Far Beyond Driven

I've got a real love/hate relationship with Pantera. On one hand, they created the trailer trash groove metal shitstorm that pooped all over metal and brought metal to the braindead masses, and spawned a ton of dumbshit fanboys and piss poor bands. But on the other they were a tight band with a genuine love for metal and respect for the scene. Plus, Power Metal is an excellent album, along with a good bit of the even heavier Cowboys From Hell. I feel that the hate is mostly aimed at Vulgar Display of Power, which to me is a vastly inferior album to Far Beyond Driven for a number of reasons.

The first thing that makes this album better than Vulgar Display of Power, as well as almost everything else in their catalog, is the viscious nature of the songs. Pantera sounds righteously PISSED on this, most notably in album opener "Strength Beyond Strength," "Use Your Third Arm," and the lethal "Slaughtered." This is a big step up in terms of heaviness and slaughters the commercial tendencies set by the previous albums, the polar opposite to what all the other big name metal bands were doing in the 90's. Testament, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill, and certainly Metallica were on a steep decline after 1991.

The second, and most important thing, is the production, handled by Pantera themselves with some assistance from Terry Date. They apparently recorded this at their own studio, which gives the album a really comfortable, yet live feel. It's also way dirtier than the previous two albums which makes it feel heavier. There are more dissonant guitar sounds, with pick scraping and feedback finding their way into the mix and adding another dimension to Dime's already impressive repertoire. Vinnie and Rex hold it down in the rhthym department, with Vinnie's drums snappy and powerful in the mix. They really managed to capture the proverbial "lightning in a jar" with this album.

Far Beyond Driven also has the perfect mix of druggie/alcoholic vibes, where the party hadn't started to suck yet, but paranoia and felonies were on the horizon--the cops just hadn't shown up to bust everyone yet. The whole thing feels like it could very well fly off the wheels and result in a trainwreck, if it weren't for the fact they Pantera were on fire. But refer to Phil's insane, junkie ramblings and nearly out of control vocals, on "Use Your Third Arm" or "Throes of Rejection" for some great lines of nonsense poetry that document his (and to a lesser extent, the band's) descent into self-destruction:

Half-assed for most his life
Piss poor little ham
Narc boy, a fake fuck limp dick
Sucking up to the man and the world
We need another Cold War

If there really is a God, then it's punishing me constantly
She let me taste that sugarhole and of course, I wanted more
But no, I'm reduced to a Rohypnol snort and a lot of drinks
This shit goes on and on, just look down my pants

Or "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills," which has the BEST OPENING LINE OF ANY SONG EVER, and features Phil rambling about something or other. "You broke the bottle the magic came in," he mumbles and stumbles over his words like a true alcoholic junkie. Shit, this is performance art at its finest! It's funny to me because I didn't have to hang out with these guys and put up with their childish shit, but I can see why most people hate it. At least there's the Black Sabbath cover "Planet Caravan," which is expertly executed and leaves the album with something beautiful and different for those who didn't enjoy the mayhem.

The album tends to be a bit bloated in that CD era trend, but there's not much fat I would trim off. If I were to axe a few songs, it would be "5 Minutes Alone" and "I'm Broken," simply because they lack the brutality of the rest of the album, and have that mass appeal to the grooves--not cardinal sins in themselves, mind you. It's just that the heavier songs are legit. I'd also have to gripe about the relative lack of solos, particularly on the second half of the album, and in regards to their chaotic nature--Dime was capable of some beautiful, melodic stuff, but he forgets that on here. The same can be said of Phil's voice, which though certainly the ugliest thing this side of death metal, is proof positive that his range was completely fucked at this point (to be honest, it was after Cowboys from Hell).

I'm not going to choose this one over my favourite Morbid Angel albums, but when you compare it to the other stuff that was coming out in the 90's, especially Metallica's black album or Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction, Pantera were keeping it realer than you'd expect. Sadly, this was a one trick pony, because with the follow up, the Great Southern Trendkill ("Floods" excluded), the tricks would be old, the tunes flat, the lyrics nonsense, and the drugs and alcohol exacting a extremely heavy toll on the whole band.

I like this record. I like this record a lot. Not as much as I do Cowboys From Hell, but tomato tomahto. Credit where it's due: despite Vulgar Display of Power being recognized as Pantera's eternal classic (a notion which I don't completely disagree with), Phil has gone on record saying that the band's goal was to make a record which, in terms of sheer intensity, blew Vulgar out of the water. And you know what? I'd like to think they accomplished that goal. Making this record particularly spicy is that when it hit #1 on the Billboard, it knocked none other than Ace of Base's album from that spot, only to be knocked off the next week by Bonnie Raitt. Worry not boys, even Down Down was only number 1 hit for a week too.

That being said, Lemmy on the cross, who fucking told these guys Good Friends & a Bottle of Pills was a good song? What a lousy meandering grating pile of trash this is. Not to mention, this is start of Pantera's production getting grating. Everything from Phil's vocals to the guitar sound just has this pinch that is not necessary. It's like an ass-backwards treble inverse of Overkill's W.F.O. I feel this is a big reason why a lot of fans say that the only two Pantera albums that matter are Cowboys and Vulgar.

I also find Pantera's classification of groove metal, a thrash killer to be incorrect. In what world are Use My Third Arm and Strength Beyond Strength among a couple of others groovy? Pantera's groove because their singles were mid-paced? Well, so were Metallicas. So were Megadeths.

Highlights: 5 Minutes Alone what Walk should have been. Yeah, if you were wondering why that song wasn't mentioned on my Vulgar review, my synopsis was the groove was limp-wristed and the riff felt half-finished. 5 Minutes Alone is the result of such a song being given much more time cook and simmer. Particularly impressive is Rex's bassline under Dimebag's "Ripper-Roo breaks free of his straight jacket" solo. Now it's not 100% perfect, as the riffing underneath the verses is way too percussive and atonal in the attempt to accentuate the vocals. I'm Broken is no re-write of anything, just a brilliant riff at a brilliant tempo stone cold classic. Slaughtered is another great one, just a 4 minute seismic earthquake worthy of Pleasure To Kill, albeit missing a guitar solo. Matter of fact it feels like the back half of the album is completely missing solos. Like they forgot about them or something. And unfortunately spoiled little nu-metal shits would love to use this as an excuse to not solo 100% of the time. Well fuck you zoomers, you deserve no education, no family life to open my arms to and to be broke in a gutter.

Far Beyond Driven comes recommended from me, just don't expect perfection. Or too many solos. Or Phil being a "singer" anymore.

I just came up with a Pantera album title there. 'Vulgar display of power', 'Far beyond driven', 'Ultimate cataclysm of your being', 'Fuck you ten-thousandfold': these are all good Panteras. Anyways the cabinet used here makes the guitars sound like they're playing through a tube, like, this nasty tight metal pipe with a bit of resonance on the edges. The drums are sparkly and flashy as per protocol, and Phil is permanently high-strung, like, showers and even sleeps with that metal grin on and his eye-brows furiously frowned, like a method actor on a set who stays in character the whole time; oh and I'd bet a good chunk of the budget went into buying new mics, for the ones he went beyond driven on. The sheer Anselmo-ness of his screams must've loaded the studio booth with so much circulating testosterone it shattered the equipment.

So the guys release 'Vulgar', which they admitted was a project for "making the heaviest record of all-time" (actual quote), then they woke up one day and thought: "well shit this ain't nothin' ". So they grinned harder and watched more Nascar on TV, and so they were ready to make this thing. Is there a more boorish neanderthal metal album out there somewhere? Maybe. Probably not. This starts off with the outrageously pissed off 'Strength Beyond Strength', which lots of the aggro-metal from about five years down the decade would sound very similar to, from top to bottom, and 'Slaughtered' is like that later scene's grandpa. The jerky '25 Years' has one of the more unusual verses around. So the album contains these inherently modern tones, but can also dish out the more traditional blues stomps as best exemplified by 'I'm Broken' and its caricature "we're from the south" demeanor.

The songs are actually good. If you're ready to stick your lower lip out and frown those eye brows hotly for a whole hour (yes, it's 56 minutes), then by all means, switching this on seems a sound idea. It's actually got more than the groove to be fair: some of the riffing is more sophisticated than it should be for irritated blues (the very sludgy groove-fest 'Five Minutes Alone'), some songs contain above average song-writing with intricate chord changes ('Hard Lines...'), and some songs can bring an unexpectedly dark twist to the record (the slightly addictive 'Shredding Skin'). Oh and then at the end they play some Black Sabbath cover ballad. Is that everything? Just about. It might be a tad challenging to make a psychoanalysis of 'Far Beyond Driven'. Maybe something about the drill straight to the cranium on the cover being a visual illustration of the effect of the music, Dimebag's roller-coaster solos being the artistic channeling of inner chaos put into order on a record, Anselmo's sonic anger and addictions in the lyrics a cry-out for peace...

It took me decades but eventually I wrote my Cowboys From Hell review back in december 2022. As it was time for me to say something about Pantera. Why I loved them in the early nineties but also why I really developped a distaste (euphemism) mid-nineties which has only grown worse with decades.

