Review Summary: Pantera's best glam era album, trapped in dichotomy between worn out glam metal trappings & future direction.
Up until this point, Pantera had been creating some very cliche, and remarkably blase Glam Metal, following along with the styles & trappings of the time. After ditching Terry Glaze, very much a mediocre performer, the recruited Phil Anselmo to front the band. As such, Power Metal served as his debut with the band, bringing a muscularity & more visceral energy.
Power metal is caught in no-man's land. One one hand, they were stuck in the trappings of past releases with poor glam typical lyrics about sexual prowess, rocking hard and relationships. Take Hard Ride's lyric "The pressure's building up, You feel you've had enough, So go now - AWAY!!!, I'll lay it on the table, You're feelin' so unstable, I want to love you, But you seem so far away!!!". Remarkable stuff Phillip, sounds like a case of being a clingy loverboy there old chap. This runs alongside some remarkably generic & formuladic structures, lame duck gang vocals & repeat choruses. Not to forget the whispered lines on We'll Meet Again, a track even the most eager 80s rock fan would turn their nose up at. On the other containing some more diverse, technical and forward thinking writing, that hinted at something greater going forward. Take Over and Out for example, a romper stomper track with a grooving riff, something that is remarkably Alice in Hell Annihilator in nature. The song carries off up until a full blown thrash interlude. Pantera could have pursued this stylistic angle with aptitude.
Phil sounds remarkable on this album, his voice is at it's most dynamic, varied and uses all his range. At times Geoff Tate like in his highs, at other times sounding like Annihilators Randy Rampage. Dime puts on a show, flying off the panhandle with rapid fire shred, tapping & bombing. His tone akin to Randy Rhoads or George Lynch, clean, without the oft ultra heavy distortion he would later become known for. Death Trap the most impressively wild of these efforts. Dimebag's riffing shows a glimpse of his future styling, especially in riffs like Power Metal, which would be at home on Cowboys From Hell, their following record. Once again mustering up fury for the fast paced Iced Earth style adjacent Death Trap. High octane energy doesn't always come off though, Burnnn! leaves a lot to be desired, very much carrying a B-side quality, with indistinct riffing, even the solo is phoned in & short.
Throughout the album Vinnie Paul & Rex Brown follow along with some simple, but apt performances, bass mostly rumbling along content to back up the lines Dimebag puts down. Production is at a fault as far as drums are concerned, there is a lack of life to the kick, cymbals & a very dry thin snare tone, some more beefiness here might have brought this to life a bit more.
The ballad of the album falls into the trappings many mediocre 80s cheesy rock ballads did, poor lyrics, dated synths, vocal effects & an overall lack of any defining features, even adorned with lazy fade out endings. Likewise some of the more "generic glam" moments, the opener & Proud to be Loud will elicit sighs of bored frustration for anyone not content with ultra-cheese laden pseudo macho rumination. We've heard this nonsense done better before, by far and away.
Pantera would go on to disown this release. In the coming years they distanced themselves from the glam image they once conveyed, posturing as an ultra masculine, band of hard men who are simply no nonsense. To be frank, it's rather weak of Pantera to deny their foundation. Is growth, and becoming more than what you once were much more admirable than simply hiding ones faults & previous shortcomings out of insecurity? Either way, Power Metal presents us a band was starting to find its footing, and frankly making some decent, albeit not great music along the way.
