A Bright Spot In One Of The Worst Years In Musical History
Written: Nov 10 '02 (Updated Nov 10 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: Some of Dimebag's finest guitar work, very heavy/grinding songs, fun lyrics.
Cons: Might seem a little stale to some, lacks the southern rock influences of previous Panteras.
The Bottom Line: Reinventing The Steel is not only one of Pantera's best albums, but the perfect metal album to breath new life into an otherwise lifeless year in music.
marty1982's Full Review: Reinventing the Steel [PA] by Pantera (Metal)
The year 2000 will not exactly be remembered as one of the better years in popular music. "Musicians" like Britney Spears and N*Sync were dominating the charts, Metallica released their mediocre soundtrack song I Disappear while constantly trying to put Napster out of business (this was when filesharing was still the big thing amongst music loving teenagers). Limp Bizkit brought mainstream "heavy rock" to an all time low with the release of Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavored Water. And Eminem was suckering roughly 90% of the high school population into buying The Marshall Mathers LP with his "oh-so-obvious-attempts-at-being-hardcore."
Fortunately, however, there were still a few bright spots. Maynard Keenan James' legendary side-project A Perfect Circle released their excellent debut album, In Flames released their also excellent (yet unfairly received) Clayman, and Pantera released Reinventing The Steel. An album which could very easily be considered the band's best since 1992's Vulgar Display Of Power.
Reinventing The Steel shows Pantera bringing the "heavy" back into heavy metal after the experiment-gone-wrong known as Great Southern Trendkill. There are no ballads and virtually no acoustic work on this album whatsoever. Nor will you find the more insightful lyrics of GSTK. Rather, Pantera simply strips heavy metal down to the bare bones: heavy guitar work, speed, and crazy vocals/lyrics.
However, while Reinventing The Steel is less musically diverse than previous Panteras, it is also Pantera's most technical album yet. Dimebag Darryl's guitar work is literally jaw-dropping in places, with some neat use of the guitar peddles as well as some of Pantera's heaviest riff work. Phil's voice is, as always, right on the money. Only this time he does very little actual singing (just a lot of flat out screaming and occasional growling). Again, this is heavy metal stripped to its very core: loud, heavy, and just plain fun music. Vinnie Paul's drumming is, as usual, solid while Rex's bass is also fairly strong (though it usually stays in the background most of the time)
Here is a rundown of each track on the album:
1. Hellbound - Reinventing The Steel gets off to a (literally) strong start with Hellbound. The song starts with a very Cowboys From Hell-esque opening, before some rocking riff work and drumming crash in. Whew! For nearly three minutes, the song proceeds to rip you apart and never lets up until the very end, at which the album cues to...
2. Goddamn Electric - The song opens with a cool surf-rock like riff before going into the verses and a more bluesy riff during the chorus. Goofy yet fun lyrics abound here ("To walk through the world by ones self, you can't be
Protected... your trust is in whiskey and weed and
Slayer - It's Goddamn Electric"), and the solo is also very good. One of the album's best songs IMO.
3. Yestarday Don't Mean Sh#t - Since the album was released in early 2000, it only seemed appropriate that Pantera wrote a song about the new millennium. And that's not all. The song features some fine guitar work and an awesome solo courtesy of Dimebag Daryl. A much underrated Pantera Classic.
4. You've Got To Belong To It - This is the only song on the album that I don't much care for. That's not to say it's a horrible song, mind you, but it seems to go in too many diferent directions and the guitar notes get a little too high pitched for my liking. Not bad but definitely the weakest on the album.
5. Revolution Is My Name - Now that's more like it. Revolution Is My Name is easily one of the best songs on Reinventing The Steel. Some excellent guitar work abounds, along with some of Pantera's most interesting lyrics yet (there's even a little historical significance at some points). I especially like the song's main riff before going into Phil's choruses.
6. Death Rattle - A faster track with some great drum work and, once again, amazing guitar work. Unlike the previous You've Got To Belong To It, the high-pitched notes Dimebag plays actually work quite well in Death Rattle. And the song is just very fast and heavy (two words you don't see too often strung together in heavy metal). Excellent.
7. We'll Grind That Axe For A Long Time - A slower track with some catchy lyrics and strong guitar work. Nothing too terribly special, but a great song nonetheless.
8. Uplift - Another strong track. Uplift is a more groove oriented track with strong vocals and great guitar work. Once again, there's not much to say about this song that hasn't been said about most of the other songs, but it's still a great track nonetheless.
9. It Makes Them Disappear - Kind of an odd title for a Pantera song, isn't it? The song opens with a neat aquatic-sounding guitar opener before going into the main riff and Phil's catchy lyrics. Much like Revolution Is My Name and Yestarday Don't Mean Sh#t, IMTD mixes loud singing with all around screaming, and surprisingly, this technique works quite well. The riff is very catchy, and the verses just can't be beat. One of the album's best songs IMO.
10. I'll Cast a Shadow - Fortunately, Reinventing The Steel closes with a bang. I'll Cast A Shadow is easilly one of the best songs here thanks to a catchy (somewhat Slayer-esque) riff and some interesting lyrics courtesy of Phil Anselmo. As a bonus, the song even closes with some vocal highlights from the studio. Great closer to a great album.
As you can see, Reinventing The Steel features some of Pantera's finest work, and is an album no fan of the band or heavy music in general should pass up. Regarding what people have said about Pantera stagnating over the years, this may be true. But in the case of RTS, that's not such a bad thing.
Ounce for ounce, decibel for decibel, few bands can even approach the fury that is Pantera. For years they have been unleashing their anger in front o...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Reinventing the Steel [PA] by Pantera (Metal)](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/f6/c9/2f/2002147880-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.