Well, things started to go wrong in 1994. When 'Far Beyond Driven' was released. The band had already become massive. You couldn't go anywhere metal-related without seeing Pantera shirts everywhere or hearing either 'Walk' or 'Cemetary Gates'. New bands were starting to mimic them and even older band had incorporated many Pantera-isms in terms of groovy rhythms and more chugging guitars. Even some of my hardcore friends who normally hardly played any metal were all of a sudden 'into' Pantera. Anyway, I heard Far Beyond Driven at a friends house. He bought it the day it came out. What was it, late march 1994? Something like that. So we went to his house to listen. And I'm glad we did so I never made the mistake of actually spending money on the (back then) expensive CD and I bought the cheaper cassette. And tried it so many times. I really tried. and tried.... and tried.

So I can't say it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. You know, the whole 'disliking a bands growing popularity makes it easier to dislike an album' because I gave it a lot of chances. I wanted to 'get' it.

But alas!! As 'Far Beyond Driven' was such a huge let down. Sure, the album started nicely with the uptempo energetic 'Strength Beyond Strength' but it was all downhill from there. 'Becoming' with that Korn intro, 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' with the Fear Factory intro which never even turns into an actual song, '5 Minutes Alone' sounded like what Lynyrd Skynyrd would've been had they been founded two later than they did. (Not to mention the inspirationless dull video they made for it).

The meanderfests of '25 Years', 'Slaughtered ' and 'I'm Broken' which brought chugging and grooving down to the dumbest sublevels. We're now 29 later and I still don't get it when someone actually likes 'I'm Broken' or why it was even nominated for a Grammy. To quote myself from an earlier review: Pantera settled for the common denominator of "groove, gruff and angry". It was so utterly boring. 'Use My Third Arm' at least had a fast part in. Still a dull song though.

Song number 6 ('Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks') was the first on which something even remotely interesting happened. There are actually a few riffs in it! Wow. Thank you for at least trying! Not a good song but at least it kinda tells a story and takes its time. Same goes for 'Shedding Skin'. One of the best songs here. Would've been a filler on the previous two albums though but on Far Beyond Driven it is a highlight.

Far Beyond Driven made the fillers on 'Cowboys from Hell' and 'Vulgar Display of Power' seem like masterpieces. Quite an achievement. Pantera went from refreshing (1990) via influential (1992) to neanderthal within a mere 4 years. Well done (sarcasm) Don't expect anything as remotely dynamic or good as 'Cemetary Gates' or 'This Love' on this album. I think they drank away the last remains of their sensitive side somewhere on tour in 1993.

Also Anselmo's vocals had gone downhill quite a lot and quite fast. Ever since 1990 he tried to be more badass than on any previous album but I honestly think in 1994 he couldn't even sing 'Rock the World' anymore even if he actually tried. Within 6 years a good vocalist had disappeared and was replaced by some angry bald dude. Even compared to the previous two albums a lot of vocal quality and diversity is just gone, especially the screams. Sure, apart from his bad boy gruff vocals he does some mumbling (there's 'Shedding Skin' again) and even (kind of) sings on Planet Caravan.

Listening back in 2023 to this album, I think even less of it as I already did in 1994. So it hasn't grown on me nor has it some unexplainable historical emotional value. 3 decades later I still think Far Beyond Driven is a depressingly bad album. I'm gonna put on Cowboys and Vulgar now to at least end this day with some good Pantera memories.

Standouts:
- Strength Beyond Strength
- Shedding Skin
- Planet Caravan

With the release of Pantera’s seventh album, their evolution from glam metal nobodies to groove metal pioneers reached its ultimate culmination. 1994’s Far Beyond Driven famously managed to get #1 on the Billboard 200 and did so without the band watering down their signature sound. On the contrary, the band’s aggressive tendencies seemed to only amplify with the riffs getting blunter, the vocals more abrasive, and the songwriting less forgiving. However, I find this shift also led to their most unpleasant traits getting just as accentuated, resulting in what can be generously called a mixed bag.

Fortunately, the album manages to start with some of its strongest tracks. “Becoming” is one of the band’s strongest songs as its compact structure does well to highlight the dissonant yet oddly catchy squealing main riff, well-contrasted vocal lines during the verses, and a solid chorus. “Strength Beyond Strength” also manages to be a decent opener despite its sudden crashing introduction thanks to its neat guitar work halfway through and the riff sets on “Five Minutes Alone” and “I’m Broken” are memorable despite the vocals’ overbearing tough guy-isms seemingly going out of their way to distract the listener.

That obnoxiousness reaches an early peak with the utterly abysmal “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills.” The slow burn bass line shows some promise but is immediately undermined by the guitars providing harsh supplementary noise and an overall directionless structure that enables Phil Anselmo’s most self-indulgent diatribe on record. The mix of douchebag spoken word and building shrieks is annoying yet oddly funny and there is amusement in its alpha male cuckold narrative lending to some unintentionally homoerotic interpretation with some of the phrases. It’s easily the worst song Pantera ever released, but at least we can take solace in it being less than three minutes long.

The lingering stink can make subsequent tracks hard to stick around for, but at least it never reaches those depths again. “Hard Line Sunken Cheeks” and “25 Years” offer some promise with the former’s dips into slow sludge and the latter’s more sinister riff set, but the structures lack a hook to make them truly stand out. “Shedding Skin” also attempts to shake things up with subtle melodic textures, but lacks follow through. I can also admit that the disjointed nature of “Use My Third Arm” and “Throes of Rejection” could be compelling, but just don’t appeal to my personal sensibilities.

But with all this mayhem running amok, the closing cover of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” manages to be quite interesting. It’s a very well-done rendition as its quieter presentation is a pleasant comedown and the band’s less-effects driven approach gives it an earthier touch compared to the spaced out original. However, it bares mentioning that the album’s liner notes included a hilariously defensive paragraph from Anselmo all but apologizing for the song’s inclusion and how it didn’t reflect them going soft. Considering how his other band Down would have an equally melodic original song on NOLA just a year later, I can’t help but wonder if he had a change of heart in that time or if he was unintentionally admitting that he thought Pantera fans were closed-minded meatheads.

Most albums that I consider mediocre are usually just a dull malaise of interchangeably okay songs that only occasionally rise or fall beyond boredom. With that in mind, it is fascinating how Far Beyond Driven’s mediocrity is based more on how it offers things that I love and hate about the band in near equal measure. Perhaps I’d grade it higher had “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills” been cut, but I could say the inverse had “Becoming” not been here. Even the good songs on here come with their hang-ups and listening to this album feels like a contest between promising ideas and overcompensating attitude. I can understand the significance of what it achieved at the time and the appeal that it still holds for many, but that doesn’t necessarily make it fun for me to listen to.

If Far Beyond Driven is the Salty Spittoon, then I might have to go back to my Weenie Hut Jr.’s in Power Metal. I’m clearly not tough enough for this.

Like Slayer with Divine Intervention, in mid 1990's Pantera also had something to prove. They were outdoing themselves to top 1992’s Vulgar Display of Power, helluva record to say the least. Band members in interviews accompanying the release of their 7th full-length announced an album even faster, heavier and angrier than Vulgar.

And they weren’t lying. The opening track, “Strength Beyond Strength” is like a grenade exploded in your face. That’s really a step forward in the extreme direction from the punch in the face (see cover art for Vulgar). Words stronger than all are also heavily accentuated – Pantera is ready to hit you even harder than the last time! Strength isn’t all that makes us tick, though. Nothing’s more important than good songs and fitting production, and – in case of bands like Pantera – some degree of progress. I’ll rush to the conclusion that it’s all there on FBD. Good songs? “Strength Beyond Strength“, “5 Minutes Alone“, “I’m Broken“, “Shedding Skin“, “Use My Third Arm“ were my instant favorites. With time, I got caught in the groove of “Becoming“, “Hard Lines... “, “Slaughtered“.

That leaves us with four songs; “Planet Caravan“ serves as a soothing close to a very heavy album and I can take it as such. However, “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills“ works only at first listen – this minimalist confession of a drunken dickhead (to another drunken dickhead) seems rather disturbing than ‘cool’ at further listens. “Throes of Rejection“ sounds like a forced song, definitely subpar by Pantera standards. And “25 Year“s, the last song not mentioned so far is perhaps the album’s weakest point. That’s basically 6 minutes of heavy rap, I can take it sometimes, but overall it seems redundant.

I have definitely more positive than negative feelings toward Far Beyond Driven, but it’s one of those albums which would be 50% better had some of its phantom limbs (i.e. redundant tracks) been cut off. Notice that even some of the good songs are long (esp. for such an intensive, heavyweight act as Pantera) – “Hard Lines... “ clocks in at over 7 minutes, while “5 Minutes Alone“ and “Shedding Skin“ are seconds shy from the 6 minute mark. That comes to a whopping 56:26 of total playing time for a really heavy and exhausting CD.

Bottomline: good stuff, however would’ve been much better if the album was 15-20 minutes shorter.

