July 24, 1990 - Pantera and Cowboys From Hell

It's been an unusually long five months since my last release but we finally have my first album from this year and it also marks the arrival of a new band to my library when Pantera released their fifth album "Cowboys From Hell" on July 24, 1990. But who are Pantera? They are a four-piece metal band from Arlington, Texas and they began their career as a glam-metal band with original singer Terry Glaze. I am not a glam metal fan which is why I don't have their first four albums from the 80s, but this album marks a significant shift for Pantera towards a heavier, more thrash-y sound. They consist of guitarist Diamond Darrell (an awful glam-y name), drummer Vinnie Paul, bassist Rex Brown and new singer Phil Anselmo and this line-up would find much greater success and are even called one of the pioneers of a new genre called groove metal. This was Pantera's first album on a major label and their first with a real producer, Terry Date, who also produced Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" and Dream Theater's debut album. Despite it being their fifth album officially, most people, and even the band themself, regarded "Cowboys From Hell" as their true debut. Let's check out some brand new 90s metal!

The album begins with "Cowboys From Hel" and it starts with a cool bass riff by Brown before Darrell takes over with a heavy and pretty sweet guitar riff. Anselmo comes in to sing the first verse and we hear his very unique voice that has a bit of a Southern edge to it, but it's also a little raspy and sounds pretty metal. The music sounds almost like Metallica as it sounds nice and thrash-y and Anselmo even channels some inner Tom Araya, hitting some pretty high screams when he wants to. Phil's mix of mostly low and raspy vocals with bits of very high screams sounds fantastic at both extremes. After a couple cool verses and choruses Diamond Darrell goes off for his first solo and he seems to be shredding his guitar with relative ease. He plays stole incredibly fast and very cool guitar and the end part of the solo that segues back into the main riff sounds excellent. He's got a glam-y name, but Diamond Darrell can play some heavy metal guitar and this title track is a perfect opener for the album. The next song "Primal Concrete Sledge" is just over two minutes long and it begins with a nice and low riff played on guitar and bass and Anselmo comes in to sing some quick lyrics overtop. They run through a couple quick verses before Darrell plays a short but sweet solo and then he nicely breaks things down into a slow and chugging riff and Paul plays some great double bass drums to make this part sound nice and heavy. Darrell wraps this part up with another short but awesome solo and after a final verse this short but hard-hitting song is over. Track 3 is "Psycho Holiday" and they kick right into another nice thrash-y main riff with Paul, Brown and Darrell all playing some cool stuff. When Anselmo comes in to sing the verse he does a couple really high almost yelps and he reminds me a bit of David Lee Roth as he nicely leads the way. After a couple Aloud verses and choruses it's solo time once again and Darrell plays another phenomenal solo. It's nice and long and he is all over the fretboard, shredding it up and having fun doing it. They play a final verse and chorus and you'd think things would end there, but Paul plays a nice drum roll to set up a new part and they jam out this cool new riff to finish things off instead. Up next is "Heresy" and Darrell leads the way with a heavy and cool guitar riff as the rest of the band falls in one by one to complete a nice main riff that reminds me of Metallica and Slayer's debut albums: that fast-paced and wicked thrash metal! Phil's vocals are another great mix of low and raspy and high shrieks and every song so far has been pretty great! I love how Phil holds his yell of "heresy!" at the end of each chorus and of course there's another pretty sweet guitar solo by Darrell. It's crazy to think that these guys used to play glam metal in the 80s, 'cause their sound on this album is awesome and not glam-y at all! Track 5 is one of Pantera's most famous songs, the 7-minute power ballad "Cemetery Gates". It starts quite slow but eventually shifts to a more typical Pantera pace; with cool guitar from Darrell in both parts. It slows down again for the beginning of the verse, then speeds up and gets heavier partway through and carries into the catchy chorus. After another verse and chorus it'solo time. Darrell also starts slow but he does a fantastic job by the end in another amazing solo. They play a final chorus and Anselmo yells a few nice high "gates!" as the song fades to an end. The next song is "Domination" and it opens with someone yelling "first take like a motherfucker!" before they kick right into a fast-paced and cool metal riff. We hear some solid drums by Paul, solid vocals from Anselmo and of course some sweet guitar leading the way from Darrell. And man can he shred! He plays a spectacularly awesome solo that breaks nicely right into a slow and heavy backing riff. Then Darrell resumes the shredding as he is just relentlessly going up and down his guitar and delivers a fantastic ending to another great song! Track 7 is called "Shattered" and some more thrash-y guitar leads the way and Anselmo sings nice and high and sounds almost Iron Maiden-esque! Pantera show off their many influences and it combines to make this new genre dubbed power metal, and that seems apt! This is another hard-hitting song and aside from the ballad "Cemetery Gates" everything sounds very powerful and very sweet. Darrell ends this cool song with a solo before we hear a loud sound of glass shattering. Up next is "Clash With Reality" and Paul plays a nice drum intro before they move into another great sounding main riff led by some epic guitar. Anselmo is an excellent frontman and he was probably electric at shows as he seems very energetic and forceful in his singing. After a couple verses and choruses they move to a nice breakdown to a new slower part. There's no real "solo", but it's a great instrumental part with cool guitar, bass and drums. They return to the main riff, play a final chorus and then a cool closing part to finish things off. Track 9 is "Medicine Man" and they slowly fade into a nice and heavy metal riff led by some sweet guitar by Darrell. Anselmo begins each verse in a really deep voice, but by the end he's wailing nice and high as we've come to expect. The chorus follows the same formula and after a couple rounds through Darrell plays another pretty epic and awesome solo; everything he does just sounds so great! After a final chorus they reverse the opening with a slow fadeout. The next song is "Message In Blood" and me once again writing that they kick right into another badass main metal riff just doesn't do justice to all the different, cool riffs Pantera play on this album. Diamond Darrell's guitar playing is particularly excellent on this one as he plays a really cool and heavy main riff and as we've come to expect he delivers a pretty kickass solo midway through the song. Track 11 is called "The Sleep" and Darrell opens the song with a lighter but still fairly fast guitar riff and Brown plays some nice bass to back him, but after 30 seconds or so they shift into a slow new riff that sounds pretty heavy and Phil sings a decent first verse and chorus. They return to the lighter opening riff, and this time Darrell solos overtop of it. He gets lots of time to play in this slow moving solo and while it's not insane as some of his other solos, it's still good. They return to the main riff to predictably finish things off, but if this is is one of the lesser songs on the album, that shows how good everything else has been. The album wraps up with "The Art Of Shredding" and it seems a pretty fitting title for another fast-paced metal jam. There's no singing for the whole first minute as Darrell leads a cool instrumental part and then they finally shift into am ever faster main riff as Anselmo yells a nice verse and chorus. The solo is actually not one of Darrell's best in my opinion, but it's very high-pitched and mostly done at the very bottom of his fretboard. The rest of the song is quite good and it's a fitting way to end this "debut" album.

That is the end of "Cowboys From Hell" and I thought it was a really great album. Pantera have taken a thrash metal background but also turned it into something of their own and I really enjoyed every song, with a few being quite good! It's almost unbelievable that this band was playing glam metal last decade, but this a contender for album of the year and it's the first album of the year! I can't wait to see where Pantera go from here!