THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL 1996

1) The Great Southern Trendkill
2) War Nerve
3) Drag The Waters
4) 10's
5) 13 Steps To Nowhere
6) Suicide Note Pt.I
7) Suicide Note Pt.II
8) Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)
9) Floods
10) The Underground In America
11) (Reprise) Sandblasted Skin
-Label: East West
-release date: 4/22/96
-gold certification 6/25/96
-Produced, recorded, and mixed by Terry Date and Vinnie Paul
-Co-produced by Pantera
-Also recorded by Ulrich Wild
-Recorded in DWG, Texas at Chasin Jason Studios
-Studio Assistants: Sterling Winfield, Aaron Barnes
-Mixed in Los Angeles at Larrabee Sound Studios
-Assistant Mix Engineer: Lamont Hyde
-Vocals recorded at Nothing Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana
-New Orleans Assistant Engineer: Sean Beavan
-Mastered by Tom baker at Future Disc & Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound
-All songs written and arranged by Pantera
-Backing vocals here and there by Dimebag, Rex, and Vinnie
-Seth Putnam does additional screams on TGSTK, War Nerve, Suicide Note Pt. 2
-Big Ross: keyboards on Suicide Note Pt. 1 and Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)
-Album art direction & Design: "Wild" Jim deBarros
-Design Assistance: david Manteau
-Photo Illustrations: Exum
-Cover Photo courtesy of Zig Leszczynski
-Band photo: Joe Giron

On March 21, 1994 a name unfamiliar to many weekly readers of Billboard appeared at number one on that week's chart of the top 200 best-selling albums. The name was Pantera and the album attached to it, Far Beyond Driven, their third, had shattered all expectations.

          All, that is, except those of the legion of Pantera fans who have followed the band from Dallas bars to the world's arenas.

          With just three albums -- Cowboys From Hell, Vulgar Display Of Power and Far Beyond Driven -- Pantera has sold over six million albums worldwide. These numbers, however, don't begin to tell the story that will matter in the long run, the story that matters to their millions of fans. The real story is in the power of Pantera's music, savage, searing, soulful rock & roll that stands unchallenged in its intensity. With a fiercely independent attitude, they have accomplished their success with little support from radio or MTV and without catering to the momentary whims of "the industry." Immune to the tyranny of trend, they have become the outspoken standard-bearers of musical integrity, D.I.Y. spirit, and rebelliousness. They've taken their uncompromising music straight to the core of hard rock fans who demand that if a band talks the talk, they damn well better walk the walk.

          Their new album, The Great Southern Trendkill, finds Pantera poised to strike once more. The album shows remarkable growth among its members as individuals and in the band as a whole, with tight songwriting that displays a new sense of melody yet somehow wrings still more venom from their instruments than ever before. The album's tone is set with the title track, opening with an explosive squall of drums, guitar and Philip Anselmo's guttural growl. The song virtually codifies the band's philosophy, its relentless rage levelled at the corrupt, the hypocritical, the weak-willed. "It's bullshit time again/You'll save the world within your trend .... /Pierce a new hole/If Hell was 'in' you'd give your soul," Philip roars in a merciless indictment. That sentiment is brutally reiterated in the last two tracks, "The Underground In America" and "(Reprise) Sandblast Skin," with its refrain of "It's all fake/it's getting old, old, old."

          In between, the album thunders unabated, devastating everything in its path. The band stops, starts, turns on a dime with the daunting precision, like a powerful, well-oiled machine straining at the joints to perform perilously beyond its capacity. The first single, "Drag The Waters," throbs with spellbinding power, its lyrics plumbing the depths of a darkened soul. From the somber beauty of "Suicide Note Pt. I" to the incendiary force of its follow-up "Pt. II," from the dissonant atmospherics of "10's," to the sinister, soulful vocals of "Floods," Pantera is in full stride. And when they hit their patented power groove, there's not a band on the planet that can keep up.

          As usual, the album was produced by "fifth member" Terry Date, along with drummer Vinnie Paul and the rest of the band. In a turn away from past experience, however, the band opted not to record in an existing studio, choosing instead to build their own, which they did -- right in Dimebag's back yard. "We had to go all the way to Nashville to record Driven, and we didn't want to do that again. And there's only one really good studio in Dallas, but it's 45 minutes away and we didn't want to do that either," Vinnie says. "So we built one over at Darrell's place. Now we'll always have it." The band took a bit more time preparing in advance for Trendkill, as well, recording demos and working out parts before entering the studio. The result is a new level of confidence and impact. As Philip recently told Rip magazine, "It's a different record, but we're not going to change for anybody. We just want to deliver gut-level motherfucking songs. We don't want to let any of our fans down and I know for a fact we have not done that. The new shit's fucking brutal."

