Review by Ben for Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (1990)

While this may be Pantera's 5th album, it's their first real thrash metal album, leaving behind the glam metal that they produced throughout the 80s. And what an album it is! The band found this sound out of nowhere, with Dimebag Darrell's unique guitar sound being the backdrop for an awesomely grooving machine. Whatever you think of Phil Anselmo, he's an incredible metal vocalist. Add to this Vinnie's crunching drums and Rex Brown holding up the low end and you've got one monstrous band that would crush all before them. At least they would for a few years anyway.

Seriously heavy riffs are combined with more shredding ones, slower structured tracks are combined with shorter brutal ones, this album is damn entertaining from start to finish and full of great musicianship and song writing. Highlights for me are the title track, Cemetery Gates (of course), Primal Concrete Sledge, Medicine Man, The Sleep and the Art of Shredding, but there's nothing resembling a bad track on Cowboys from Hell. I can put this on today 18 years later and it still gets me moshing around like a mad man. Really glad I saw them live a couple of times in my youth before Dimebag's tragic death.