Pantera Reinventing The Steel CD

"Revolution Is My Name" was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

Whether you like the genre of music Pantera plays or not, you have to give respect to these guys for staying true to form. The group is still churning out the same brand of aggressive metal that their fans have come to expect. Guitarist Dimebag Darrell takes the group into a previously-unexplored melodic realm with his effective use of sound processing on the opening riff of "Hellbound," and "Yesterday Don't Mean Sh**" is a heavy tune with a great guitar riff.

"You've Gotta Belong To It" is brutal, with swirling guitar sounds on the bridge and a do-your-own-thing message. The mid-tempo trudge of "Revolution Is My Name" in a fitting musical backdrop to vocalist Phil Anselmo's rally against ignorance and prejudice. "Death Rattle" is a fast, thrashing number sure to inspire many a mosh pit. "We'll Grind That Axe For a Long Time" conveys the band's dedication to metal. Anselmo's screaming vocals, Dimebag's flashy solo and Vinnie Paul's double-bass drum action make "I'll Cast A Shadow" a thunderous album closer.

Parental Advisory

Recorded at Chasin Jason Studios, Texas.

Pantera: Philip Anselmo (vocals); Dimebag Darrell (guitar); Rex Brown (bass); Vinnie Paul (drums).

Additional personnel: Kerry King (guitar).

Rolling Stone (5/25/00, p.73) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Metal-revivalist....relying on the genre's primal elements of rage and analog noise...chopped up with squealing dissonance....brutal enough to please underground purists and familiar enough for weekend headbangers..."
Entertainment Weekly (3/24/00, p.102) - "...resumes their scorched-earth policy with vigor....dropping aural anvils [along] with a dash of inventiveness..." - Rating: B+
Q (6/00, p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Pantera's attempt to upgrade [Judas Priest's] BRITISH STEEL-era pure metal spirit....unequivocal heavy metalness..."
Alternative Press (7/00, pp.108-9) - 5 out of 5 - "...An undiluted, unvarnished slab of riffs paying distinct homage to Judas Priest's BRITISH STEEL, and not just in a titular sense, but in basic song construction..."
CMJ (4/3/00, p.32) - "...Crammed with everything they've used to revolutionize metal....so old-school it could have been easily made in between the quartet's back-to-back classics..."
NME (Magazine) (4/15/00, p.34) - 6 out of 10 - "...An unfashionably old-school metal album....it's Pantera's bid to herald the rebirth of bullet-belt, cut-off denim metal....It's a solid album, oozing drunk-as-hell metal spirit..."