This is probably my favorite Pantera release of all time! I love the riffs on pretty much all of the songs, those only 1-2 tracks that I'm not fond of but overall I thought this a more than average perhaps one of the most memorable Pantera releases in their entire discography for me! This album is just charged with energy as well! These guys were pretty heavy on here...guitar wise and the bass is loud enough to hear. I like the vocals as well. Everything seemed to mesh in here for a good portion of the tracks. I like the solos too, they were another highlight. Some of the best riffs that Pantera had ever come up with were on here!

This release came out when I was in High School, I had it on cassette. I didn't mind playing it often since I was heavily into the guitar. Dimebag was a big influence on me back then. Now 27 years later I'm still digging the music but I've abandoned the guitar. Or it abandoned me. In any case, these songs weren't the easiest to play, they were quite challenging. And the leads were out of this world. Some of the greatest groove metal riffs I've ever heard! They just got it down in terms of the music and Phil does a great job on the vocals. The whole band contributed to making this a mountainous masterpiece!

It sucks that Vinnie Paul and Dimebag are gone. They made Pantera and they can (I don't think) ever duplicate this lineup. It's useless to ponder because it's true. Anyway, the music is entirely original and catchy. Songs like "Strength Beyond Strength", "Shedding Skin" and "Slaughtered" are my favorites. But as I said, most of the songs I liked, just those three I like the most. Dimebag was one of a kind with the riffs and leads no one can replace him! It's a sad fate for Pantera but they made good albums despite them losing their lives. I like their previous releases as well. Just this one is my favorite.

The production quality captured everything. The guitars, bass, drums and vocals were all mixed in well. And if you don't have this release yet, get it! It's on Spotify and YouTube, but I'm urging you to get the actual CD! There's just so many milestone moments on here. It's one not to pass up in showing support to the music scene and lengthening your CD collection! Some great moments, well actually many different moments! The guitar and vocals were phenomenal! I liked this the whole way through just take out some of the useless songs and it'll just be perfect. Own it!

I like thinking about this album, probably because I'm a pompous windbag but also because it's certainly the heaviest album that ever made it to #1, and by such a huge amount that it boggles the mind the more you think about it. The previous heaviest song on a #1 album was.. Holier Than Thou? Struggle Within? Then out of nowhere you've got the vicious beatdown that is Strength Beyond Strength. It'd be like if the black album came out in 1965 or something.

The album itself is less interesting than its' historical context, continuing the usual Pantera thing of having a few absolutely banging tunes mixed in with some really subpar half arsed grooves, some vicious, brilliant vocals contrasting with some ridiculous tough guy stuff- it's typical Pantera, to a tee. When they nail it, it's glorious- otherwise you're hitting that skip button as hard as possible.

It's perhaps a bit more full of filler than Vulgar- 5 minutes alone is one of the worst songs Pantera/anyone ever made, Good Friends completely sucks, and I'm Broken is a hodge podge of nothingness with a catchy chorus thrown in, so on and so forth. A bit too much ego from Phil, and a bit too much fondness of that "Texan power groove" or whatever the abbott bros crap on about.

Still, when they get it right it's great. The best two tunes here- that monstrous opening track and the "well it's kinda one long breakdown but whatever" that is Slaughtered- seem to draw from the same well, just with different approaches. It's this mix of beatdown-ish hardcore with a few thrash elements, and it's super heavy, extremely fun and a great thing to lift weights to. Is it a bit dumb? Yes, so what? It's brilliant fun to listen to. The production is ramped up somewhat, Dimebag's guitar approaching a new, super scooped, gnarly tone that would lead to a veritable army of terrible teenage bedroom guitar sounds, Rex's bass growling and stomping around, and Vinnie's "yeah mate this is definitely a sampled kit" sitting just so- probably his best drum performance, certainly his busiest. Again, when it clicks, it's glorious to behold.

I'd heartily recommend Far Beyond Driven- lower lows than Vulgar Display, perhaps, but higher- heavier- highs. It's worth listening to just for that "yeah right I can't believe this got to #1" historical context thingo, and Strength beyond Strength and Slaughtered are worth the price of admission on their own.

What do I mean when I say coasting along? I mean that Pantera was growing comfortable with their sound at this time. They were fresh off the success of Cowboys and Vulgar Display and thought that this sound was what they needed to maintain in order to be successful. This lead to them continuing to amp up the tough-guy image, slow down and simplify the riffs even more, and write songs that are more about exuding an aura of macho loathing than about matching that loathing with catchy songwriting and ferocious riffs. Are the riffs still vicious? Of course. Is the songwriting still memorable and hooky? Yes, it still is. It's just it feels like this took less effort than the previous two records due to Pantera's level of comfort at this time. This album was made before Phil Anselmo's notorious drug habit got out of hand and started to give him and the rest of the band new problems to worry about, and as such, much of the suffering and tension that would power albums like Trendkill just wasn't here. It's still a Pantera album and it's got a ton of great material regardless of how the band was feeling at this time. There are grooves a plenty for anyone coming to look for some fighting tunes, and the riffs still pack a hard punch and all the spirit of a cage-fighter brawling to save his life. Far Beyond Driven is the middle Pantera album, between the high speed fight-anthems of earlier and the suffering, loathing, and addition of more blues and sludge metal influence later on, and this album's style definitely shows that.

On terms of the music, you get something even angrier than on Vulgar Display. The riff patterns are oriented around beatdown chugs and Anselmo's singing has gone from merely sounding angry, towards being composed mostly of growls and bellows. While there is Thrashier fare here such as "Strength Beyond Strength" and "Slaughtered", but even here the riffing is powered mostly by a thundering base of chugs. This is especially true on the lead singles which largely rely on large, chug-based rhythms meant to be imposing, and at that, they succeed. The riffs to "5 Minutes Alone" and "I'm Broken" are particularly fight-ready and certainly work as better beatdown anthems than "Walk" ever was. The albums is mostly consistent in this style as mid-paced, angry songs are the norm throughout the entirety of this album. The lyrical topics also go more from general hostility towards more specific demons such as religion, dealing with snobs, father problems, and power-tripping policemen, all of which get their own songs rather than just getting quick, verse-long mentions like in Vulgar Display's "Fucking Hostile". The chugging is often accented by thrashy head charges and these blend together in a perfect way on "Use My Third Arm" which gives us some of the best, rumbling, combative rhythm and vitriol that this band delivers on the entire album. The music on here is brutish and menacing with all the impact of a freighter and the assault never lets up throughout the album. Far Beyond Driven, while simpler than past Pantera releases, still holds true to the band's style and is great for dispensing rage.

With all this aggression released on this, it is a hard album to ignore, especially when the grooves of the lead singles kick in. Far Beyond Driven, while not as iconic as Cowboys or Vulgar Display, or as morose and diverse as Trendkill, there are still plenty of roughhousing thrills to be had here. Every song is organized in a way that makes you want to clobber someone. While this album relies on much simpler music to get its points across, it does so very well. Far Beyond Driven is something worth checking out, especially for anyone who's a fan of Pantera.

Far Beyond Driven saw Pantera in an interesting spot, for many reasons. It's well known by now that this album made it all the way to #1 on the Billboard 200, and this is despite not compromising on their sound at all, in fact they arguably purified and amplified its most distinctive characteristics on here. The specific shift here makes you wonder too if this album's success is partially down to the commercial momentum they built up with Vulgar Display of Power; especially as this sold quicker but didn't end up selling as many copies, and also because it's hard to believe their sound here had as much commercial appeal as what they were making before. And it's really the sound of this album that intrigues; whilst in many ways it is in line with what you would expect given the sound of their previous album, in many others it represents a very clear musical shift that fundamentally changes the feel of their music in subtle but noticeable ways. It's definitely still a Pantera album, it's definitely still what you would expect from the band, but in hindsight I think what we got on their next album is much easier to understand given what's going on here.

This album isn't a total restructuring of their music that fundamentally changes its priorities as their previous album did, rather it makes enough smaller changes and tweaks to their sound that it changes its character in subtler ways. On this album that base modern groove metal style they pioneered is still present - the riffs are very meaty, stripped down of melody and notes, heavy, and percussive. The key difference here is that the riffs are now further stripped of their melody and in general any lingering heavy and speed metal influence has been completely excised. For the most part what melody that does come through in the guitars tends to be in the form the odd short bluesy melodic phrase (though a notable exception is that they are employed as a core element on 'I'm Broken') or something more subdued and dark like the chorus of 'Shedding Skin', or something fleeting such as the verses of 'Throes of Rejection', but otherwise this is a more purely groove metal album with notes of thrash and now even doom and sludge metal on 'Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks' and '25 Years'. The result of these changes is clear - this is a significantly more abrasive and intense album than what came before and the music on the whole is a good deal darker, heavier and more uncompromising than before (and it's not as if the previous album was a slouch so you can imagine how much harder the sound of this album is), and in fact I would say this is the most consistently aggressive and heavy album they'd ever release.

