"Official Live Pantera" Review

So yesterday I was standing in a local music shop systematically sifting through each and every metal album they had in their bins when I came across something that was so perfectly fitting.  On the six year anniversary of the death of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, I found the "Official Live Pantera."  Never having the pleasure and extreme honor of being able to see Pantera and Dimebag play live, I had to check out at least some of their live stuff.

I bought it and went home and what I experienced over the next hour or so was pure metal bliss.  Anyone who has ever been a fan of live music knows it's hard to hear a band live and have them come across as crisp and intense as they sound on any given album. Pantera does just that and so much more.

The album kicks off with thousands of screaming fans chanting "Pantera! Pantera! Pantera!"  If you close your eyes, you can truly picture yourself among the masses ready to explode into maniacal metal madness. "New Level" announces the band's presence loud and clear with drummer Vinney Paul's signature hellish beats and vocalist Phil Anselmo's demonic growls.

Next up on the Pantera ass kicking machine is "Walk."  One of their most recognizable songs, Dimebag absolutely destroys the solo.  You know you have a truly all-time great guitarist when he can take an iconic guitar solo, play it EXACTLY how we all remember, and at the same time put twists on it on the fly that flow with perfect harmony with the rest of the solo.

Basically every single iconic Pantera song is on the album and the boys absolutely kill each and every song.  "5 Minutes Alone," "This Love," "I'm Broken," "Cowboys from Hell," "Cemetery Gates," and "Hostile." There truly isn't a single spot on the live album that anyone could say, "Oh, there's a mess up."  Being able to crank out this high quality metal live with great sound and intensity is truly a gift the guys of Pantera were really blessed with.

Then there was something that is perhaps the most lasting and impressing aspect of this live album. Anselmo quiets the audience after they play "Sandblasted Skin" and speaks, "You  know what the experts are telling you? That heavy music is dead and gone. Ya'll do me a favor and ya'll turn around and look at each other right now. And obviously somebody's wanting to hear something that these experts are telling you ain't supposed to be here."  This my friends is pure, unblemished metal. The way it was meant to be played.

Track List:
1. New Level
2. Walk
3. Becoming
4. 5 Minutes Alone
5. Sandblasted Skin
6. Suicide Note Pt. 2
7. War Nerve
8. Strength Beyond Strength
9. Dom/Hollow
10.This Love
11. I'm Broken
12. Cowboys from Hell
13. Cemetery Gates
14. Hostile
15. Where You Come From*
16. I Can't Hide*
*Studio Recordings May 1997