          With The Great Southem Trendkill complete, Pantera will take to the road again, co-headlining a summer tour with White Zombie then continuing on their own. To fully understand Pantera, it is essential to witness their wrath unleashed on the stage. "It's a one hundred percent pure energy release from both the band and the audience," Vinnie asserts. This is one mosh pit you won't want to miss.

          Ounce for ounce, decibel for decibel, few bands can approach the fury that is Pantera. The Great Southem Trendkill won't just put Pantera on a level playing field with the popular purveyors of the "rock of the moment" -- it will leave such panderers flattened on the highway to rock & roll immortality.

*****

           This Dallas-based quartet unabashedly brought heavy metal into the '90s. By doing away with overblown trappings such as ridiculously elaborate guitar work and falsetto vocalists, Pantera cut through to metal's bare bones and offered both savage heaviness and blunt hardcore integrity. 

          Formed in the mid-'80s when bassist Rex and brothers Diamond (later Dimebag) Darrell (guitar) and Vinnie Paul (drums) were still in high school. They released several records on their own with another vocalist before finding New Orleans native Philip Anselmo. Anselmo brought his love of punk and hardcore music to the group and changed it into a mean machine of hard rhythms and ferocious attack. A deal with Atco (which eventually dissolved into EastWest) followed, and the group's first album for the label, Cowboys From Hell, earned it much attention in hard music circles. 

          The next two albums, Vulgar Display Of Power and the double-platinum Far Beyond Driven (which debuted in Billboard at No. 1), helped place the band at the top of the metal heap, sharing space with its idols such as Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. Massive touring behind each album has also aided in making Pantera a household name among headbangers. Anselmo's macho presence and Darrell's psychotic guitar work create the charisma that has brought the band renown. Highly creative and fiercely independent, Pantera's members are natural leaders. Pantera's latest album, 1996's The Great Southern Trendkill has done well enough to promise that it will survive the heavy metal slump of the '90s. With the brute force of its music, the group is well on its way to reaching its goal of being "the heaviest band in the world." Pantera is probably the only band of its genre that has risen to fame during the "alternative" era.

-bandhunt.com

 
Lyrics:

1: The Great Southern Trendkill
It's wearing on my mind, I'm speaking all my doubts aloud
You rob a dead man's grave, then flaunt it like you did create
If I hit bottom and everything's gone
In the great Mississippi, please drown me and run

It's digging time again, you're nurturing the weakest trend

Those with the heart and the brain to get past this
Can spot a pathetic without even asking

Fuck your magazine, and fuck the long dead plastic scene
Pierce a new hole, if Hell was "in" you'd give your soul

The Great Southern Trendkill
That's right,
The Great Southern Trendkill
Fuck yeah

Buy it at a store, from MTV to on the floor
You look just like a star, it's proof you don't know who you are

If I hit bottom and everything's gone
In the great Mississippi, please drown me and run

It's bullshit time again, you'll save the world within your trend

Those with the heart and the brain to get past this
Can spot a pathetic without even asking

Politically relieved, you're product sold and well received
The right words spoken gold, if I was God you'd sell your soul to

The Great Southern Trendkill
That's right,
The Great Southern Trendkill
Fuck yeah

2: War Nerve
Truly, fuck the world, for all it's worth, every inch of Planet
Earth, fuck myself, don't leave me out, but don't get
involved, don't corner me
Inside, ulcer, unjust bastards, file out face first
Meet the lies and see what you are

It's forcing you down, and it's grinding against you
Let the war nerve break

For every fucking second the pathetic media pisses on me and
judges what I am in one paragraph; Look here - Fuck you all

Expect the worse, you bleeding heart, but kill me first
before it starts, yes my cock is getting hard, 
we are born different after all
Invite mayhem, produce weapons, shoot out, burn down
No CNN or media now

It's forcing you down, and it's grinding against you
Let the war nerve break

All the money in the fucking world couldn't
buy me one second of trust 
or one ounce of faith in anything you're about
Fuck you all

Nothing is worth the sleep that I've lost
Apologies unacceptable now
A blistered revenge awaits in me
This is fucking loveless
Hate (x4)
Hate mail, not read, in jail instead
Hate (x4)
The Lord knows, there's worse
Ignore, this curse
Fuck you!

