I hadn't listened to Pantera in many years until today. I remember when I was 15 I thought those guys were as cool as could be, my idols. I just watched a few of their clips and barely stopped laughing the entire time. One of the most pathetic, posturing acts of all time. Does anyone else have the impression that they are compensating for something?

ARE YOU TALKIN' TO ME?!

I'm all for discussing Pantera and such (even though they aren't exacly loved around these parts), as I find them to be just a dumb, fun outfit that I can listen to on occasion and that released a couple of great albums during their existence as a band, but hey; there are better ways to adress this than yours.

Xlxlx- Exactly, dumb fun
They are, pretty much, the quintessential, simple riff, angry, shouty, chest-pounding 'YOU BETTER RESPECT ME BECAUSE I'M ALL ABOUT RESPECT AND I DON'T RESPECT PEOPLE WITH NO RESPECT, RESPECT?!' band, but I like a lot of their songs, (their old cheesy as fuck material prior-CFH is a total guilty pleasure of mine too).
I do remember going to see Slayer and Hatebreed supported them, and an acquaintance who had never heard of them (he doesn't watch TV, he doesn't have the internet, he doesn't read music magazines, and I suspect he actually lives under a rock) looked over to me during Hatebreed's set, sharing my dislike, and saying 'Pantera have a fucking lot to answer for, for this sort of nonsense'.

(Slightly on topic- I love Down. SJR are something I like but can't quite explain why, too )

If we're gonna talk about which Pantera records are best (they have tons of great songs, yet are very inconsistent LP-wise), then I'd name TGST, Power Metal and CFH, precisely in that order. The first is just one of the most abrasive pieces of metal I've heard in my life (only Pantera album where the anger sounds genuine, if you ask me), the second basically a lost Judas Priest album and the third a very fun an interesting mix of heavy, thrash and groove metal, the latter of which was still not settled as a style by that point in time. I also have Vulgar Display of Power and Reinventing the Steel in my collection, although I only spin them once in a blue moon, for obvious reasons.

As an answer to the Down comment:

Pantera's very hit or miss for me. I liked some of the songs on CFH, hated most of Vulgar, thought FBD was meh, absolutely dug the fuck out of Trendkill and was disappointed with Reinventing the Steel. If Dimebag were still alive today and Phil hadn't been such a douchesickle, who knows what Pantera would sound like today.

I think my main issue is with their "die-hard" fans. The ones that worship "Walk", "Cemetary Gates" and whatever other tracks were on radio rotation back then. Pisses me off when I'm partying and some of these "fans" are there and proclaim their love for Pantera, yet I put something from Trendkill on and they dismiss it as shit. Not trying to rant but I hate the types that claim to worship some band yet only can name the radio hits from said band.

Still, they can be a fun band to listen to in moderation. Shuffle play on an iPod or something helps in that regard as you're hearing one track every hundred (or thousand) songs as opposed to an hour or so at a time.

'Walk' is really fun to work out to, so it does have some uses! If it comes on at a club, I walk the fuck away from the pit/floor/whatever and go to the bar just to avoid the types that come out to that song.
Trendkill is amazing. Angry, angry lyrics, Seth Putnam screaming incoherently, and wicked riffs.

Awful band, and not just for their ridiculous fans or the legions of shitty groove metal they inspired. It's just stupid music, and not the fun kind.

Pantera was a decent act, in average. Trendkill and CFH are great, but the rest it's pretty inconsistent. I like the 'atmosphere' of Trendkill, it really puts you in a desert or something and features the fastest and heaviest songs they ever did, as well as some very interesting stuff like Floods or the Suicide note pt I.

I actually enjoy me some Pantera. I do understand where haters come from, but I don't think they're as bad as some people make them out to be. The haters are the ones who often times give Pantera more attention than fans. Now, I know there's always the big burly dude at metal shows wearing a Pantera shirt, but I think for the most part they can be ignored.

I actually think their best record was Far Beyond Driven. It's got less of a macho tough guy attitude that Vulgar Display of Power has; the lyrics on FBD are more personal than the tough guy stuff on VDoP. I think Great Southern Trendkill is pretty good, but I haven't listened to it as much, for some reason.

