you've made it this far into life without it, why rock the boat now? Okay, look up Cemetery Gates on YouTube, then go back to your regular Pantera-less life.
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