Pantera

Pantera (/pænˈtɛrə/) was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed in 1981. The group's best-known lineup consisted of the Abbott brothers (drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell), along with vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown…

Skipping clean over their time in the glam metal trenches during the '80s, the Original Album Series box set collects the five albums that make up the golden era of groove metal pioneers Pantera. Containing 1990's Cowboys from Hell, 1992's Vulgar Display of Power, 1994's Far Beyond Driven, 1996's The Great Southern Trendkill, and 2000's Reinventing the Steel, this collection easily highlights the band's most groundbreaking work with a collection of albums that earned five platinum and one gold record between them…

The box set contains 3 CDs, and an 8 page colour biography of the band all presented in a cardboard box. Far Beyond Driven features the banned artwork and has a bonus track.

Thankfully, Pantera has stopped attempting to outdo each successive album in terms of start-to-finish intensity, but that doesn't mean they don't try in spots. The Great Southern Trendkill is burdened with passages in which Phil Anselmo's vocals cross the line into histrionics, making the band's trademark intensity sound dull, forced, and theatrical rather than sincere…

Although Vulgar Display of Power remains Pantera's best and definitive album, Cowboys from Hell was the creative breakthrough that set the stage for its conception. Not only were its demos responsible for getting Pantera signed to a major label in the first place, but its fresh musical perspective also gave them a much-needed blank slate with which to conquer the 1990s and, first and foremost, erase their 1980s failures…

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…

Thankfully, Pantera has stopped attempting to outdo each successive album in terms of start-to-finish intensity, but that doesn't mean they don't try in spots. The Great Southern Trendkill is burdened with passages in which Phil Anselmo's vocals cross the line into histrionics, making the band's trademark intensity sound dull, forced, and theatrical rather than sincere. The lyrics, which reached their apex with Vulgar Display of Power's focus on personal politics and integrity, have degenerated into half-baked rants against drugs and pop-culture media…

Far Beyond Driven may have been Pantera's fastest selling album upon release, but it's hardly their best. In fact, although it shot straight to the number one spot on the Billboard sales chart in its first week (arguably the most extreme album ever to do so), this incredible feat doesn't so much reflect its own qualities as those of its predecessor, 1992's Vulgar Display of Power…

Where The Great Southern Trendkill experimented with slower, moodier pieces, Reinventing the Steel finds Pantera sticking to the pulverizing basics of their sound, with the first down-tempo, nondistorted guitar part appearing on the next-to-last track, "It Makes Them Disappear," and vanishing about 15 seconds into the song…

One of the most influential heavy metal albums of the 1990s, Vulgar Display of Power is just what is says: a raw, pulverizing, insanely intense depiction of naked rage and hostility that drains its listeners and pounds them into submission. Even the "ballads," "This Love" and "Hollow," have thunderingly loud, aggressive chorus sections…