....On this day in 1994, Pantera released Far Beyond Driven...One of my Top 3 Favorite Albums Of All Time... It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 &; #1 on the Australians charts. Without MTV or radio...A feat that would never be accomplished in today's musical climate...
There was this kid... I think his name was Steve... in a couple of my classes in eighth grade that worshiped Pantera. Every day, before school.. or in between classes... I'd see his fat ass lurking the halls with a Walkman glued to his head. In the Walkman? Either Cowboys From Hell or Vulgar Display Of Power... END OF LIST. That was literally all he listened to. He was about 5' 8''...240lbs... Had a mullet... and was always, that is... 100% of the time... wearing a Pantera t-shirt... Usually, it was one of those "all-over" shirts... Remember those?...
Anyways.... I talked to this kid every fucking day...
Every conversation we had, he would find a way to inject Pantera into it, in some fashion... And every time... I would find a way to tell him how much Pantera sucked.
He would get sooooo pissed.
Truth is... I had never heard Pantera before in my entire life. Not once.
He would spend hours.. And I DO mean hours... pontificating about the brilliance of Pantera to me every week.. And how much he was looking forward to their third album.
He had seen them a bunch of times, and had even met Dimebag and Rex... Just for me to reply "Who Cares? They Fucking Suck.." "That's great, Steve... Too bad they really, really fucking suck." I was brutal.
My 3 favorite artists at the time? Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, and Motley Crue.. Not even, like, good OLD Aerosmith, either. We're talking Permanent Vacation Aerosmith... I was a complete tenderfoot novice when it came to rock. My brother turned me on to that shit... Before that? Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, and my mother's favorite band The Stompers...with a little DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince thrown in there for good measure. That was it. The full extent of my music knowledge. I hadn't a fucking clue. I still had yet to discover Metallica, or anything even remotely heavy. Motley was "metal" to me...
Pantera? That was just noise.
Fast forward a couple of years... I heard Sad But True.. It was by far the heaviest thing I'd ever heard. And I. LOVED. IT. All of a sudden, "metal" meant something different to me. Before long, I was digging into Metallica's discography, getting into Countdown To Extinction.and Dirt....My brother Al had Vulgar and would torture me by playing "Hollow" every night on repeat.
All. Night. Long.
Christ... The guitar melody was imprinted into my soul, I heard it so many times. So, even though I was beginning to warm to the heavier shit, here was someone else cramming this fucking band down my throat... And I still didn't like the screaming vocals...
It was around that time I started auditioning for bands. I kinda, sorta played drums.... When that didn't work out, I thought I'd try to sing...( Insert Horrible Axl Rose Impression Joke HERE, Big Cat) One of the bands I "auditioned" for included this kid, Kibbey, that I used to talk to every day on the bus about all kinds of music shit... After the audition, it was very clear that "I wasn't a good fit for what they were trying to do.." Nevertheless, we still hung out. I highly respected his taste in music. He'd turned me on to a ton of shit that I probably wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise... He let me borrow a shit load of tapes: Faith No More, Fugazi, Nine Inch Nails, etc.... I'd take them home... dub them.. Then swiftly return them.
Then.. A day I'll never forget. I was riding home on the bus, and happened to glance toward the back of the bus. Three seats behind me was Kibbey... Headphones on... Wearing a MASSIVE shit-eating grin. I shot him that "what's up" reverse nod. He said nothing. He pulled a tape case out of his bag , pointed to it... nodded his head and flashed a single thumb in the air. I held my hand out, assuming he would let me borrow the cassette, as he had so many others. He shook his head and returned the empty case to his coat pocket.
I read that as " It's too fucking good, Dave... I ain't giving it up.."
'Nuff (Not) Said.
The next day, I caught a ride to Sanford, ME and bought it. Sight unseen. And went straight home. A move that I have regretted a million times. But, not that day... Not that day...
When my destination had been reached, I loaded the tape into the living room stereo. There was nobody home, so I turned the volume way up to immerse myself in the experience.