I enjoy Pantera, they're a good band. Even the albums that people don't like, like Far Beyond Driven or Vulgar Display of Power, have some great tunes. Where they succeed over their imitators and other bands similar to them is the songwriting - they wrote cool riffs and had a lot of attitude, and generally the songs were a lot of fun. The tough guy thing I don't really care about - it's sort of their gimmick, and it works for them.

The only LP i own by them is Vulgar Display of Power, my main problem with it is that it's just a quite inconsistent album. However songs like A New Level and Mouth for War are great slabs of Groove Metal, and although I completely understand the hate for it, I can't help but enjoy Walk for its stupidly simplistic first pumping nature. And it reminds me of when I was first discovering metal as a 15 year old.

What? Since when is Vulgar "not liked"...?

Agreed; very well-executed, underrated record.

Far Beyond actually took me way more than a couple of listens to get into. It's probably my second fave after Trendkill.

At the risk of being told to leave the hall/handing in my gun and badge at the desk/having all my Sabbath LPs confiscated... anyone a fan of SJR's brand of repetetive shouty silliness? I don't know what the fuck it is, but I can't not like them.
It might have something to do with the fact that they're named after a Darkthrone lyric, but whatever...

the biggest thing pantera has over all the other similar stuff for me is anselmo's vocals - i usually hate that sort of tough guy shouting, but he does (/did) it really well

LOL!
I used to really like Pantera but I've not listened to any of their records for years.

I really liked "Vuglar" when it was released. I even saw them on that tour. I still enjoy it now, it brings back good memories. I couldn't get into "Far Beyond Driven" when it came out but came around to it many years later. Never investigated their discography beyond that or prior to CFH. I don't really carry about the image they had, or really, the ones their fans had, which I think people probably hate more. The band doesn't get tons of respect around here, but in the '90s, they were majorly huge and influential, especially in the early and mid '90s, when mainstream metal was declining and all things "alternative" were considered good. They were an important gateway band for a lot of kids and, for better or worse, they had a big influence on a lot of bands, including veteran bands.

Power Metal is a very sick album.

I think pantera is great for what they are. They were a great gateway band for a ton of people in to metal and the more extreme side. I saw morbid angel open for them. i got into darkthrone a band i had never heard of when i was 14 because of one of the shirts phil wore. ditto eyehategod. they were a gateway to bigger and better things for me and i will respect them for that.

I used to be such a huge Pantera fan. I remember trying to act tough and things like that. It was so cool at that time, but now it's lame. I've come to realize that they are a shitty band after CFH. Power Metal though is an amazing album.

I really miss this awesome Pantera shirt I bought in Majorca (of all places) and gave to my stepbrother when he was a fledgling metalhead and was into them, despite that I was terrified he was going to turn into That Fat Fuck With The Pantera Shirt On

"Yeah! I'm so edgy that I hate Pantera!"

I'm not gonna lock this even if the op was mediocre. Discuss Pantera, guys.

This sums up my introduction to metal as a whole.
I actually found out about them because there was a player in my old MMORPG game Ultima Online named Pantera and I was in his guild CFH I spin TGSTK and CFH the most and listen to the other LP's while working out quite a bit. I don't think they deserve some of the flack they get and it seems strange to not respect Dimebag for his amazing skill with the axe. Every album has some great songs, but there are some boring tracks as well. It's a shame Reinventing the Steel doesn't have better production.

In all honesty, I genuinely thought that's what this thread was gonna turn into!

Anyone seen the home videos? Just six hours of them dicking around, fun stuff!

CBFH and PW are the only albums I really like. They have good individual songs, but past CBFH, I don't think they were consistent. I also think that's when the tough guy image got too overwhelming. Phil's other projects are way better, and as far as dumb fun goes, I prefer SJR.

I really enjoyed them when I was younger but now I hardly listen to them. Dimebag was an incredible guitarist and Phil was a great frontman until the drugs/back injury got to him.

Lots of closet Pantera fans in this thread.

I loved Pantera as a kid. I think I over played them a long with Metallica. Both bands I just dont care to listen to because I ruined them for myself. The radio doesnt help either, more so with Metallica though. I could probbably still sing every word to every song from either band. I could probbably 'sing' the guitar solos as well. I would never deny either bands credibility. I am actually kind of suprised how much heat both bands seem to recieve around here.

