Review by Saxy S for Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (1990)

For Pantera, Cowboys From Hell may as well be there freshman album because it saw the band ditch their 1980s power metal influence in favour of something that resembled thrash metal, but not fast or sonically aggressive. That right everyone, it's the birth of "Groove Metal"!

Now while Groove Metal has had its time in the spotlight during the 1990s and early 2000s as the prominent, mainstream subgenre of choice, Cowboys From Hell is still very transitional. This album still has grooves that are highly reminiscent of the early power metal era Pantera. These are mostly found on the albums promotional singles: "Cowboys From Hell", "Domination" and to a lesser extent, "Cemetery Gates". By comparison the extreme chugging of "Psycho Holiday", "Heresy" and "Medicine Man" are very forward thinking for their time.

I'm not going to lie, for an album as iconic as this, I would have expected to be better produced than this. The volume mixing is incredibly offsetting. Like how "Cemetery Gates" is mixed much quieter overall, leading into its fade out ending, but is then immediately followed by "Domination", which is much louder all around. The two songs in consecutive order sound like they were composed for two separate albums. And not's even including the unsettling nature of some of these instrumentals. Dimebag Darrell's guitar is very sloppily mixed from one song to the next. At one moment, the guitar is drowning Anselmo's vocals and at the next, Anselmo is all you can hear! And I can't not talk about the awful reverb effect in the percussion that absolutely ruins the iconic headbanging drop/riff on the outro of "Domination".

I'm sure that there are countless remastered versions of this album that is now in its thirtieth year in circulation that can fix many of these problems that i have with it. Because the "grooves" themselves are sticky as hell! The explosiveness of "Primal Concrete Sledge", the iconic riff that wraps up "Domination". I still really enjoy the title track and all of the pinch harmonics and other guitar effects that Dimebag incorporates throughout the record. One thing that I really enjoy from a songwriting point of view is the absence of a rhythm guitar during the solos. I do not know how prominent of a songwriting tactic this was before Pantera, but my goodness! The space in which Dimebag has to breathe in tremendous, and is anchored by some very good bass work. Unfortunately, it does not last; "Message in Blood" and "The Sleep" are serviceable tunes that do nothing to further develop the sound from the first half of the record.

Phil Anselmo's vocal presence on this album is very rough. It's more of a quasi sung, but it contains a lot of natural rasp and is harbored by some Chuck Schuldiner esque shrieking. As Pantera would double down on their Groove Metal sound on later records, Phil's vocals would become more stable and would rest in a very comfortable scream. I like how he uses his full vocal range throughout the album, even incorporating some "clean" singing on "Cemetery Gates", which would help influence some of Pantera's superior "ballads" on later albums.

I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I still enjoy this album quite a bit. And while the overall production is all over the place and does hold the record back, that's not the reason why I am not as high on this album as so many others. My opinion on Pantera as a whole has been skewed over the last fifteen plus years since the passing of Dimebag Darrell. Pantera have been gifted the status of "heavy metal gods" by countless fans of this band as well as by mainstream metal press. That also somehow included a "free of criticism" pass. I have gotten into more than one triggering argument with fans of this band for daring to critique the band and this specific album. To be honest, I'm kind of burnt out on Pantera. Not just by their music, but also their fans who relentlessly shove it into my face how great of a band they were and that Dimebag was a legendary guitar player, etc.

Throw on top of that the questionable antics that Phil Anselmo has continued to get himself into over the last few years, and those same fans will not call him out for it is kind of disgusting. Pantera's legacy is secure within the annals of heavy metal history and they served their purpose. Their brand of fist clenching, aggressive thrash metal is just what teenage adolescents needed (such as I was when I discovered it) and also helped pave the way for a completely new genre of heavy metal. But for me, that rodeo has passed.