Band:	Pantera
Album:	The Great Southern Trendkill
Style:	Groove metal
Release date:	April 22, 1996
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. The Great Southern Trendkill
02. War Nerve
03. Drag The Waters
04. 10's
05. 13 Steps To Nowhere
06. Suicide Note, Pt. I
07. Suicide Note, Pt. II
08. Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)
09. Floods
10. The Underground In America
11. (Reprise) Sandblasted Skin
12. Walk [live] [Japanese bonus]

This album, more than Vulgar Display Of Power, more than Cowboys From Hell, has always been the album that defined Pantera to me. The Great Southern Trendkill finds the band at its heaviest and most Texan, with an enveloping, album-wide sound that keeps sonic continuity from the first track to the last in a way not quite managed by previous albums.

Of all Pantera's albums, The Great Southern Trendkill features the thickest, heaviest, most distorted guitar tone, a six-stringed cudgel that sheds most of the vestigial thrash elements that clung to life on the last album. By this time, only dim echoes of that bracing speed and particular aggression remain, with Dimebag clearly looking to different inspirations for a deeper, conservatively paced method; these chunky riffs are a far cry from the cutting edge of past albums that, while naturally still groovy and heavy in the peculiar way that Dimebag popularized, was built for speed. His performance on this album is defined by string bends and pinch harmonics, with the spaces filled in by solid, bludgeoning riffs that build on tunes like "Walk" and "Strength Beyond Strength." The slack swing of the strings on tunes like "War Nerve" galvanizes the country/western feeling that foreshadowed Rebel Meets Rebel, while the tone of the metallic side continues to darken into what would become Damageplan.

The Great Southern Trendkill is aptly named, for it is a very Southern-flavored album; the blues and Southern rock influences pervade in the amped-up bass and Phil's throatier, ever-deepening vocals. This album swings into swamp country with a slower pace and lengthier, more atmosphere-oriented approach that surfaced briefly on past albums, now returning to encompass an even greater portion of Pantera's sound. The fully acoustic "Suicide Note Pt. I" and the hybrid "10s" and "Floods" break up the punishing guitar showcases with dark, chilling glimpses into another side of Pantera too little heard from. The album's heaviest tracks - the title track, "13 Steps To Nowhere," and the closing duology - lean into grooves like never before, and Phil Anselmo's vocal lines have a more noticeable emphasis on rhythm, especially in songs like "Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)" and "13 Steps To Nowhere." When the album kicks into overdrive, it's with a hardcore roar and a muscular low end that makes Cowboys From Hell seem lean by comparison.

Vulgar Display Of Power, Cowboys From Hell, and Far Beyond Driven might still have the edge in sheer vitriol, physical impact, and familiar track lists, but The Great Southern Trendkill dominates in the realm of groove and rhythm, which is, after all, one of the most noteworthy things about Pantera. This is my idea of a great Dimebag album, the album I go to when I want to hear asphalt-tearing guitar with a Texas blues tinge; it's also a great Phil Anselmo album, containing some of his most interesting and hooky vocal lines, and it's a great album for the forceful but versatile rhythm section of Rex and Vinnie Paul. This is my idea of a great Pantera album.