The Great Southern Trendkill

After the partially-relentless, partially-forgettable Far Beyond Driven, Pantera thankfully didn’t try to outdo themselves solely on the brutality-side anymore. They diversified their sound for the first time in years by incorporating acoustics and even keyboards on several songs, while still pushing the limits of modern heaviness on other tunes. The albums title and title track tell the story pretty well. From the first second Anselmo comes out screaming like a stabbed psychopath, Vinnie slugs some prime meat beats out and Dime & Rex churns out riffs that groove like there is no tomorrow. War Nerve doesn’t let it down one bit as Vinnie pushes some tasteful double bass-attacks every here and there. The drum and guitar sounds on this record deserve special mentioning, as they are mercilessly tight, razor-sharp and pulverizing. Phils lyrics are admittedly getting a bit stale and repetitive at this point but it doesn’t ruin the album by any means, the fucks just start to wear themselves down at some points, but not too unforgivably. His growls still hold conviction and feeling, so it saves the singers performance in the end. Drag The Waters is the best-known song off the record and for good reason. The mid-tempo groove and tasty, tasty solos make up for some great mosh-material. 10´s and 13 Steps To Nowhere both have good riffs and beats in them (and the awesome, feeling-soaked guitar solo in 10´s) but as whole songs they get buried under the strong beginning and the pair of Suicide Notes that follows them. Suicide Note Pt.I is an extremely uncharacteristic song for Pantera – entirely layered with acoustic guitars and with the haunting keyboards this atmospheric tale of drugs and self-destruction is an excellent tune. Phil proves here that he still could sing with soft emotion a lá Cemetary Gates even though he didn’t deploy that voice that much anymore. A risk well taken by the band. Suicide Note Pt.II then again is the exact opposite of Pt1. Unforgivingly brutal, fast and aggressive, this slightly hard core-tinged song kicks some major ass with its great riffs and Anselmos manic screeching. Living Through Me (Hells Wrath) is another very familiar-sounding, speedy Pantera-rocker that grooves with pulverizing power. Excellent riffs again courtesy of the Dime(ond;). Floods provides another very dark and half-mellow-half-heavy slow tune that works extremely well, thanks most of all to Darrells catchy guitar melodies and shredding solos. The Underground In America and (Reprise) Sandblasted Skin close the album up with very good, heavy tunes that blast out brutally boogying riffs like ZZ Top on a mad sugar rush. Even though TGSTK was not Panteras final album, for the time being, it is the final moment of magnificent metal glory that the band created in the studio (Reinventing is good, but nothing more). Proving that Pantera wasn’t a one-trick-pony, Trendkill can be equally used for insane, mosh-induced metalhead-boozebinges and more thoughtful moments of contemplation and meditation.