If you ask fans of Pantera what the group’s first album was,
\nthey’ll likely answer
\nCowboys From Hell<\/i>, their 1990 release.<\/p>\n
Uh, no. Wrong. Despite what even the band apparently would like
\npeople to think, Pantera put out four independent releases prior to
\n1990. The reason these are pushed aside seems to be because the
\nstyle of music Pantera was playing at the time was nothing like the
\nspine-crunching riffs that Phil Anselmo and crew would come up with
\nin their heyday. (Also, Anselmo didn’t join the band until their
\nfourth indie release,
\nPower Metal<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
For the first part of their recorded history, Pantera was
\nfronted by vocalist Terry Glaze, though the core of the group —
\nguitarist “Diamond” Darrell (as he was then known), bassist Rex and
\ndrummer Vinnie Paul — remained the same. Their debut release,
\nMetal Magic<\/i>, features ten songs written in a conventional
\nstyle of hard rock popular at the time, and while interesting to
\nlisten to from a historic point of view, is often nothing
\nextraordinary. (For the record: I’m reviewing this from MP3 files,
\nas the original four indie releases are long out of print.)<\/p>\n
Even in the early days, one can hear potential greatness in
\n“Diamond” Darrell’s guitar work, though his innovative style of
\nsoloing was still developing. On tracks like “Rock Out” and “Metal
\nMagic,” you can hear the beginnings of the take-no-prisoners style
\nhe would become known for.<\/p>\n
In a sense, one really can’t complain about the style of metal
\nPantera tackles on
\nMetal Magic<\/i>. Yes, it’s conventional for the genre, but not
\nmany bands were taking real chances at this time. Pantera’s style
\non this tape is a mixture of Motley Crue and Dokken (in terms of
\nsome of the slower numbers), in itself not an unpleasant
\nmixture.<\/p>\n
Complaints? I have a few. First, while Glaze is not the greatest
\nvocalist in metal history, I’d have liked to have podded up his
\nvocals a bit more in the mix. Maybe it’s that I’m working from what
\nsound like ancient files, but often his singing doesn’t come
\nthrough as strongly as I’d like it to. Second, while there are many
\nmoments to get genuinely excited about on this one, there are
\nequally as many formulatic numbers. Tracks like “Biggest Part Of
\nMe,” “Latest Lover” and “I’ll Be Alright” fail to stand out as
\nanything other than ordinary.<\/p>\n
Yet
\nMetal Magic<\/i> does rightfully suggest that bigger and better
\nthings lay ahead for Pantera. Tracks like “Rock Out,” “Widowmaker”
\nand the title track definitely display promise, even for a first
\neffort and by 1983 standards, and are impressive.<\/p>\n
Now, maybe listening to this after the events in Columbus, Ohio
\nclouds my judgment — after all, to say anything negative about
\n“Diamond” \/ “Dimebag” Darrell is akin to giving the Pope the
\nfinger. But I’d like to think that I’d have said the same things
\nabout
\nMetal Magic<\/i> had I been handed the cassette in 1983 – or even
\nlast year. The former members of Pantera may not want their fans to
\nremember their “glam” days, but
\nMetal Magic<\/i> convinces me all the more that the indie albums
\nshould be rediscovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5816],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38217","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pantera","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38217"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38217"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}