Wow, what a brutal and horrible review. This is a very good album and didn't reach #1 on Billboard 200 and go platinum by mistake (I'd like to see you make an album and try to achieve that). I think the band put a lot of hard work into the writing, performing and recording of this album and it definitely shows. This is a great achievement musically by all 4 band members. Rex, Vinnie and Dime's rhythm section is tight and fierce, big Vin's drumming is aggressive and hard hitting, Dime's riffing is razor sharp, his soloing is unique and superb but I think the highlight of the album shows just where he was focusing on with this album ( of which he perfected on the next album ) and that would be his quest to create sounds with his guitar that no one had heard before. Phil's vocals are very underrated on this album as well. The way he was able to keep up with evolving with his vocal chords while the band was evolving in a more aggressive direction is just amazing. He had to step up his vocal aggression from "CFH" to "Vulgar" which he did, then even more aggressively was the transition from "Vulgar" to "Far Beyond Driven." He was able to meet the challenge yet again and it still amazes me every time I hear his performance on this album or live recordings from this era (Donington '94 in particular) just how insane it is that he not only pulls off those harsh as hell screams but that he does it with such ease that I can't believe anybody could do that without shredding their vocal cords, just try it if you don't think it's anything special. The only thing I think is negative about the album are the lyrics to "Good Friends and a Bottle Of Pills," but I think that song was meant to be a joke and just a representation of the band's humor at that time so I can't say it's fair or accurate then to even judge them the same. To me Pantera were so damn good musically that even though the lyrics to that song are lame it doesn't matter cause the band still makes it sound good musically because they are just that good at getting into a groove and carrying it anywhere they please. So yeah this is a great work of Texas Metal by some of the greatest musicians the genre has ever seen and it was one of the few or only aggressive metal album(s) that was of high quality and break into the mainstream to help keep metal music from being completely forced underground and that's a big reason why this album deserves its respect, because if music from a certain genre is kept down underground too long then it runs the risk of losing all its credibility and going away. Thank you Pantera for keeping metal alive in an era where pop and alternative ruled the airwaves and now metal is alive and well for people like me to discover and enjoy today.

Album Rating: 3.5

wow many words

Thank you Pantera for keeping metal alive in an era where pop and alternative ruled the airwaves and now metal is alive and well for people like me to discover and enjoy today.

Woah! good lad dan dude m/

It's just a copy paste of Samano's monstrous comment lol. But yeah i can dig this band.

Album Rating: 4.0

that portion of his comment is spot on

Album Rating: 3.5

underground metal in the 90's was lit

This was about as underground as Coldplay

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah this had posters up in Ourprice

Album Rating: 3.5

i wasn't implying that this was underground

Album Rating: 4.0

I used to hate pantera for being a band with non sense screaming, guitar distortion at the point of not able to distinguish a chord. How wrong I was....

I serve too many fucking masters

Album Rating: 4.0

WE'VE GROWN INTO A MOOOONSTEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR

@rodrigo they have pretty metallic production and dime scoops the fuck out of the mids but the power chords are always discernible and phil is intelligible 90% of the time so you were very wrong young padawan

@Samano89 It entered at #1 on the back of VDOP and only remained there for a week and afaik the only song that was able to get significant airplay was their Planet Caravan cover also ive done my research, dime lost a casette full of riffs he'd written and rewrote all his material for this album in the space of a few weeks, plus the entire writing/recording process was infamously hasty and wrapped up in like a month. I think it's a miracle that it turned out to be this good

THERE'S NOTHING
NO EDUCATION NO FAMILY LIFE
TO OPEN MY ARMS TO

Album Rating: 3.5

FOREVER

STRONGER THAN ALL

STRONGER THAN ALL

Album Rating: 4.0

FUCK YOU AND YOUR COLLEGE DREAM



FACT IS WE'RE STRONGER THAN ALL



And with that phrase Phil fucked more cheerleaders than the whole sputnikmusic community combined.

CHRIST PERSON
WOMAN GOD

Album Rating: 4.0

m/