I could never get into them. I guess I skipped a lot though because when I started listening to metal beyond my basic Metallica CDs I was already into bands like Children of Bodom, etc. and there was no appeal to Pantera to me.

Don't judge a band based on their fans, if you do, you're just another ignorant douchebag everybody will avoid discussion with. Not to mention you'll miss out on some amazing music all because (at the time) you were too close-minded and stubborn to listen. As for Pantera, there is hardly anything wrong with them. Maybe they are overrated but that doesn't entitle anyone to hang shit on them. I prefer their later material, when Phil Anselmo grew some balls and stopped singing so high pitched. I'm always amazed at how whenever there is a Pantera thread someone has to mention Power Metal, and praise it as the holy grail of Pantera. I listened to those early albums and unless I am missing something, they were mediocre at best. From CFH and onwards is where they became a good band with moments of greatness. OP, you should ignore the music you don't like. In a way, you are promoting the band every time you mention them.

If by "growing some balls" you mean "barking monotonically", then I'd rather stick with "ball-less", wailing Anselmo, thank you. Sure, it's obvious that the man changed style quite a lot as the years went by, but of all the stuff he did, I think the militant shouts he had going for him during the VDOP-FBD period was by far the worst he ever did. Whether it's the Halford-esque howls of Power Metal (and Cowboys From Hell, to a much lesser extent), the piercing shrieks and vitriolic screams of TGST or the more bluesy/grungy thing he's been doing with Down since their inception, pretty much any other approach he ever tried is miles above what he did during those two albums. Long story short; I can listen to Vulgar once in a while, yes, but I don't enjoy Anselmo's performance there. I tolerate it.

It took me a while to really get around to Pantera, myself. They're a decent band overall but get rather inconsistent at times. Cowboys From Hell and The Great Southern Trendkill are great releases and Vulgar Display of Power certainly has its moments. I'd love to find some cheap copies of Power Metal and I Am The Night, though. Outside of the Archives, those albums really don't get their due.

Im not a closet Pantera fan, I'm a fabulous Pantera fan

They have some good riffs I give 'em that. But so does tons of other bands. Anselmo's vocals are annoying and the lyrics and aesthethics repulsive.

I fucking love Pantera and don't really get how someone can be into metal without liking some of their stuff. I used to hate Vulgar/Driven because I wanted to seem edgy and unique but recently Vulgar has become one of my favorite albums. So goddamn catchy, even songs I used to not get at all like "Live in a Hole" and "By Demons be Driven" are great now that I've grown an affinity for 90s metalcore/hardcore. Far Beyond Driven still has some uber-awesome tracks but overall it's overlong and has that "insane junkie" vibe which probably reflects Phil's state of mind at the time. I support the Trendkill love, the title track is up there with my all time favorite metal songs.

Power Metal is super awesome too, it's a shame they didn't put out more in that aggressive traditional metal vibe. I'm gonna recycle a post I just put in the power metal rec thread because it seems most of the regulars there ignored it. If your favorite Pantera is Power Metal/Cowboys From Hell LISTEN TO THIS SONG!

Yeah, their attitude and lyrics have always struck me as rather tough guy-ish. That, and I think Dimebag is a hugely overrated guitarist and Anselmo is a shitty vocalist.

They're the quintessential gateway band into metal. They're one of the first actual metal bands I listened to when I got properly into the genre, even before Metallica. I've known many others to say the same thing.

If you asked someone not especially privy if they're into metal, even today, barring Metallica, Pantera would probably still be mentioned as one of the few legitimate metal bands they know. Or Machine Head, but Machine Head is really, really bad.

I like Pantera. They weren't my gateway into real metal (early Metallica/Megadeth was), but Pantera was defnintely a big part of my journey into the underground metal sub-genres in the 90s.

Pantera cop a lot of crap, like all other gateway bands that were big in the early 90s: Metallica, Megadeth, Sepultura, etc.
It kinda amazes me that The Great Southern Trendkill is such a cult hit these days - makes me happy though, cause it's my fav album of theirs. 10s, Floods and Suicide Note Pt 1 are the highlights of their career imo.

I like most of power metal and like two songs from cowboys. The rest is all utter, dumbed down, shite. Dimebag is probably the most overrated guitarist of all time. As for Phil, he was better when he was belting high notes, but he finally made the tough guy vocals work with Down.