Critically, regardless of this shift in sound Dimebag still chose and wrote his riffs carefully, which is important when the songs here are so built around just a few central groove riffs that anchor and drive the songs forward, and they are ridden for a relatively long time. They are basically always top notch and memorable even as they transitioned into this less melodic and heavier sound. As is also the case before the riffs are now even more immediate and in-your-face, and the ability for Dimebag to do a lot with a little is commendable. His soloing remains as you would expect - still in his trademark noodling, melodic style, they do provide some much-needed colour and contrast to these generally much more abrasive and ugly songs, and said contrast makes them stand out all the more. However, on some of this album's most intense tracks like 'Slaughtered' or the oft-maligned 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' he doesn't even solo at all, which is a pretty clear sign that priorities of the music have shifted - now it's about the grinding and grooving of the rhythm section with little to no respite. Given all of the above changes to the core of the music, the rest of the band follow suit - whilst a fair bit of Vinnie's drumming is in the simple, driving and timekeeping style of the previous album, he employs a fair bit more aggressive patterns, double bass and complex fills than before ('Use My Third Arm' and 'Slaughtered' are very notable examples of this.) Rex continues to give the riffs more mass and low end by following along and supporting the riffs nicely as he does; the bass is actually heavier and more prominent on this album than on past efforts too.

Phil meanwhile continues to be the voice of the album and its intentions, and the change in vocal style here is reflective of that once again. He does still go for that coarse yelling he employed on the previous album, but now it's taken the form of a coarser bark. Akin to the riffs the vast majority of his vocal lines are pretty atonal (he does still have slight melodic touches to them at times such as on the aforementioned 'Shedding Skin', he employs spoken word here too), but he basically hardly ever sings and outside of the 'Planet Caravan' cover he never uses his clean singing voice here. This like on the previous album was a pretty necessary change; these songs are as stated a lot more intense and darker across the board than anything they'd done up to this point and the deeper, more violent and more percussive vocal style employed here is a perfect fit for the music behind him which embodies those very same qualities. A totally lethal song like 'Strength Beyond Strength' would not have landed the same had it used the vocal style on 'Mouth for War'; as ever, what Phil loses in range and versatility here he makes up for with bags of energy and charisma. That being said, all the aforementioned changes to the instrumentation, vocals and even song structure at times do add up, and this album absolutely does not feel like what preceded it. It still exudes confidence and bravado, but instead of it coming across in a kickass, almost motivational way that exudes power it comes across as more deranged and genuinely violent; this album doesn't want to kick your ass in the pit so much as it does just kick your ass in the street. Their past two albums were quite fun, but this (and their next two albums) are not. The lyrics sum up this change quite well; they still have that gritty and real portrayal they did on the previous album but Phil seems to focus more on his inner demons and struggles as well as outright violence here than he did before. There's a serious darkness that fuels these songs that wasn't present before, and this is palpable across basically the entire album.

As ever, this album has a very strong set of performances packed into a similarly strong set of songs. The hard-as-iron grooves and drumming that drives these songs are instantaneously memorable (even with less melody to colour the riffs) and do well to makes these tracks punch like little else out there, and Phil once again is a commanding and captivating vocalist who can really write a good hook even if he is barely singing at this point. They clearly give it their all in their performances and I think it's clear from this album in hindsight that the cracks in their personal lives and thus the band were starting to show (which would only widen with time, of course) - as again there is an intensity to these tracks that wasn't there before and is very palpable, whether they're going fast or slow. The fastest and most aggressive songs here - 'Strength Beyond Strength', 'Use My Third Arm' and 'Slaughtered - are again, genuinely lethal and are amongst their most extreme songs ever. The riffs and drumming tear a hole through time and the breakdowns build up so much tension before the eventual release as the songs speed towards their end; the band are truly on fire with these. This isn't lost when they head towards mid-tempo territory with 'Becoming' or '5 Minutes Alone' for instance, with that same rage being piled into these heavy as hell grooves as the songs bulldoze their way forward and pop with strong choruses and soloing. The slower and longer tracks here - 'Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks' and especially '25 Years' - are more divisive for their length, their repetition and their drudging, simple doom/sludge riff sets (the former lurching between a slow chorus and fast verses, the latter absolutely going for a slow crush) but in many ways these are peaks of the darkness on display here, and they pull off that lengthy style very well with some amazing leads and lyrics to boot. 'Throes of Rejection' has one of the most massive, bouncing grooves on the album with tense verses and an explosive chorus, and even the rather loathed 'Good Friends...' makes a case for itself with how much concentrated tension and aggression it can pack into its very simple, rather minimal bass-driven structure as it lurches between muttering and shrieking from Phil, complete with shots of noise. It's very clear that the intense darkness fuelling this album is what really takes these songs to another level (and makes up for any of the colour lost when more of the melody left the building), just as the attitude on previous efforts helped elevate them to new heights. The only true outlier here is 'Planet Caravan' which is a somewhat tacked on 'bonus' track; it is actually a gentle song with clean singing and is an oddly calm note to end the album on; I wouldn't say it's stellar but it does add a little to the album by being just a little calm after the storm.

Even Terry Date's production this time around is remarkably abrasive; everything sounds a bit thinner than before and has quite a rough and almost dry edge to it, though the music still has a ton of weight and clarity to it. The drums click away almost, the riffs do actually sound like they're made of rough, hard metal akin to the logo and the vocals sound similarly harsh, certainly for a major label effort. It is as with production on previous efforts a fitting presentation of the overall package. This album from top to bottom is again, the most consistently heavy and aggressive work the band would ever churn out, and as I alluded to earlier it's a miracle this of all things got to #1 on the charts. It definitely isn't as popular as what came before, certainly not in the long run, and it's kind of a shame this is sort of remembered as Pantera coasting and not moving forward, or trying too hard. I think with this they really did flesh out a new dimension to their music, music not known for its depth generally. This isn't just the meaner, uglier little brother to Vulgar Display of Power, this album really is stronger than all. Definitely give it a (re)visit if you haven't and you're partial to your metal being very blunt and aggressive.

Of the 4 Pantera albums I've reviewed so far this is the best, ignoring a few tracks on Cowboys From Hell and some nice solos on Reinventing the Steel Pantera has provided a catalogue ranging from boring (Yesterday Don't Mean Sh**) to just straight up bad (Walk). This album is still a far cry from perfect but on average it felt like a pretty worthwhile listen

Phil has basically abandoned his vocal range altogether at this point. If there were any moments where he tried to take a moment to shine they were easily forgotten, I doubt there was though, I'm fairly confident he has destroyed his voice by this point. He does fully utilize his screams here though. They take awhile to get used to. His lyrics have moved away from being mindless drivel about masculinity and beating people up and have focused on other (still extremely masculine) topics, its a nice change even if it sticks close to the tree.

The guitar work comes next, again no technicality or melody. Just that rhythmic grooving that he loves so much. His tempos are up and he remembers to utilize riff changes so he does a much better job at not getting stale. Pair this with the new lyrics and it adds in some desperately needed substance to the music. His soloing, while still borrowing heavily from Slayer's screeching and Van Halen's effects, also incorporates shredding in a much better way and his signatures style finally sounds unique and somewhat innovative. Also, this is Dimebag we're talking about, expect screeches everywhere (Strength Beyond Strength) also expect some pinch harmonics here and there. His guitar work over all is far more interesting and demanding of praise (except maybe his screeches, he's usually pretty competent at how he uses those).

The drums are faster then before but are still mostly just time keepers, very simplistic and nothing you haven't heard the likes of before. He uses the double pedal to its fullest and there is more variation between his beats as it seems he's trying new things. The bass player sadly is mixed out. Again, I hear he is the perfect match for Dimebag, but I can't actually HEAR him for most of it, I mean come on turn the guy up a notch or two will you, I'm sure he deserves it.

This album would have gotten 10% higher except there is one stinking turd on here that simply cannot be ignored. That stinking pile of turd goes by the name 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills'. The bass is clearly audible but uses a single one note rhythmic groove through the entire thing. The guitar is mostly screeches that sound like they were thrown together with no real thought. The drumming is slow and reminiscient of a rap beat (which would normally be excusable in my book funny enough). The vocals are have no emotion or energy and are just spoken drivel, I would say its a bad attempt at rapping but that would require him to at least sound like he was trying to stick to a particular rhythm or pattern which he doesn't in any way.. The lyrics are about 'fuckin yo girl while you was asleep homie' with as much unnecessary vulagrity as possible. The best part though is that it sounds like it ended and then you hear the drums and bass pick up again just so they can fade out, like seriously, what was the point in that?

Most of the rest of the album is quite enjoyble with maybe 2 or 3 tracks that are pretty boring but man this one was just bad.

I don't think I've ever been reconciled to this album, ever since the first time I bought it. I already had Vulgar Display of Power, which I liked pretty well, mostly because the guitar playing was heavy and catchy. This album was darker and less accessible - there's a very overt intention to oppress the listener on Far Beyond Driven, from the extremer than thou lyrics to the slightly murkier production to that sinister feel that hangs over the guitar melody on the opener. Overall, I would call it unsavoury, in both senses.

To get an overview of the album, I'll take a brief look at the roles of the quartet. Everyone has their own take on Phil Anselmo's vocals, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but he's shouty and incoherent rather than the brutal snarl that he can hear. Drums are overdone on here: Vinnie Paul is skilled behind the kit but is either trying to do too much and just making a noise or doing the wrong thing. Rex Brown is guilty of the same thing with his bass, except the addition of having a thundering tone and coming up with about 3 good parts all album. Dimebag Darrell pulled off some tasty solos on Vulgar Display of Power, but they are largely gone to shit on Far Beyond Driven, and two thirds of the riffs are just complete garbage.

