Pantera Official Live: 101 Proof CD

OFFICIAL LIVE: 101 PROOF contains live versions of Pantera hits as well as two new studio tracks.
Pantera: Philip Anselmo (vocals); Dimebag Darrell (guitar); Rex Brown (bass); Vinnie Paul (drums).
Engineers: Aaron "Wires" Barnes, Vinnie Paul.
"Cemetery Gates" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
Official Live: 101 Proof hits most, but not quite all, of the high points of Pantera's career ("Psycho Holiday" and "Mouth for War" are two notable omissions), drawing most heavily from Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven. There are also two new studio tracks tacked on to the end to entice the more casual fan who might find a live album redundant; however, Pantera's devoted fans will pick it up anyway, and they won't be disappointed. Pantera packs just as much of a wallop live as in the studio, even if the versions here aren't substantially different (other than a medley of "Domination" and "Hollow"). One warning: Phil Anselmo's amazing streams of nonstop vulgarities in between songs will appeal more to the adolescent fan who finds them a liberating way to vent frustration; others may find them predictable and approaching idiotic. But that shouldn't detract from the music and performances, which are uniformly strong, as fans would expect. ~ Steve Huey
After seven long years of almost non-stop touring, Pantera personally chose these 16 songs as the creme de la creme, the definitive live Pantera experience. All well and good, we can only hope the folks up front had kneepads and mouthpieces, because this is not for the faint of heart. This is incendiary thrash metal; full-speed-ahead sonic mayhem, from the churning grunge of "Becoming" to the jackhammer assault of "Hostile." "New Level," the disc's opener, pretty much defines the experience here; vocals are shouted rather than sung, drums are attacked with fury and vengeance, guitars scream and churn and ring out like the very bells of Hades...well, you get the idea. There are two new songs here as well, which the band recorded during a 12-day break in their hectic tour schedule.Rolling Stone (9/18/97, p.108) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Militaristic beats, jagged riffs and tortured guitar squalls are intertwined with Phil Anselmo's rabid-drill-sergeant vocals....even the slowest tracks broil with tightfisted fury..."
NME (Magazine) (9/20/97, p.57) - "...The heavy tunes have the stealth of hardcore techno and the skull-imploding impact of a collapsing tower block. The very heavy tunes sound like a jumbo jet crashing into your house. Hairy balled maximum security metal doesn't get any more appallingly powerful than this..."