|
PANTERA: A VULGAR DISPLAY
OF METAL
by Don Kaye
āThe thing about us is that we always stayed on the ground
level with the fans,ā proclaims Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in
his proud Texas twang. āWe never rode above the fans ā Iām a fuckinā
fan myself ā and we always had great interaction with them. Theyāre
us, weāre them, weāre all for one and stronger than all.ā
Of course, it took the Dallas-based Pantera time to find their
groove, shape their sound, and harness the right mix of combustible
personalities. The band emerged in the early Eighties, when drummer
Vinnie Paul and his guitarist brother Dimebag Darrell put Pantera
together with bassist Rex Brown and vocalist T Lee. After three
self-released albums, it was clear that a remarkably different
heavier sound was evolving. Enter new frontman and New Orleans
native Philip Anselmo, , on a fourth independant release. The
collaboration with the heavy trio and explosive singer was about to
set the stage for a harder, more damaging, trademark Pantera.
After being turned down ātwenty-eight times by every major label on
the face of the earth,ā an Atco Records A&R rep named Mark Ross saw
the band when Hurricane Hugo stranded him in Texas. The long-sought
record deal finally arrived, and with it, Panteraās āofficialā 1990
debut, titled Cowboys From Hell. Co-produced by the band and
Terry Date (Max Norman turned the project down in favor of Lynch
Mob), Cowboys From Hell took Panteraās evolution to the next
level. Darrellās chugging, jagged guitars, Vinnieās machine-gun,
darting drums, and Philipās collection of harsh screams,
clenched-fist roars, and eerie melodies, all fused together into a
sound they called āpower groove.ā
āCowboys is where everybody came into their own, along
with the full-blown Pantera sound,ā says Vinnie. āThat was actually
the first song we wrote for the record. Basically it was about us
coming out of Texas and being out of place. People donāt think of
Texas as being a hot spot for heavy metal, they think of New York or
L.A. or something like that, so it just seemed like an obvious
concept for us.ā
Cowboys From Hell spawned several other unquestionable
classics, including the moody, morbid epic, āCemetery Gates.ā
āWeāve always done a bunch of musically diverse things,ā says Dime.
āIām a big fan of Kingās X and bands like that. I was just showing
a broader side of the band, the more melodic stuff we can do.ā
Months of solid touring molded the band into an even more
lethal live act than they had been before, and two years after the
release of Cowboys, the band reconvened to lay down what many
fans consider their masterpiece: Vulgar Display Of Power.
Working with Date again, the band carved out an even more
incendiary sonic assault on an album that truly lived up to its
monicker with frightening intensity.
The disc yielded, among others, the awesomely heavy shuffle,
āWalk,ā the pummeling, warped riffage of āMouth For War,ā and the
disturbing, bitter āThis Love.ā Vinnie: āIf thereās one thing that
Philip did the very best, itās that he always wrote straight from
the heart. He never candy-coated anything or had a bullshit way of
saying anything in his lyrics. āThis Loveā was pretty much the
story of a relationship that he had been in, that just didnāt work
out, and he was fuckinā pissed about it!ā
More endless roadwork followed the release of Vulgar Display,
elevating the band into bigger venues and drawing larger audiences
all the time. By the time 1994 and Far Beyond Driven rolled
around, Pantera was established as the metal act to beat in
terms of heaviness, sheer power, and slavish allegiance to the metal
lifestyle.
āWe drove ourselves, thatās for sure,ā says Vinnie about the
album, which remains the most extreme disc to ever debut at
Number One on the Billboard Top 200. āWe didnāt debut at
Number One for any other reason than all the fans we had made on
tour. We still werenāt a radio band or anything like that, so it
was strictly word-of-mouth and the live show that did it.ā
āWe couldnāt get airplay and nobody gave a fuck about it, but
the fans damn sure did,ā agrees Dime. āWe wrote that record for
them.ā
The first single from the album, āIām Broken,ā was āa
soundcheck riff ā one of them ones where Iād walk in with a hangover
from ripping it up night after night with everyone in every town,ā
chuckles Dime. āThatās where a lot of the best riffs I ever wrote
came from. I just played the first riff I thought of, Vinnie started
kickinā in on it, Rex joined in, we didnāt write the entire song on
the spot, but we kept toying with it and finally worked on it once
we got into the studio.ā
And then thereās āFive Minutes Alone,ā which crystallized the
bandās ātake no shitā attitude, as Vinnie explains: āThere was a
guy in the front row at Pine Knob in Detroit who was heckling Phil.