First song 'Strength Beyond Strength' provides a good place to start working out this album turns me off. It's one of the more popular songs on here and (to me anyway) is notoriously two-paced. The opening riff is a nasty, grinding piece of something that I don't want to examine; the second riff is a bit thrashy and much tastier; the song switches between the two of them, then the slower groove riff comes in with that ominous backing guitar and Phil Anselmo being slow, deep, and hard; the lead builds up really slowly, bursts out for a moment, and the groove riff is gone; repeat the first 2 riffs and we're home.

If that sounds boring or unappealing, that's because it is to some degree. The following 2 songs have really, really terrible stop-start riffs: 'Five Minutes Alone' rides an awful 3-note chug until it finally becomes alright after 3 minutes (for about 60 seconds), while 'Becoming' is actually excruciating because the shitty groove non-riff has an ugly pinch harmonic thrown in. Dimebag Darrell was a good guitarist, but the band really didn't have a clue what riffs sounded good here. Just because it sounds like someone hitting their head against the wall, doesn't mean I want to headbang to it. The first success comes in the form of 'I'm Broken', a very solid swaggering track which - while I wouldn't quite call it a riff-fest - has a number of swinging and stuttering riffs that work nicely in the same sort of style as before, though they sound godly in comparison.

The latter half of the album is more interesting than the beginning, provided that we sidestep carefully round 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' like the 4-day-old pile of puke that it is. '25 Years' has the single worst one-note bang bang bang BANG riff that sees Phil Anselmo stomping over it like he's trying to dislodge excrement from his shoes (he is), plus one or two passable groove sections that actually count as riffs. Weirdly, 'Shedding Skin' has the audacity to actually not suck and 'Use My Third Arm' flings in a fairly convincing death metal riff, before we tumble out of the washing machine with a complete copy of Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan', which is easily the most pleasant song on the album.

The original cover art for this album was supposed to be a corkscrew going into someone's anus. The music isn't quite that unpleasant and painful to listen to, but we aren't far off. In terms of the idea, Far Beyond Driven sounds about as unsavoury as that image.

To many, as I have observed, Far Beyond Driven is not a solid Pantera album. The criticisms I have heard are that the album is too far removed from the Cowboys from Hell/Vulgar Display of Power sound, or that it is not as consistent as The Great Sothern Trendkill or Reinventing the Steel. While each argument certainly has bearing, I feel that there is a certain necessity to Far Beyond Driven that bridges the gap between the two sounds. In fact, Far Beyond Driven is just that: a bridge album. Certainly, it deviates from the Cowboys from Hell sound, and it does not have the same power as The Great Sothern Trendkill, but in its own right, the sound of songs like “Becoming,” “I’m Broken,” and “Five Minutes Alone” opens the door for that alteration from one well known and certainly appreciated sound to another.

One particular difference in sound is Phil Anselmo’s scream vocals. The guy’s singing on his first two albums with the band is amazing and added a level of force that helped establish Pantera as a powerhouse act. With Far Beyond Driven, he takes his vocals to the next level. This transformation is evident in the less consistent “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills.” Now, this was my first Pantera album, and, admittedly, I did not care for Pantera or metal when I bought it. This was the album that changed all that. That being established, I pretty much skip over this song when it comes on. Its greatest value is in Anslemo’s use of screeching vocals during the chorus. This is the first song that exemplifies this particular style for him, and he only develops it further with the following two albums and to much greater affect. Songs like “The Great Sothern Trendkill” (title track from the album of the same name), and “I’ll Cast a Shadow” (one of my personal favorites) display similar vocalizations in more structured and much more appreciated songs.

Another alteration the band makes through this album is Dimebag Darrel’s guitar work. His speed riffs (known well by those who favor Cowboys from Hell) are traded in for a heavier, thrashier sound. Where once his riffs were the speed and clarity heard in “Domination,” they are now the heavy shrieking sound heard in “Becoming,” a song that is fitting for this transitional album and easily my favorite song both from this album and Pantera’s overall catalogue. This banshee sound continues throughout the following albums, notably in Reinventing the Steel’s “Goddamn Electric” and “You’ve Got to Belong to It,” while the heavy riffing is abound in almost all subsequent songs from Far Beyond Driven. In fact, Dime’s heavy riffs are the one consistency found in Far Beyond Driven, which, while it gives it its strength, it is also the albums weakness.

Far Beyond Driven is definitely Pantera’s least consistent and weakest album, yet it remains a staple in their discography as it represents a change, a becoming from one great sound to another. Its value as an album is therefore important, and many of the songs on the album, most songs in my opinion, are excellent. Certainly, the two follow albums are much better for a myriad of reasons, but this album is, again, a bridge. It is not the finished product of the change. It IS the change.

In the grand scheme of Pantera's albums with Anselmo, I'm torn between deciding which one is the weakest, Vulgar Display of Power, or this one. This one has cleaner production and heavier riffs, but lacks the depth and clean sections that managed to keep Vulgar loosely tied to Cowboys From Hell. But album comparisons aside, the tracks here come down to three standards: good, mediocre, and downright fucking awful.

The good: "Strength Beyond Strength", "Becoming", "Slaughtered", "Use My Third Arm", "Throes of Rejection", and the cover of "Planet Caravan". "Strength Beyond Strength" is a nice, brutal opener with a good deal of thrashiness to please even the most hardened Pantera critic. "Becoming" is all groove, but because of the cool addition of pitch pedal and relatively short song length it doesn't become another banal groove-fest like "Walk" or "5 minutes alone". "Slaughtered" is essentially modern metalcore minus the limp-wristed groove and gothenburg inspired hooks and melodies. "Use My Third Arm" is the most varied track, alternating between thrashy grooves, tremolo riffs, blast beats, and a fairly decent breakdown. I've always had a soft spot for "Throes of Rejection", probably because it's one of those few groove songs that is just balls-to-the-wall pure anger and hatred. Being a sucker for covers that stay true to the spirit of the original track, I can't complain about the Sabbath cover.

The mediocre: the radio hits "5 minutes alone" and "I'm Broken" and the ballad "Shedding Skin". All these tracks follow the same general principle of grooving over some decent riffs for about five to six minutes while Anselmo barks out a hybrid of Hetfield and Cobain.

The downright fucking awful tracks that ruin this album: "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills (my vote for Pantera's worst song)", "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks", and "25 years". These tracks exemplify everything that was ever wrong with Pantera's music, and groove metal in general. "Good Friends..." tries to channel Mr. Bungle and Faith No More with the rage of eyehategod, but falls so short of any of those marks and sounds more like a pre-cursor to awful "mathcore" garbage like iwrestledabearonce. "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" and "25 years" both take the cake for awfully long and uninteresting limp-wristed groove that tries to emulate eclectic doom metal like Type O Negative's debut, but comes out as a heavily watered down version of the black album.

I fail to see why people think this is Pantera's finest hour, being half full of solid thrash/groove tracks and the rest being either the 90's equivalent of pop metal or absolutely awful attempts at experimenting with other genres. If "Good Friends...", "25 years", and "Hard Lines..." were all cut out, this would probably score a 65 or a 70 in my book. But either way, if you want Pantera in true form, go with Power Metal, Cowboys From Hell, and their sludge/groove masterpiece, The Great Southern Trendkill.

This is the most honest and hard-emotional album Pantera has ever made, and by hard-emotions I mean that Max Cavalera feeling from the "Arise" album. It's straight on hard, heavy and and ear-popping with some brilliantly pulled off mood changes through out the songs. From "Strength Beyond Strength" song till "Planet Caravan" cover It makes you want to break all hell to the world and rub shit in some politicians face or some asshole that stepped on your nerve.

So riffage is the most responsible agent for this explosion of bad-assness, with some pretty much mind bending solos that rip your brain cells like heroin does to a junkie. The riffs are pretty much simple at some points, and I read in some review that, I quote "anyone could have thought off this shit". OK, AC/DC's riffs are all pretty much simple and basic, and yet many people, including me, appreciate them and their work, and If you don't you're a fucking retarded. Another example is Burzum, which is one of my top 10 favorite bands. If that isn't simple music I don't know what is, and still it's considered one of the best metal bands (one-man-bands) of all time. But let's get back to the riffage on this album. Like i said, they're simple at some points, though many of the guitar techniques redeem the simplicity and fit in perfectly, thus making the guitar sound like a true Texas chainsaw. And that's called riffage ingenuity of one Dimebag Darrell , creating something simple, yet not so simple for others to cover it properly, and yet so impressionable on the hearing part. So riffage get's pure 20% for genuine awesomness.