All I can say is this:
I have never heard, before or since, music as brutally heavy, intense and insanely precise.. with that level of musicianship in my entire life. Strength Beyond Strength grabbed me by the throat and the album did NOT let go until Planet Caravan. It didn't even slightly loosen it's grip.The pure savage ferocity of this record scarred me. The riffs made The Black Album sound like Warrant. The solos were innovative, and soulful. Dimebag plays his sack off, without sounding like a fucking show-off The drums (particularly the double-bass drum fills in Becoming) made Lars Ulrich sound like a droopy eyed, armless child.( A sound Ulrich would go on to perfect on St. Anger.) Rex fucking OWNS the low end.
And the vocals? Amazing. If you're one of those people that aren't really into screaming vocals, this record is proof that, when done right, they can project raw, visceral emotion and still have melody to boot. Many will argue that Vulgar Display Of Power is their Masterpiece. Maybe so....
But Far Beyond Driven is a different trip entirely. It picks up where Vulgar left off, drops a ton of acid and Human Growth Hormone and drives it's roid'd out head into a brick fucking wall. Over and over again. It's raw, tortured, and yet completely controlled fucking CHAOS... Hard as a rock. Shut like a lock. And it's glorious. Say what you will about how "unlistenable" it is... To my ears, it's their real masterpiece.
They're all great in their own uniqueness. Each of Pantera's first 3 major label releases has it's own sound completely. If you didn't know that all of them were written and recorded by the same four guys, you'd have a hard time making the connection. Sadly, it's only just a preview of where they were going before Vince started buying titty bars, Darrell literally drowned in booze, and Phil developed a fondness for needles. After this... It was never quite the same.
Regardless...
For my money, I'll take FBD over VDOP any day of the week..
As much as I love all things Pantera, Far Beyond Driven was their best and last focused, furious gasp.. Their last act of purpose as a single unit... before the seeds that would ultimately break the band up were planted.
Four years later, I lined up at Strawberries for the Midnight Release of The Great Southern Trendkill.
You Win, Steve.... You Win.
There was this kid... I think his name was Steve... in a couple of my classes in eighth grade that worshiped Pantera. Every day, before school.. or in between classes... I'd see his fat ass lurking the halls with a Walkman glued to his head. In the Walkman? Either Cowboys From Hell or Vulgar Display Of Power... END OF LIST. That was literally all he listened to. He was about 5' 8''...240lbs... Had a mullet... and was always, that is... 100% of the time... wearing a Pantera t-shirt... Usually, it was one of those "all-over" shirts... Remember those?...
Anyways.... I talked to this kid every fucking day...
Every conversation we had, he would find a way to inject Pantera into it, in some fashion... And every time... I would find a way to tell him how much Pantera sucked.
He would get sooooo pissed.
Truth is... I had never heard Pantera before in my entire life. Not once.
He would spend hours.. And I DO mean hours... pontificating about the brilliance of Pantera to me every week.. And how much he was looking forward to their third album.
He had seen them a bunch of times, and had even met Dimebag and Rex... Just for me to reply "Who Cares? They Fucking Suck.." "That's great, Steve... Too bad they really, really fucking suck." I was brutal.
My 3 favorite artists at the time? Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, and Motley Crue.. Not even, like, good OLD Aerosmith, either. We're talking Permanent Vacation Aerosmith... I was a complete tenderfoot novice when it came to rock. My brother turned me on to that shit... Before that? Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, and my mother's favorite band The Stompers...with a little DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince thrown in there for good measure. That was it. The full extent of my music knowledge. I hadn't a fucking clue. I still had yet to discover Metallica, or anything even remotely heavy. Motley was "metal" to me...
Pantera? That was just noise.
Fast forward a couple of years... I heard Sad But True.. It was by far the heaviest thing I'd ever heard. And I. LOVED. IT. All of a sudden, "metal" meant something different to me. Before long, I was digging into Metallica's discography, getting into Countdown To Extinction.and Dirt....My brother Al had Vulgar and would torture me by playing "Hollow" every night on repeat.
All. Night. Long.
Christ... The guitar melody was imprinted into my soul, I heard it so many times. So, even though I was beginning to warm to the heavier shit, here was someone else cramming this fucking band down my throat... And I still didn't like the screaming vocals...
