Music is an odd thing; familiarity with a song can breed contentment rather than contempt. For that reason, I’ve always been sceptical of music reviews, which are often churned out after one or two listens. If an album is complex, it can take five or six or ten listens before the artists’ intent becomes clear and the music really takes hold of the listener.
There have been a number of albums over the years which I have detested in the beginning but have changed my opinion on over time. Death Magnetic by Metallica, Digimortal by Fear Factory and Slipknot’s self-titled album are among my favourite records now, but I didn’t care for them on my initial listen. (In the case of Slipknot, I was caught up in the brainless, “Err! Nu Metal is shit!” movement of the late 1990s). The album on which I did the biggest 180-degree spin, though, was The Great Southern Trendkill by Pantera. Which, God help me, is 20 years old.
Two things put me off this record. First, the music and the vocals had a hardcore edge that I didn’t care for; I could scarcely believe the same band had written the much more approachable Vulgar Display of Power (the album that made me a metal fan). The other thing that didn’t appeal was the lyrical content. The themes of inner strength and self-belief that were a hallmark of Vulgar and, to a lesser extent, Far Beyond Driven, were replaced with self-pity, whining about the media, and dark and morose imagery.
Then, in 2014, I gave TGSTK a listen after a long, long hiatus – years, I believe. I was astonished to discover an album that was way ahead of its time. The extreme sound I baulked at back in the 1990s would go on to influence a whole new generation of metal acts. Vocalist Phil Anselmo’s lyrics, as well as being evocative, provocative, and well suited to the music, were prescient in a number of ways. With the title track he seems to have identified the increasingly disposable nature of music long before the first American Idol was ever broadcast, while his repudiation of the media’s self-serving hypocrisies in ‘War Nerve’ has never been more relevant#.
But what struck me beyond all else was the quality of the album. There is no filler, not a single guitar riff or drum beat wasted. From the mind-blowing intro to ‘TGSTK’ to the huge, looping guitar work at the end of ‘War Nerve’ and the drum-driven brilliance of ‘13 Steps’, every song is taut and written to perfection. But because many were experimental and extreme – witness ‘Suicide Note Pt. II’ – it was almost impossible to appreciate them when they were new.
The Great Southern Trendkill has gone from my least favourite Pantera album to number one. While my favourite Pantera songs are on other albums (‘Mouth For War’, ‘A New Level’, ‘Strength Beyond Strength’, ‘Primal Concrete Sledge’, ‘We’ll Grind That Axe For a Long Time’), I don't think the other albums work as well when taken as a whole. Like Metallica’s ‘Black Album’, TGSTK achieves what so few records ever do: it doesn’t have a single bad track.*
# After a two-decade war with the media, Anselmo finally surrendered back in January. When he made a ‘white power’ salute while performing at a fundraising concert, Machine Head’s Robb Flynn took to social media to denounce him. In the face of a huge backlash from the Twitterati and the heavy metal press, Anselmo eventually capitulated and apologised for his behaviour. I found the whole episode more than a little puzzling. The one and only time I saw Pantera back in 2000, an obviously intoxicated Anselmo spent a good deal of time raving on about how the Confederate flag was the “last bastion of the white man”. This unapologetic ‘good ole boys’ routine had been part of his (and Pantera’s) shtick since 1990 and was, like it or not, integral to their popularity. So when Anselmo caved to the metal community’s social justice warriors, all I could think was, “Really? You’re apologising now?”
* TGSTK also reinforces the notion that Pantera was perfect storm of talent – the Abbott brothers formed Damageplan and recorded New Found Power, which I took to right away but cooled on later, while in 2012 Anselmo recorded Walk Through Exits Only, an abysmal knock-off of Trendkill-era Pantera. If ever a band was greater than the sum of its (individually brilliant) parts, it was Pantera.