PANTERA - Far Beyond Driven

 

PANTERA - Far Beyond Driven

EastWest

http://pantera.com/

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!

Ryan “Death8699” Fanucchi