Finally, several people in the crowd just jumped this guyās ass and
beat the shit out of him on the spot, so he sued us. And when his
dad called our manager, his exact quote was, āyou just give me five
minutes along with that Phil Anselmo guy and Iāll show him whoās big
daddy around here.ā Philās response was, āYou just give me five
minutes along with that catās dad and Iāll whoop his ass.ā Thatās
where that song came from.ā
As brutal as Far Beyond Driven was, it ended on an
uncharacteristically quiet note with the bandās cover of Black
Sabbathās dreamlike āPlanet Caravan.ā āBlack Sabbathās one of our
all-time favorite groups,ā says Vinnie. āWe got asked to be a part
of the first Sabbath tribute record, Nativity In Black, and
we were thinkinā about what song to do, and we just suddenly decided
that āPlanet Caravanā was a cool song, plus nobody would even expect
it. It turned out great, but due to legal circumstances, we ended up
not being on Nativity In Black, so we added it to the end of
Far Beyond Driven. We thought it was the perfect way to end
the record.ā
The Great Southern Trendkill, released in 1996, is now
considered Panteraās āoverlookedā album, coming out as rap-metal was
hitting its stride and temporarily drowning out the mighty Pantera
roar. Trendkill did, in fact, find Pantera adding some
different spices to their corrosive metallic stew, but the chilling
āDrag The Watersā best represents the album. āThat song is about a
lifetime of dealing with people that you canāt tell what theyāre
really cominā at you for, or what their motives really are,ā snarls
Dime. āYouāve got to drag the waters to get to the bottom and find
out the truth.ā
It was four years before Pantera released their next
full-length studio effort, but the band was far from inactive.
Touring nonstop, the boys still managed to find time to release a
live album, Official Live: 101 Proof, featuring the ominous
studio bonus track, āWhere We Come From,ā and a scalding cover of
Ted Nugentās āCat Scratch Feverā for the soundtrack of the
Kiss-themed movie, Detroit Rock City. āGene Simmons actually
approached us to be a part of that,ā remembers Vinnie. āAnd we were
like, āweāre old Ted fans, letās see if we can do a throwdown
version of it.ā To this day, I probably still hear our version in
titty bars more than I hear his.ā
Dimebag Darrell calls the bandās most recent studio album,
2000ās Reinventing The Steel, a ābest-of in its own right,ā a
mix of elements from the albums that had preceded it. Even the
closing epic, āIāll Cast A Shadow,ā was a monster. āUsually when we
write, the songs come together really fast,ā says Dime. āBut
sometimes, youāll be drilling at one for hours before you realize it
aināt workinā. This was one of those. So we put it on the back
burner, finished up all the other tunes, then went back to give it
one more pull. We rearranged it, throw a few new parts in, and it
really brought it to life. I think it ended up being the baddest-ass
song on the whole record.ā
āGoddamn Electric,ā a tribute to metal itself, was another
bad-ass anthem, and warranted a special guest appearance. āWe
thought, āthis song just gives so much respect to these other bands
like Black Sabbath and Slayer, weāve just gotta get Kerry King down
here to put a lead on the motherfucker,āā relates Vinnie. āWe went
and met him at the Starplex in Dallas when Slayer was on Ozzfest. I
took some portable recording gear, and we recorded that lead ā first
take, one take only, backstage in the bathroom at the Starplex. And
itās awesome.ā
As one of metalās most ferocious acts, with one of its most
insanely devoted audiences, itās clear as an empty whiskey bottle
that Panteraās impact and influence on heavy music is still being
felt. āEvery time I hear a kick drum with that extra slap on top,
or that chainsaw sound on the guitar, I know where it came from,ā
concludes Dime. āWeāre just glad we can hand it down and see
everyone else bring some new shit to the table and keep passing it
on. Iām glad we could actually put a stamp out there that everybody
could get a pull off of.ā
|