It was around that time I started auditioning for bands. I kinda, sorta played drums.... When that didn't work out, I thought I'd try to sing...( Insert Horrible Axl Rose Impression Joke HERE, Big Cat) One of the bands I "auditioned" for included this kid, Kibbey, that I used to talk to every day on the bus about all kinds of music shit... After the audition, it was very clear that "I wasn't a good fit for what they were trying to do.." Nevertheless, we still hung out. I highly respected his taste in music. He'd turned me on to a ton of shit that I probably wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise... He let me borrow a shit load of tapes: Faith No More, Fugazi, Nine Inch Nails, etc.... I'd take them home... dub them.. Then swiftly return them.
Then.. A day I'll never forget. I was riding home on the bus, and happened to glance toward the back of the bus. Three seats behind me was Kibbey... Headphones on... Wearing a MASSIVE shit-eating grin. I shot him that "what's up" reverse nod. He said nothing. He pulled a tape case out of his bag , pointed to it... nodded his head and flashed a single thumb in the air. I held my hand out, assuming he would let me borrow the cassette, as he had so many others. He shook his head and returned the empty case to his coat pocket.
I read that as " It's too fucking good, Dave... I ain't giving it up.."
'Nuff (Not) Said.
The next day, I caught a ride to Sanford, ME and bought it. Sight unseen. And went straight home. A move that I have regretted a million times. But, not that day... Not that day...
When my destination had been reached, I loaded the tape into the living room stereo. There was nobody home, so I turned the volume way up to immerse myself in the experience.
All I can say is this:
I have never heard, before or since, music as brutally heavy, intense and insanely precise.. with that level of musicianship in my entire life. Strength Beyond Strength grabbed me by the throat and the album did NOT let go until Planet Caravan. It didn't even slightly loosen it's grip.The pure savage ferocity of this record scarred me. The riffs made The Black Album sound like Warrant. The solos were innovative, and soulful. Dimebag plays his sack off, without sounding like a fucking show-off The drums (particularly the double-bass drum fills in Becoming) made Lars Ulrich sound like a droopy eyed, armless child.( A sound Ulrich would go on to perfect on St. Anger.) Rex fucking OWNS the low end.
And the vocals? Amazing. If you're one of those people that aren't really into screaming vocals, this record is proof that, when done right, they can project raw, visceral emotion and still have melody to boot. Many will argue that Vulgar Display Of Power is their Masterpiece. Maybe so....
But Far Beyond Driven is a different trip entirely. It picks up where Vulgar left off, drops a ton of acid and Human Growth Hormone and drives it's roid'd out head into a brick fucking wall. Over and over again. It's raw, tortured, and yet completely controlled fucking CHAOS... Hard as a rock. Shut like a lock. And it's glorious. Say what you will about how "unlistenable" it is... To my ears, it's their real masterpiece.
They're all great in their own uniqueness. Each of Pantera's first 3 major label releases has it's own sound completely. If you didn't know that all of them were written and recorded by the same four guys, you'd have a hard time making the connection. Sadly, it's only just a preview of where they were going before Vince started buying titty bars, Darrell literally drowned in booze, and Phil developed a fondness for needles. After this... It was never quite the same.
Regardless...
For my money, I'll take FBD over VDOP any day of the week..
As much as I love all things Pantera, Far Beyond Driven was their best and last focused, furious gasp.. Their last act of purpose as a single unit... before the seeds that would ultimately break the band up were planted.
Four years later, I lined up at Strawberries for the Midnight Release of The Great Southern Trendkill.
You Win, Steve.... You Win.
1 comment:
Found a great review that sums up the aftermath of FBD.."For Pantera, this album would see them at their peak in every sense. From this point on, good but not godlike albums would appear, Anselmo, despite recording a masterpiece of an album with side project Down, would appear to become ever more of an addicted mess (mostly to pain killers taken to cope with a back injury) and finally Dimebag and Vinnie would retire the band’s name and reputation to the past, forming the effective but about two years too late project Damageplan. And then in one of rock’s most senseless and premature murders ever, Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott was shot and killed onstage while performing by a mentally disturbed fan.
Pantera caught tons of shit over the course of their existence for essentially not doing what was expected of them. It's funny to find that in their sad abscence, some metal fans still regard their legacy with suspicion and malice. I gotta say I don't understand this. Pantera never sold out, got soft, sued Napster, betrayed their fans, said metal "was dead," or any other number of stupid things other big time bands have over and over again, and still they get no respect. I just don't get it. The day I'm too cool or hip to understad metal this fierce, please shoot me. I'll be dead already."
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