Having only experienced --- and disliked --- “Cowboys from Hell”, I never went further with my exploration of Pantera, but I’m assured that that particular album was from their “Groove Metal” days (though I didn’t see anything groovy about it!) and this is their debut, released on an independent label and more in the glam/trad metal wheelhouse, so perhaps I’ll enjoy it more than my only other meeting with his band.
First thing I have to say is, how awful is that sleeve? Jesus! It’s like someone said be as, to use a word The Batlord favours, goofy about it as possible! Hopefully the music does not reflect the cartoon image on the cover.
Metal magic --- Pantera --- 1983 (Metal Magic)
Recommended by Wpnfire (and Briks)
With spacey, weird sounds including what seems to be a sonar signature, “Ride my rocket” gets us on our way with that
faux live sound I hate. But the song is reminiscent of Diamond Head at their best, and I can hear the vocals nice and clearly, which is certainly a nice surprise. It's a good rocker and bops along really nicely like something out of the early years of the NWOBHM, despite being American. Perhaps shows the influence bands like DH and Angel Witch were having 'cross the pond? Good bit of guitar histrionics there from Dimebag Darrel (was that really his name, God rest his soul?) while Terry Glaze (again...?) belts out the vocal.
It's a good start and we move on into “I'll be alright”, with a chugging guitar and rolling drums, heavier than the somewhat more AOR feel of the first track, a darker, almost early Iron Maiden (I'm talking “Killers”, the debut) element to it. The vocal is grittier, the guitar snarlier, the whole thing giving the impression of a band suddenly growing up real fast. The growls at the end are pointless and superfluous though, and instead of sounding hard and tough Glaze sounds like he's on the toilet.
His vocal changes a third time, into a sort of John Parr/John Mitchell hybrid as “Tell me if you want it” seems to be very clearly targeting a radio audience. To be honest it's okay; it is heavy but there's a sense of commerciality, or desired commerciality about it that sort of makes me shake my head. And not in a good way. Good solo though.
There's more of a straightahead rock vibe to “Latest lover”, where I'm put in mind of original Tygers of Pan-Tang vocalist Jeff Cox, and I can hear the early influence of Van Halen here too, but again the song lacks something. It's kind of wavering between being a rock song and an AOR one. Odd. Keyboards which are not credited usher in the quite sumptuous ballad “Biggest part of me”, as Pantera confound my attempts to pigeonhole them once again, penning a superb radio-friendly love song that just fairly shimmers with emotion and heartache, but also has a killer guitar riff driving it. Anyone surprised if I say this is my favourite track so far? Really? Do you know me at all, there at the back? Let me introduce myself...
This song has hit (no,
hit! 
)written all over it, but no doubt it wasn't. Also, that man or woman on keys is being criminally treated by being left anonymous. A searing solo from Darrell takes us into a really emotional guitar passage and back into the vocal. There's nothing about this song I don't like. Well, I would have preferred a stronger finish. A deep keys intro then to the title track, a sound like helicopter blades before it whistles off into the distance and Darrell flies in with the guitar, slicing up the tune like a master lumberjack cutting up a fallen tree trunk, and this song belts along with real rock and roll purpose. I definitely would liken these guys at this moment to Diamond Head, particularly on the NWOBHM band's first two albums. The vocal is a little buried in the mix at times, almost whispering once or twice, but the nameless keyboard player does a star turn and really helps carry the song. Big machinegun guitar ending, though again it seems to come to a close a bit too abruptly.
“Widowmaker” is another mid-paced rocker with what I would have to term a somewhat weak vocal from Glaze, whose resemblance to Sean Harris is nothing short of uncanny. If I find he never even listened to DH I will be amazed. “Nothin' on (but the radio)” shows the beginnings of the move they would later make in the direction of groove metal, but for now it has an almost pop sentiment to it, and with the words
”On the radio” being constantly repeated I can't help but think of Donna Summer...
I must admit I thought “Sad lover” would be another ballad, but it starts with a big “Woo-hah!” and then piles into a boogie rocker with a lot of teeth, and as the closer is entitled “Rock out” I think we can assume there was just the one ballad on this album, and it still remains my standout. As for “Sad lover”? It's okay but nothing special, a very formulaic, generic rock track that any of half a hundred metal, rock or even pop bands could have written and sung. Meh, at least it's short. And it has a pretty killer guitar solo in it, but even Dimebag Darrell can't rescue this one I'm afraid. Think Bon Jovi meet the Quireboys. Yeah.
Can we go out in style though? Well we get a big growling guitar and heavy drumming and then a suitably gravelly vocal from Glaze on what is actually the longest track on the debut, a little short of six minutes.
There's an element of groove about this too, and boogie to an extent. It's a good heavy song and seemingly wants nothing to do with radio, unless it's blasting it out its car window while speeding down the highway. Speaking of speeding, it picks up tempo halfway as the drums under the control of Vinnie Paul, Dimebag's brother, crash and tumble all over the place. That doesn't last though and it goes back to the original tempo as the song heads into its finale and closes the album reasonably well.
TRACKLISTING
1. Ride my rocket
2. I'll be alright
3. Tell me if you want it
4. Latest lover
5. Biggest part of me
6. Metal magic
7. Widowmaker
8. Nothin' on but the radio
9. Sad lover
10. Rock out
Not a classic by any means, and I don't see any indications that Pantera a) were going to become pretty huge or b) would so radically change their style, but then there were seven years between this and the release of “Cowboys from Hell”, their first of five albums over ten years on major labels. Guess their sound evolved. Here though I would have said, listening to this for the first time and knowing nothing of Pantera, that they were destined to be just another metal band swallowed up in the plethora of their kind who were rising, and falling, during the early eighties as metal became redefined over in the UK, and that permeated across the Atlantic. I don't see the signs of greatness here; this just seems pretty generic to me.
Just as well I never had a job as a talent scout, eh?
