Apart from
Cowboys from Hell, I never really got Pantera. To be fair I have not checked out their material prior to that album, their more glam phase was just not something I chose to check out. That being said, I still bought most of the band's albums because I was a young metalhead and I felt it was my duty to check them out as Pantera pretty much was the be-all and end-all of metal in the mid 1990's. I was in middle school and did not really have much exposure to the metal underground.
Far Beyond Driven was released in 1994. By this point, Pantera had perfected their groove metal sound. Of course
Vulgar Display of Power was the release that got the band headed in that direction. But this is the one that a lot of mainstream people think of when they think of Pantera, mostly due to the minor hit "I'm Broken".
There are some decent songs on this release, and by and large I do like it better than
Vulgar Display of Power. For some reason that album never really did anything for more. I think the reason I like this one better is due to the fact that the songs on this one are not as stripped-down and simple as they are on the prior album. Dimebag's riffs are generally more impressive on this release as well.
However there is one truly terrible song on here. "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" is an absolutely horrible song. There is no redeeming quality at all on that song.
I do tend to listen to this album occasionally, more than
Vulgar certainly. But this is not the Pantera I choose to remember. Their tough-guy, macho image on this release is annoying. I much prefer
Cowboys.