About the vocals on this album I could talk for days, but I'll try to keep it simple. Though I really do like Phil's vocal style, they're pretty much not so "great" on this particular album due to his drug addiction. But still he managed to fit in perfectly with the guitar sound and the whole "I'm fed up with this shit" idea. He ranges sometimes from NYC style punk shouts to some high pitch vocal fry, or from that same punk style mixed with growl shouts to a pinch of the southern "heat" dirty singing, which makes the whole vocal thing much more interesting to listen to. Now many people don't like this, but really, it's metal, it's not supposed to be "beautiful", he's not supposed to sound like a fucking princess Peach from Super Mario or Kirby(I INTENTIONALLY INSULT POWER METAL, even though I do like some bands of that genre). So vocals get 20% for being just what they're supposed to be, crude, rude and loud.

As far as lyrics go, they're pretty much OK, and standard Pantera. They're not idiotic, they're not poetic either, but a quite good mixture of surrealism, sarcasm at some points, and straight-forward punk "fuck you, you're shit" stuff. The lyrics basically, just have a good straight point, they're not mindless at all, and they really depict quite well the "personal struggles" theme. So lyrics get 15% for keeping up that consistent hateful, strong message for the 3rd album now.

Bass and drumming are quite complementary, filling the hole of the second guitar deficiency. Drumming is an excellent thick rhythm monster, filled with bass line's bass bombing thus making it all sound like a one individual instrument, instead of 2. Vinnie really does his job well, keeping the whole band in rhythm shape, and Rex pulls his real hard wrapping it all out in one single moshable bomb. So drumming gets 20% for being a fucking machinery, and bass line gets 15% for being one hell of a bass-bomb.

So final thought is this: This album is most certainly much hated, but it shouldn't be, and I don't know why groove genre is so generally hated. Yes it has some idiotic bands, and some ups and downs, but so do other genres. Personally this is my 3rd favorite metal genre, with thrash being No. 1 and death metal on the second place, and I don't find anything critically bad in it(like in some other groove band's work), and I didn't start with metal just yesterday. So all in all this album Is worth it's praise, It's definitely worth listening to, and even more if you like any bit of hardcore punk, either NYC style or other, mixed with some blues based thrashy death riffage and good moshable-headbangable atmosphere.

After being quite stunned by the amount of negative, and quite ignorant - reviews for this album, I felt it was time to bring some perspective to this great and important album.

Seriously, there are reviews here written by kids who were 6 years old when this album was released, and given a whopping 0% score. Give me a fucking break.

Back when this album was first released, metal was in a quite dismal, beaten up state. Not many bands were around carrying the torch, but the few that were are undeniably important. Pantera, Sepultura, Slayer - all of these bands helped push metal through the 90's, without it rotting in the gutters.

For some reason, Pantera always get slammed for being a "fake" thrash band. Uh, I don't ever remember them saying that they were a thrash band to begin with. They are what they are, and comparing them to classic thrash bands is pointless and retarded. Anyone expecting a "Beneath the Remains" from these guys is even more retarded. The ones who constantly say that they just ripped off Exhorder are even dumber.

After the legendary "Vulgar Display of Power", I firmly believe that Pantera did a great job of following up that record. Here, the songs are a bit slower and much, much heavier, with the trademark Pantera sound. Dimebag's playing on it is relentless throughout, well planned, and well executed, with shit loads of devastating riffs.

Sure you have the classics that everyone knows - "Becoming", "5 Minutes Alone", "I'm Broken", etc, but this album offers a whole lot more. It's not just 3 good songs, with just mindless shit for the rest. Take "Slaughtered", a complete mammoth of a song - huge, deep riffs heavy enough to rattle your eyes out of their sockets. "Shedding Skin" also features some downright excellent guitar work, and throughout the whole album the band performs great.

No one ever even talks about "Throes of Rejection".. I just don't get it. A complete fucking kick to the head, yet it gets no praise whatsoever. When the massive riff kicks in at 0:58, you better be ducking for cover. Just totally awesome, raw, pure aggression.

Their cover of Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" is also a nice touch, and a fine way to end the album.

Most of the reviews on here are those dumb, metal elitist types who still think Gorgoroth writes good music. It doesn't make sense to review an album if you weren't even fucking born when it was released, so please fuck off and do something productive with your time, because those reviews aren't clever or cute, and actually quite misleading for those genuinely interested in picking up the album.

Pantera were playing sold out venues during the 90's, being quite busy with kicking everyones faces in, while most black metal bands were still releasing albums which sounded like they were recorded in a giant tank of horse shit. No thanks, I'll take Pantera any day of the week.

One of the most controversial set of bands to discuss in the world of heavy metal most comfortably belong to the groove metal genre. It can't be plainly stated enough how quickly these groups divide the various metal circles out there with almost equally divided fans. Amongst these, I often find myself embattled as what to really say about Pantera, since their own career was divided between focused, aggressive music and something akin to this album, which runs amok with little concentration and a heavy emphasis on the predictable.

I now and will always wave the albums "Cowboys from Hell" and "The Great Southern Trendkill" as this band's two best offerings, with "Vulgar Display of Power" and this one being something of an anomaly. It seems strange that two mediocre efforts could be sandwiched inbetween two albums full of focus and quality material other than perhaps falling victim to the trend oriented tendencies of the decade. In theory, one could liken Pantera's career 1992-1995 as something similar to Anthrax, as simply watching a once gifted band pissing away their potential by making sub-par material. Since this would all crash and re-emerge as "The Great Southern Trendkill," an album even diehard Pantera fans ignore, I guess one could argue that Pantera were trying to feel out their style since "Vulgar Display" but the pop-oriented metal songs of this album tell a different story.

As with most things Pantera recorded in this era of their career, Dimebag remains something of a saving grace. Granted, he can't directly pull this album from the depths of mid-90's mediocrity, but he does help it become a much better version of what Skinlab would be doing a few years later. He does offer a few more magical moments here than was present in "Vulgar Display" which helps this album eek out a better score. Phil Anselmo has actually taken a turn for the worst here, evolving his hardcore-esque bark from the previous album into something that sounds like quasi-death grunts shouted into a tin can on a string. He always seems to sound distant in the mix, which is probably all the better since I personally couldn't stand this version of his vocal style and we can all thank our deity of choice he didn't do it again beyond this album.

Even with the above musicians who aren't on their "A" game, this album could have been better than it was. Much like the previous album, Pantera wrote their songs several minutes too long, something fellow Texan band Pissing Razors would remedy by cutting their songs to 2-3 minutes. Here, its more likely to be 4-5 minutes, with "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" and "25 Years" going 7 and 6 minutes respectively and both are guaranteed to bore you senseless. "I'm Broken" is a similar story, despite its iconic status, and "5 Minutes Alone" would be another example but its made slightly better by being more memorable and focusing less on driving a repetitive groove into one's skull.

Despite the mediocre material that runs rampant here, there are songs that help salvage this listen. The opener in "Strength Beyond Strength" is one of the more notable, as it filters in some thrash influences while also helping to craft a better version of groove metal into a three and half minute song, ideal for this genre. "Becoming" is another good example at only three minutes, and manages to maintain focus instead of launching off into endless groove land. "Slaughtered" takes my pick as the best of these, manifesting a style that would become a template of sorts for some like-minded songs on the next album. Phil's constipated coyote barks become more in the range of full fledged death grunts and suit the song very well. "Slaughtered" remains one of the few songs I still listen to from this album, and probably the best off either "Vulgar Display" or this album.

For all the pointless mediocrity on display here, this album does have a few tracks worth salvaging, though I'd be hard pressed to bring up a reason why anyone would look into purchasing this from anywhere other than the bargain bin. Even the cover of "Planet Caravan," which is essentially a bonus track tacked on due to its being left out of a Black Sabbath tribute album, is particularly lackluster. If one could find "Strength Beyond Strength," "Use My Third Arm," "Becoming," and "Slaughtered" from an outside source, they'd already have the best songs this album has to offer. As such, this isn't anything I listen to much of anymore as I still champion the superiority and unfortunate one-time only of "The Great Southern Trendkill." That album had focus and set forth to aggressively answer some questions about this band and their standards. "Far Beyond Driven" does none of that, and instead finds Pantera lost in a haze of lacking ideas and the misconception that all good music needs is a heavy dose of groove.

When you takes anger, violence and aggression, mix it with a shitload of heavy groove, you gets something far beyond driven. This is one of the more brutal stuff existing on earth, much more than all these ludicrous grindcore bands which can't carry a brutal track for longer than a minute...or half.

If you followed Pantera's discography till 1992, it will be pretty predictable for you to guess that this album gonna be heavy like a shit, and that's right. "Vulgar Display Of Power" was pretty vulgar, but this album had taken some steps farther (listen to "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills", you'll know what I mean). The lyrics are much more straightforward: "Fuck you and your College dream", "The president in submission, he holds out his hand on Your television ", "A crippled America", "I fucked your girlfriend last night, while you snored and drooled, I fucked your love." "I can see you, can fuck you, inside of you".

You got that point.

