Pantera - Cowboys From Hell review
| Band: | Pantera |
| Album: | Cowboys From Hell |
| Style: | Groove thrash metal |
| Release date: | July 1990 |
Disc I
01. Cowboys From Hell
02. Primal Concrete Sledge
03. Psycho Holiday
04. Heresy
05. Cemetery Gates
06. Domination
07. Shattered
08. Clash With Reality
09. Medicine Man
10. Message In Blood
11. The Sleep
12. The Art Of Shredding
Disc II [expanded and deluxe edition bonus]
[Live Foundations Forum (1990)]
01. Domination
02. Psycho Holiday
03. The Art Of Shredding
04. Cowboys From Hell
05. Cemetery Gates
06. Primal Concrete Sledge
07. Heresy
[Alive And Hostile EP]
08. Domination
09. Primal Concrete Sledge
10. Cowboys From Hell
11. Heresy
12. Psycho Holiday
Disc III [Cowboys From Hell: The Demos] [deluxe edition bonus]
01. The Will To Survive
02. Shattered
03. Cowboys From Hell
04. Heresy
05. Cemetery Gates
06. Psycho Holiday
07. Medicine Man
08. Message In Blood
09. Domination
10. The Sleep
11. The Art Of Shredding
I have never listened to the pre-Cowboys Pantera. I don't know if it's for the good or for the bad, but I'm a most happy person to have listened to this piece of Thrash metal. I just can't get enough of this record. After listening to the headliners like Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth etc, Cowboys From Hell made me look at Thrash metal with a new, refreshed mentality. The guys from Pantera created something which was quite different from the traditional Thrash, yet at the same time as true as it could be. What else can I say? This album just makes the Big Four sound generic. Just kidding, but still the whole album is a good quality original Thrash metal release.
Cowboys From Hell starts from the self-titled track, with a catchy as hell riff, and then followed by a killer solo closer to the end of the song. In fact the album is full of great rhythms and leads, which just don't sound like anything else. It's not some stupid 200-beat-per-second pointless shredding with tasteless screaming. On the opposite, Phil Anselmo's vocal variety is really impressive. That guy has a distinctive subtle roughness in his voice combined with great high pitch screaming, which reminded me of Rob Halford. In a nut shell, a great voice to express all the aggression of the lyrics and music. At the same time Phil has beautiful clean vocals heard on Cemetery Gates. Variety is also a good characteristic for the music: the songs are full of diverse leads and riffs, most being just captivating. For example, the above-mentioned Cemetery Gates seems to be an awesome ballad starting with a beautiful acoustic fingering, but then it's followed by a simple, but again catchy as hell, heavy, and fat chord progression (what a great song for a guitar newbie). Once again the simple truth is proven: for something to be ingenious, it doesn't have to be complex. But don't get me wrong: Dimebag Darrell is playing some mind-blowing solos on this album, so all you guitar nuts (like me) won't be disappointed.
Although Cowboys From Hell is mostly a mid-tempo album (kind of what Groove Thrash should be), but no way will you find it boring. I wish we could have such a great Thrash album released nowadays, but alas, the glorious era of Thrash is no more. So add this one to your collection no matter what your music preferences are, and especially if you are into Thrash because this combo are masters of it.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by K✞ulu | 29.06.2008
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
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Comments: 31
Visited by: 247 users
| Katatronik Angel of Lust Posts: 1018  |
Great album indeed, my second favourite Pantera album (first is Vulgar, obviously...), amazing songs and vocals... Good review once again!
---- "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572  |
thanx man. by the way, do you people agree that the thrash of nowadays is nothing as it was in the 80's 'cause I heard there is a revival going on? 
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Hamird Lieutenant Posts: 2564  |
I like this album, while I've never have support any thrash metal band! but I like Phil Anselmo, and the truth that Pantera was one of the most influential bands of 90's cannot be denied!
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| Syk myspace/bonerama Posts: 1504  |
I would agree this album is better than most of the stuff coming out these days. Like you, I'm not familiar with their 80s material but this is easily the best Pantera album I've heard. Comparable in a few ways to Forbidden's Twisted into Form from the same year, though that album is probably stronger as a whole. In the review I would have liked to see mention of some more songs, like the screaming, shreddy Shattered, or the unorthodox Message in Blood. Good job though. I give the album 9/10
---- death ? thrash ? death/doom/prog ? Hail Zoldon! he's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572 |
You know what. You may be right about the fact that I should have mentioned more songs. Now I can even see what I would add to this review.... Thanx for the comment. And I'm gonna listen to that Forbidden's album as soon as possible.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Elio Red Nightmare Posts: 4920  |
great thrash metal...thx pantera for that piece of art called Cemetery Gates  and good review, the vote is fair 
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
Not really a Pantera fan, but I enjoyed this album, nice review.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted |
THE_BLACK_GOD
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Pantera is great, and this album is one of their masterpiece, the other is Vulgar Dislay of Power. Anselmo is a great singer, and he did a good job in this album, but I dont think that his voice is like Rob Halford  . and IMO they are Groove and they have nothin with Thrash. And the most important part of Pantera was Dim.(R.I.P.)nice review thank Ktulu
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572 |
Written by [user id=31891] on 07.12.2008 at 09:30 Of course, his voice is not like Halford's. It just reminded me of Halford on some songs (impressive singing it was you know). And as far as Thrash and Groove, holy crap, of course that's Thrash, groove or not groove, it's freaking Thrash, and very good Thrash actually.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted |
THE_BLACK_GOD
Account deleted Written by K✞ulu on 07.12.2008 at 10:28 they r actually different form all of other thrash bands dont u know? thats why they r groove. they have just one guitarist and u always hear just one guitar. for example u cant hear a powerchord with a solo. but in thrash bands it not like this man! thats what i mean. pantera is not comparable to metallica, slayer, exodus, testament, anthrax or megadeth. and this is just my opinion cause Ive said before Im against the term so called "Genre". sometimes Classifications r ture and sometimes rnt. take a look at Metal-Archives they didnt mention that Pantera is Thrash metal. And Im agree with them.
