I’m probably in a very small minority with what I’m about to say. To me, the best Pantera album is, The Great Southern Trendkill. This album emits a level of heavy that I think even surprised everyone involved in the making of it. I’ve always been very fond of the vocal production on this one too (courtesy of the masterful Sean Beavan working out of Trent Reznor’s studio in New Orleans). There’s something a bit more powerful and in your face about Philip’s delivery on this album. One thing is for certain, the first song on the album, the title track, “The Great Southern Trendkill” is one of the best title tracks. Everything about this song is badass. This is one of those title tracks that stands out amongst them all!
Let’s travel back to 1992 and revisit the soundtrack for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer. While the movie has achieved some cult status over the years, and the TV show has been hailed, the soundtrack has become a bit of an after thought. When you look at the soundtrack though, you can see why it would be. Though there has always been one song on it that has been intriguing. That song is “Light Comes Out Of Black” by Pantera featuring Rob Halford. In an interview some years ago, Rob Halford commented on how this came to be. “I was away from Priest. Sony were working on the soundtrack. They wanted Sony artists and asked me to write a song. I hadn’t written as a solo writer for years and years and years. But it’s one of those things where you don’t know what you can do until you put your nose to the grindstone. So I wrote “Light Comes Out of Black,” and I was stuck. And I got Dime’s number, and I called him up and I said, “Here’s the deal.” And he goes, “Let’s do it. Just get in the plane and come down to Dallas.” So that’s what I did the next day, went to the studio, laid the track down in a very short space of time. Phil wandered by, said “Oh, how’s it going, ‘metal god’?” So I told him and he said, “You got a spot for me?” I said, “Pfft, here’s the mic.” So Phil joins me on the back end of the song. And it turned out really good. It’s amazing to think that that’s a Pantera song really. It is Pantera with me on lead vocals, and Phil obviously doing the outro sections. But it’s a Pantera song really.
So without anymore delay, here’s the song!
Pantera with Rob Halford- Light Comes Out Of Black:
I’ve been in a Pantera mood the last couple days. I’ve mainly been listening to The Great Southern Trendkill (as it’s my favorite album of theirs). While I was going through all their albums I forgot about a few b-sides and covers that they did throughout their career. So here they are. The few b-sides they have and covers. Enjoy!
As of late I’ve started listening to Pantera again. I needed to take a break from them for a while. Though if I had some aggression I needed to get out, I made sure that The Great Southern Trendkill (My favorite Pantera album) was near by. So with all this in mind, it’s time to rank all the Pantera albums from not the best to the best.
I love to read biographies about bands and the people in them. One of the best things about these types of books are when they delve deep into the making of albums. While reading about that part I love putting the albums on and really invest myself in to what they were all about at that point. I recently read Rex Brown’s book about his time in Pantera. The stories were really interesting and it presented quite an interesting look into one of heavy musics most popular bands. The writing style was a bit juvenile but the content made it worth while. After reading the book I had more of an understanding why Pantera ended the way it did, and just how much Dimebag and Vinnie were immature. Rex really didn’t spare anyone. He blasted himself, Phil and the rest of the guys. One of the more interesting things was about how Dime and Vinnie’s father was collecting royalties from Pantera in the early days once they were signed to a major label. What a schmuck. This is a very fast read of a book and it packs quite a punch especially when it got to the murder of Dime and the other people at the Alrosa Villa in 2004. It’s well worth it if you are a Pantera fan. And even if you aren’t it shows a lot of how to deal with band dynamics and the do’s and don’ts. In a way this book is a great precursor to Philip’s book which should be out in 2015 and will undoubtably cause a lot of controversy I’m sure.
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