Now, the way the lyrics delivered is flawless, just fits perfect. 'Philip Anselmo' shouts powerfully the lyrics like a killer and the excellent riffage of "Dimebag Darrell" is harsh and heavy and combines perfect with the vox. The guitar has a real heavy tone, sometimes it also down tuned so it sounds extremely heavy but still remains clear so it doesn't sound too much dirty and hard to comprehend. This album has one of the best guitar sounds I've heard in metal. It's very heavy, very piercing but still remains clear. There is also a lot of use with whammy bars and diving solos which adds a vibrating sense within the album, especially in the exciting solo in "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" which is one of the best solos I've ever heard. What else? Vinnie does an amazing job here and shows an awesome skill with double bass drumming. The bass lines are also pretty intense due to the pure production and adds a groovy feeling, it actually can be heard and that's a huge plus for this album.

To sum up: "Far Beyond Driven" is easily one of the best metal albums from the 90's. It got a lot of headbangable riffs and exciting shreeding solos, agressive vocals and interesting song writing which remains awesome for the whole 56 minutes of it. Simply a must have for each headbanger!

This is the first Pantera album that's almost rendered unlistenable by an overwhelming emphasis on groove riffing and horrible screaming from once talented frontman Phil Anselmo. It's not entirely repugnant, but for the most part, absolute garbage.

The majority of the album is groove riffing. I should hate every second of it, but try as I might, the catchiness of the groove is hard to deny. Sure it's not the most balls out killer sound ever, but there is a certain heaviness to it that's undeniable. Certain songs really do this well, "I'm Broken" and "5 Minutes Alone" for instance. There are some psuedo thrash moments, but they're brief and generally the precursor to some incredibly banal groove shit. "Strength Beyond Strength" shows promise by thrashing it up for a bit, but eventually degenerates into more mindless grooving. The songs I've mentioned, plus maybe two more, are decent enough that the poor riffs don't completely destroy them. The rest of the album is trash, nothing more or less. The cover of "Planet Caravan" is interesting, but that song wasn't that great to start with.

The only other redeeming aspect of the album besides being something mindless to headbang to is Dimebag Darrell's guitar solos, but a guitar solo rarely justifies a shitty song, unless you're the type that likes to listen to 3-4 minutes of terrible wannabe metal to hear a 20-30 second guitar shred fest. To each his own, but the highlight certainly isn't anybody else in the band. Rex and Vinnie have a solid rhythm section I get, but they only really add to the overwhelming groove infection that makes up the whole of the album. Phil Anselmo just plain sucks. He doesn't even sound aggressive anymore, just tired and shitty. His performance here was probably the inspiration for countless Hatebreed-like mallcore bands and that's even more unforgivable than having to listen to him on this album.

So to recap: there's "I'm Broken," a couple cool riffs in a few other songs, and some nice guitar solos. That constitutes maybe 8 minutes in music total, though the album is at least seven times that in length. So what's going on during all those other minutes? Not a damn thing. Not a damn thing worth listening to twice anyway. This is overrated if at all.

This album had a bright future of collecting dust on my shelf for the past 8 years, but I recently got it out again as I have tried to reconcile my present opinions as both a musician and a reviewer with the rather morbid history that was the music of the early to mid-90s. This album pretty much gets less hatred from me than the last one because of a slightly better production and some better riffs. However, the critical flaws in the style that Pantera had adopted since VDoP have now been magnified, and a connection with the source of the corruption can be seen clear as day.

In response to rather incomplete take on history Brocashelm provided, I will now seek to correct what I believe is an oversight in the nature of music history. There were far greater things going on musically in 1994 than what was presented before us, and naturally at the time it would have been both difficult and costly to invest the needed money to import the music I speak of. Power Metal had been kicked down, but as underscored by the continuing presence of bands such as Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian and Helloween it was far from finished. Other bands such as Angra, Kamelot, and Nocturnal Rites were just starting to hit the scene and were achieving great success outside the States. Furthermore, if history proves accurate, Dio and MegaDeth were still pumping out music and challenging the notion that groove was the key to saving metal.

Let it be stated plainly that the value of music or any other art is not determined by public will, if that were the case, the best art would be pornography and wallpaper. So what if “Far Beyond Driven” debuted at No. 1? If the masses can be ignorant for throwing their money away on wallpaper pop act geared towards public consumption, what makes it better that metal bands get them to do the same thing on musical diarrhea tailored for the same purpose? I couldn’t give a damn if a heavy album debuted at number 1, what I’m concerned about is whether or not it’s actually enjoyable to listen to.

Furthermore, the fact that Metallica saw fit to tour for as long as they did is the key to understanding the reason for the chain of events that would follow. The bands who survived the hostile takeover that the Grunge scene incited, guided by the recording industry, were the ones who compromised with the so-called caprices of said scene in terms of song creation. That’s right my friends, Pantera sold their souls to the groove and spat on the face of what metal stood for, defying conventions. There is nothing more conventional than creating music that you can tap your foot and nod your head to, and that is what defines the lion’s share of Pantera’s music. We’re not angry with Pantera because they sold a lot of records; we are pissed at them because they put out music that sucked.

No offense to fans of Pantera, but what the hell do you mean by showing the Metallica kids the real shit? What I hear on this album is actually a bastardized version of the same groove that we find on Metallica’s “Black Album”, though with frog farts acting as vocals and some more emotionally driven lead work. I don’t despise the Black Album nearly as much as others do, but I do know what the results of its undeserved success have been and one of them is this album. The more radio friendly tracks in particular bear a strong resemblance to such Metallica tracks as “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Enter Sandman”, particularly the lack of development of the riffs. But the flaws don’t end there obviously.

We have some songs that are not only skip-worthy, they are completely revolting. “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills” is nothing more than a collection of repetitive and boring riffs with Phil Anselmo either blabbing random bullshit in that corny low speaking voice of his or screaming unintelligible nonsense in a hideous set of grindcore style screams. I’m not going to quote any of the lyrics, because quite frankly they are so utterly idiotic that I fear killing brain cells if I get them in my head while typing them. When you put the horrible spoken and yelled lyrics and the disjointed guitar sounds, you have the essential blueprint for every Korn song that has ever been recorded.

We’ve got a large collection of groove tracks as well, some of them being far too long for their own good. Both “25 Years” and “Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks” break the 6 minute mark, which is way too long for something that constantly grooves, speaking nothing for the goofy ass lyrics that dominate the sung parts. As Voltaire put it best “Anything too stupid to be said is sung”. “Throes of Rejection” and “Becoming” have a strong amount of groove, but are thankfully shorter and have more interesting riffs and some good change ups. “Shedding Skin” is our token ballad on here, and like on the previous album it is injected with plenty of boring groove sections.

Naturally, as was the case with the previous collection of musical abortions VDoF, we have some tracks that are highly listenable and loaded with intrigue. The opening number “Strength Beyond Strength” and “Use My Third Arm” are coated with some amazing speed/thrash sections., particular the latter which has some amazing drum work in it. “Slaughter” is mostly devoid of boring groove sections and has some fast sections that flirt with thrash. All of these songs have their fair share of Phil Anselmo noise, but it works much better with the faster sections of the songs.

Now let us get to the matter of the mainstream friendly tracks as they are the primary reason for the album’s success. Essentially “5 Minutes Alone” and “I’m Broken” are more vocally aggressive versions’ of the various singles that came off the Black Album. There is a rather interesting and probably non-coincidental parallel between the amount of development of the main riff of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and the main riff of “I’m Broken”. And much like its predecessor, this riff is banged out over and over until it’s drilled into your skull. In fact, the cover art depicting a man getting his head drilled is a rather fitting analogy to the way the mid-90s groove metal was presented to the masses, and the excruciating pain that the old metal faithful probably felt as they were indoctrinated into this corrupt version of the music they love.

We then close this album off with a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan”, which is 100% unchanged save Phil’s vocals, which actual succeed in sounding weaker on a ballad than Ozzy Osbourne was when the song was first recorded. Although one might think this song a rather pointless bonus track, it helps to demonstrate the large musical void that existed at the time. In the 90s, there was no innovation, to suggest otherwise is to tell the greatest lie of all time. Every band took their sound from the achievements of former rock acts, most of them zeroing in on one specific album by a band in order to achieve it. Grunge and Groove Metal were both taken from Black Sabbath, and both missed the point what that band signified. They were not a force for stagnation, nor were they a band defined merely by darkness, they were a band that believed in the principle of musical progression, of breaking down barriers, not building them up like prison walls and then calling it innovation.

In conclusion, although we have a cleaner production on this release, it is still the same expression of musical bankruptcy that was observed on its predecessor. Don’t waste your money on this piece of garbage, for there is better music out there to be heard. “Far beyond Driven” is blight on the history of heavy metal, but it is nonetheless a thing of history, and there it ought to remain as a lesson for future generations on what happens when metal compromises with the will of the public.

* NOTE * After reading abunch of negative reviews for this album on the site, I re-listened to this album and tried to apply some historical perspective into this review...take it for what it's worth...thanks.


Debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Probably the heaviest album to date to do so, and easily Pantera’s most furious effort to date, this was also their last great act of purpose as a band. The scene: Nirvana had arrived on the scene, making the glam and hair metal that had previously sold bucket-loads unfashionable seemingly overnight. Now American was in the throes of the “alternative” music takeover, a funny conglomeration where artists as divergent as Marilyn Manson, Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails, and Soundgarden grabbed many, many inches of column ink, wrote new rules for what was cool (by logical reasoning also deciding what was not cool) and the fashion world adopted the “new” scene with eager aplomb.