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572 |
Written by [user id=31891] on 07.12.2008 at 11:17 Yeah, you can hear the solo and a chord on some songs, like Cowboys or Domination, and it has nothing to do with defining whether they are thrash. They sound like, man; it's all about the riffing. And they are freaking thrash, and many bands agree about it. And what is this bullcrap argument structure: you are saying you don't like defining genres, but you are telling Pantera are not Thrash. And on this album they are the least thrashy out of all from their thrash era... on later albums what they play is freaking Thrash, which IS indeed different from the bands mentioned by you. But... those are so freaking different sounding bands even between them that bringing up that point is just ridiculous.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Pantera are definitely thrash. Yes they groove as well, that's why they are also called groove thrash. The were actually more or less th single band to keep thrash alive in the early Nineties. Pantera are called thrash by ALL majore thrash bands as well. Jjust watch Get Thrashed: The Story Of Thrash Metal where they even have a chapter dedicated to them. Btw Metal Archives are quite crappy when it comes to genre defining. All thrashers who grew up with thrash and live through the Eighties and Nineties recognise Patera from Cowboys onwards as thrash as well. As for The_Black_God's reasoning they only have one guitar... Overkill (at least on their first two albums which are their most thrash), Wargasm, M.O.D., Watchtower, Rigor Mortis, Hirax, all only have ONE guitar and those are just a few bands that spring to mind.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted |
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
@The_Black_God if you want to keep on believing they are not Thrash metal then please keep on living in your own little fantasy world. You denying they are thrash is totally opposite of what your favourite band (Metallica) says about them, what Slayer says about them, what Megadeth says about them, what Anthrax, Testament, Dark Angel, Overkill, Sacred Reich, Exhorder, Death Angel, Kreator, Exodus... all say about Pantera. So you actually think all the masters of thrash are wrong by labelling this album and the Pantera albums after this one as thrash? Just because they don't sound like any of those bands (not true btw, cause they borrowed heavily from Exhorder's sound) doesn't mean they aren't thrash it just means they have their own distinctive sound. Just like all the bands I just mentioned have their own sound.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| BobNickMad Posts: 4  |
Written by K✞ulu on 29.06.2008 at 20:30 That would be awsome.
---- Never free,never me You label me,I label you
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| BobNickMad Posts: 4 |
Written by [user id=31891] on 07.12.2008 at 14:14 Correct groove-metal is not thrash-metal,it's has a more than a distinctive sound.
---- Never free,never me You label me,I label you
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| Ph0eNiX Fire from Above Posts: 418  |
BEst album they did. Vulgar Display of Power was decant. After that it went to crap.
---- 
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857  |
Written by Ph0eNiX on 01.05.2009 at 06:49 Wow. Someone else thinks so too?! I 100% agree with this statement. 
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572 |
Written by Fat & Sassy! on 18.08.2009 at 03:07 So do I.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by K✞ulu on 18.08.2009 at 10:02 I wholeheartedly disagree Far Beyond Driven is still their best for me. Cowboys was decent but a bit unbalanced, same for Vulgar.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Dangerboner Lactation Cnslt Posts: 7262  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 18.08.2009 at 10:50 hmm strange that you call Cowboys unbalanced - I think that's their only album w/o filler. Far Beyond Driven has some great shit, but sadly has the most amount of filler, making it their most unbalanced album for me.
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2572 |
@ pyro same here.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Dangerboner on 18.08.2009 at 10:52 The tracks on Cowboys which bring it down for me are Shattered, Heresy, Medicine Man, Message In Blood, and Psycho Holiday (so a grand 5 tracks in total) whereas on Far Beyond Driven it is only Becoming, Slaughtered and to a lesser extent the Planet Caravan cover.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Dangerboner Lactation Cnslt Posts: 7262 |
Shattered? But I love that song. You have crushed my tiny leprechaun heart 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Dangerboner on 18.08.2009 at 11:21 But at least you still have that pot of gold at the end of your rainbow
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Panterica Posts: 341  |
Their greatest for me, Vulgar is close, but the high-pitch screams by Phil are missing. BTW: Their early stuff are pretty good, it's pretty different from Cowboys and later releases stuff, but still very enjoyable, check out Power Metal, their first album with Phil on the vocals.
---- Li'ed - Prog-Metal from Jerusalem https://open.spotify.com/artist/7aZWDrAAvDSLMaSmDSE8zA https://www.facebook.com/LiedBandMusic http://lied-band.bandcamp.com/
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9012  |
Written by Katatronik on 29.06.2008 at 20:22 same with me...
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| Judas The Priest Posts: 24  |
Yeah i feel ya, slayer and metallica never really clicked with me cause they're too fast and inaudible, after entering the world of metal through priest and maiden, pantera kicks the shit outta those bands, mainly cause i can understand what anselmo is yelling
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| FatherOfBodom Posts: 7 |
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