The 50 GReATeST PANTeRA SONGS eVeR
(reprise) Sandblasted Skin
(The Great Southern Trendkill, 1996)
Tuned down to G (which in layman’s terms means VERY HEAVY) and exhibiting a clear affiliation with the death metal scene, TGST’s closing track was no happy ending: ‘Exterminate, it’s all fake!’ roars Phil over yet
more pulverising riffs.
Where You Come From
(Official Live: 101 Proof, 1997)
Lurking at the end of Pantera’s revered 1997 live album Official Live: 101 Proof, this Trendkill outtake clatters along on a classic, staccato riff before blossoming into a snake-hipped, sun-scorched chorus and an exquisitely deranged solo from Dime.
Hellbound
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
Neither a fouryear wait nor the challenges of a new millennium could stop Pantera from sounding harder, bolder or more effortlessly imperious than they did on this scything opener from their final studio album. ‘Hellbound, in Fort
Worth, Texas’ – yeehaw!
Goddamn electric
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
When Phil sings ‘Your trust is in whisky and weed and Black Sabbath’, it’s hard to refrain from furiously nodding your head in agreement. Goddamn Electric was a hymn to the glory of heavy fucking metal, performed by the genre’s undisputed kings.
Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
Reinventing…’s biggest anthem packed a hefty whack, musically and lyrically. A rabble-rousing demand for people to stop wallowing in the past, it was underpinned by one of those infectious grooves that only Pantera could conjure.
revolution Is My name
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
One of the more overtly positive and inspirational songs in the latter Pantera canon, this straightforward riff monster presented Phil in full Southernfried bluesy mode, perfectly complementing Dime’s salutes to Sabbath and ZZ Top.
Death rattle
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
It’s hard to deny that the last Pantera album was less extreme than its immediate predecessors, but Death Rattle still kicks off like a drunken punch-up, with spiky, atonal riffs and numerous jarring detours crammed into its three breathless minutes.
Uplift
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
An underrated gem with a distinctly un-Pantera-like title, Uplift conjures images of a boozeravaged Phil playing chicken on the highway, but with extra riffs and a palpable sense of mischief in the song’s warped, wayward arrangement.
I’ll Cast a Shadow
(Reinventing The Steel, 2000)
A grand and belligerent way for Pantera to bow out, this brooding paean to rising from the ashes now seems unbearably poignant: ‘When I die, I cast a shadow / And I’ll rise, I cast a shadow.’ For all their fire and fury, this band had the souls of poets, too.
Piss (Vulgar 20th Anniversary Edition, 2012)
A long-lost outtake from the Vulgar… sessions that emerged in April, 2012, Piss contains a large chunk of what would become Use My Third Arm on Far Beyond Driven two years later. Regardless, this rips and you can’t knock that title.