The metal scene itself was in equal confusion. Death metal had left the building popularity-wise, black metal was this evil thing from across the sea that no American fan quite grasped yet, Metallica was still touring the black album after three years, and metal fans were wondering if this grunge and alternative thing was their future. And so returned Pantera into this muddled fray. After kicking many doors down with Vulgar Display Of Power, the band were now bent on driving their sound deeper, harder, showing the Metallica kids (formerly the Guns N Roses kids that Metallica wanted to impress) where the real shit was, and doing their best to flat out ignore everything else that was going on. And in doing so, Pantera made their heaviest, hardest, most tortured and unlistenable album yet. To be brief, it’s another metal masterpiece.


By now openly adopting fringes of industrial and death metal elements (the rapid fire regimented rhythms, as well as the guttural roar and savage riffing) the band were a true no compromises proposition. You didn’t have to like Pantera but standing in the way of this off the rails self-destruction machine was highly inadvisable. The skinny: some of this album is so densely packed with noisy, almost discordant riffs it becomes painful, which was surely the intention. For example, “Use My Third Arm” sounds like an epileptic fit one would suffer upon falling asleep blind drunk to discover in paranoid horror that you have no memory of how you got where you are. Been there…not fun. “Strength Beyond Strength” kicks off affairs with a blast of thrashy speed before “Becoming” adopts a slower, but no less torturous riff, with Dimebag supplying enough false harmonics and pick squeals to fill an arena on their own. “Good Friends And A Bottle Of Pills” is Anselmo addiction poetry at it’s finest, managing to parody a Ted Nugent song title and write a harrowing tale of drug-blurred perception all in one sick, almost revolting 3 minute cut.


That pretty much leaves the more famous cuts to deal with, which for the most part are only slightly prettier. “5 Minutes Alone” rides another discordant riff backed by those militant industrial strength beats, blessed as well with some very serpentine Dimebag soloing, and an appropriately desperate vocal from Phil. The real heads over all winner here is “I’m Broken,” a track that combines all that is great about the thing that is (was) Pantera in exactly 4:25 of musical ferocity. A killer riff, guttural vocal, a chorus that will tattoo itself on your soul, and the ending: a tribal stomp of dense storming power that could have lasted three times as long and I’d still want to hear more of it. Another nice thing: as the smoke of “Throes Of Rejection” and it’s churning, nauseating riffs wind down, the band mellow out into the most unexpected of Black Sabbath covers, the ethereal “Planet Caravan,” perhaps the perfect doomed but meditative mood to close this raging effort.


For Pantera, this album would see them at their peak in every sense. From this point on, good but not godlike albums would appear, Anselmo, despite recording a masterpiece of an album with side project Down, would appear to become ever more of an addicted mess (mostly to pain killers taken to cope with a back injury) and finally Dimebag and Vinnie would retire the band’s name and reputation to the past, forming the effective but about two years too late project Damageplan. And then in one of rock’s most senseless and premature murders ever, Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott was shot and killed onstage while performing by a mentally disturbed fan.


Pantera caught tons of shit over the course of their existence for essentially not doing what was expected of them. It's funny to find that in their sad abscence, some metal fans still regard their legacy with suspicion and malice. I gotta say I don't understand this. Pantera never sold out, got soft, sued Napster, betrayed their fans, said metal "was dead," or any other number of stupid things other big time bands have over and over again, and still they get no respect. I just don't get it. The day I'm too cool or hip to understad metal this fierce, please shoot me. I'll be dead already.

I was a big fan of Pantera a few years back, but I've never really loved this album. In my opinion it contains to much filler. Let's see what we have here.

Opener 'Strength Beyond Strength' is killer. It's a fast, in-your-fucking-face kind of song that makes your adrenaline production sky-rocket. It goes midtempo in the middle, but soon gains speed again. Now if every Pantera song was as good as this. 'Becoming' is more sluggish, and a very good song too. While there's no denying how talented Dimebag is at playing guitar, you can be driven nuts about how he plays sometimes. Not only that, he has a terrible tone too, and it sounds like it's recorded inside a metal tube/cylinder or something. And the pinches and squeals aren't that cool. Next song is '5 Minutes Alone', and it's one of Pantera's most popular. What can I say, it's good, and especially the chorus makes you wanna murder, in a good way. The riff is a bit like 'Walk', slow and that start-stop type riffing, which I mostly like a lot. The solo in this one is crazy, it sounds like some sort of siren, and very different from Dimebag's rhythm guitar work, which is a plus.

The disc continues with 'I'm Broken', another good one, and slightly better than the two before, in my opinion. Actually, 'Becoming', '5 Minutes Alone' and 'I'm Broken' are kind of in family. They have about the same half-slow tempo, and generally the same feeling. Which is why I never remember which order they come on the record. Another cool solo, by the way, on 'I'm Broken'. Then we get another kind of beast. 'Good Friends & a Bottle of Pills' is a slow, stupored, sleazy number, with the bass taking the front seat. I love it, actually, it's so different from anything else. Phil talks like he's stoned in the verse (which maybe he was, at that), and screams his lungs off in the chorus, and it all adds up to a fun and interesting track. Ok, so far, so good. But then comes 'Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks', which sounds as dull as the title promises. A VERY slow and doomy affair to begin with, before it speeds up in the verse, and then it slows down again in the crappy chorus, maybe the worst chorus I've ever heard. Now that's an accolade! Arrgh, listening to it pains me, I must say. 'Slaughtered' is way better, thank all the gods, but hardly a masterpiece. I like the main guitar riff, and the drums that follows it, air-guitar worthy methinks. Again, though, the chorus is a major letdown. All he says is "slaughtered!". Ah, well.

'25 Years'....'5 Minutes Alone'....hmmm....many numbers and timeframes on this album, and '25 Years' sure is the worst of them. This is, if not the worst song on display, then pretty damn close. Horrid verse, horrid riffs, horrid chorus, horrid everything. It's simply stupid. When Pantera decides to suck, they sure do it big time! Luckily, quality comes by again with 'Shedding Skin', which has a funny main riff. Sounds very happy, unlike the verse, which is just a whispering Phil and mellow guitar playing. Come to think of it, this song is not that great, but the main riff makes up for it. Wish I was good enough to play it myself! Another useless track we have in the horribly titled 'Use My Third Arm'. 34 seconds into the song it actually sounds trash/death, but of course it soon changes back to suckiness. That death section is used a few times, and sounds cool, it's just too bad that the rest is garbage. The last original song is 'Throes of Rejections', and sadly this isn't any good, either. A somewhat interesting main riff section, where it suddenly stops, and the drums get all the attention for a sec, but it can't save the song.

After so many shit songs, it's bliss to hear the final track, 'Planet Caravan'. For those who do not know (and by the gods, everyone should know) this is a Black Sabbath cover. It's neither better nor worse than the original, and that's fine, 'cause it means it rules. It's a tripped-out hippie kind of a song, with nice clean guitars, easy tribal drumming, and neat sound effects. As this plays, let me just say that "Far Beyond Driven" is a mediocre album, where the best songs are the opening track and the cover. The production is fine, the guitar tone is suck, the bass is uninteresting, the vocals are sub-standard, and the drums are cool. Lots of nice moments tucked in with lots of shit ones, therefore the score.

'Till next time, my fellow metalheads.

There is one main problem with this album, and that is the lack of consistancy that it holds. It really drops off after "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" and doesn't redeem itself until "Throes of Rejection".

With that in mind, this album sounds like it was put together fast. In that I mean that the riffs are not the greatest, the lyrics are not the most original and the production is not up to par with "A Vulgar Display of Power". The guitar tone is annoying and sounds like it did on "Cowboys From Hell", but much heavier. The drum sound is rather tinny, but bearable (no Lar$ here). The production has so much fucking treble I can't even hear the bass at all, with the exception of maybe "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks". Phil's vocals are good, they are pretty much the same as always, and are a HELL of a lot better than they are nowadays.

More evidence that the songs were rushed is the abrupt song changes. Take the first track "Strength Beyond Strength". It is a decent song, but the ending part is annoying. The song would have been much better if they had kept the fast thrash throughout. Speaking of thrash, much of that is gone by this time. Many of the songs are midpaced, such as "Becoming", which has a few good riffs and a catchy chorus, but again, nothing absolutly special going on here. "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" is great. Well, the actual song sucks, but the lyrics are funny as hell and Phil's vocal delivery is very convincing. Other notable songs include "5 Minutes Alone", the best song on here, great riffs, nice verse part, "I'm Broken", which is pretty good but drags at the end, "Thoes of Rejection" features a good buildup with a killer chorus consisting of basically one word, and finally "Planet Caravan", which is very well done and a faithful tribute to the Sabbath original. A soft, smooth ending to a heavy album.

With the good out of the way, here come the bad. "Slaughtered", "25 Years", "Shedding Skin" and "Use My Third Arm". All in a row too. Damn. None of these songs are memorable in the least, have any cool riffs or any decent hooks. Just stay away from these songs.

A good album, not great, but good. Check out Pantera's other stuff out first.