3: Drag the Waters
A smack on the wrists is the words from the mouth
of the outsiders, lawyers, police
A small price to pay for the dope and the guns
and the rape, it should all be O.K.
Your father is rich, he's the judge, he's the man,
he's the God that got your sentence reduced
But in the back of his mind, he well knows what he'd find 
if he looked a little deeper in you - in you

Drag the waters some more
Like never before

Sweet is the slice and the lips - you're gonna have
that woman - she is your favorite lay
Promised you (swore) that no one had been there,
and she was going to keep it that way
Let it move in, you got thin, and got high, 
and your money went and so did your friends
But she's by your side, and her smile cannot hide
the premonition of the beckoning end, the end

Drag the waters some more
Like never before

See what it is inside that free ride

Drag the waters some more
Like never before

4: 10's
My skin is cold, transfusion with somebody morose and old, 
drop into fruitless dying
It was tempting and bared, the whoring angel rising
Now burning prayers, my silent time of losing

My foes, they can't destroy my body
Colliding slow, like life itself

Long for the blur, we cannot dry much longer
Cement to dirt, disgusted with my cheapness

My foes, they can't destroy my body
Colliding slow, like life itself

5: 13 Steps To Nowhere
Whores
Your windows boarded up, your private lives exposed
The talk shows pump it up, lab rats diseased for show
We're doomed to use the slang, outbreak of drug roulette
A church burned to the ground, not even noticed yet

13, 13, 13 13, 13, 13 Steps 

Whores

A backwards swastika, the black skin riddled in lead
A Nazi Gangster Jew, it beats a dog that's dead
It's in to use the slang, outbreak of gun roulette
The cross slants to the side, will prove the damnedest yet

13, 13, 13 , 13, 13, 13 Steps; leads to nowhere

The backlash dislocates, an untimely reign of death
The wolf poked with the stick, awaits with cancerous breath
Leads to nowhere

Outsiders still suppose, there's holy streets to roam
The truth should not surprise, your homes were built on lies

6: Suicide Note PT. I
Cheap cocaine, a dry inhale, the pills that kill and take
the pain away
Diet of life, shelter without, the face that cannot see inside 
yours and mine

When I'm hiding, when I need it, it lets me breathe, 
for our handle on this life, I don't believe,
this time

Would you look at me now?
Can you tell I'm a man?
With these scars on my wrists
to prove I'll try again
Try to die again, try to live through this night
Try to die again

Forever fooling, free and using, sliding down the
slide that breaks a will
Mother's angel, getting smarter, how smart are
you to regress unfulfilled? 
It's a damn shame,

When I'm hiding, when I need it, it lets me breathe, 
for our handle on this life, I don't believe,
this time

Would you look at me now?
Can you tell I'm a man?
With these scars on my wrists
to prove I'll try again (x2)
Try to die again, try to live through this night
Try to die again

7: Suicide Note PT. II
Out of my mind, gun up to the mouth
No pretension, execution, live and learn
Rape and turn
Fret not family, nor pre-judged army
This is for me, and me only, cowards only
try it

Don't you try to die, yeah like me
It's livid and it's lies and makes graves descending

It's not worth the time to try, to replenish a
rotting life
I'll end the problem, facing nothing, fuck you off,
fuck you all
Tortured history, addict of misery, this exposes me
for weakness is a magnet, watch me do it

Don't you try to die, yeah like me
It's livid and it's lies and makes graves descending down

Why would you help anyone who doesn't want it,
doesn't need it, doesn't want your shit advice
when a mind's made up to go ahead and die?
What's done is done and gone, so why cry?

Tortured history, addict of misery, this exposes me
for weakness is a magnet, watch me do it
Don't you try to die, yeah like me
It's livid and it's lies and makes graves descending down

8: Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)
I cannot take the take, your condition was nod awake
a selfish crier, boldface liar, robbing all of what
you could take in
Stabbed towards a death, a dirty smelling girl
Shit decisions, no provisions, filling veins with juice
of chaos

Painted face, olive drab, swollen hole, empty bag,
sunken eyes, whining dog, it's times like this
you should pray for never

I broke your fucking mold, then threw away the
cast, new religion and new provisions, it's amazing
you're alive

Drop the needle and stop what you're changing into
Erase the end dissolving, disgrace is needed more

So I mended severed ties, through flesh we cauterized
the undeserving, sliming writhing, I filled you up
with watered promise

Spitting teeth, oral lust, alley fuck, angel dust,
anal whore, bleeding knees, it's times like this to pray for murder

So now I've seen it all, Hells' wrath , 
no man has greater glory, 
cause now you're living through me

I'm done with saving you, a gift unto myself, a
tired savior, a wasted favor, and I'm lucky I'm alive

Drop the needle and stop what you're changing into

I broke your fucking mold, then threw away the cast

Painted face, olive drab, swollen hole, empty bag,
sunken eyes, whining dog, it's times like this
you should pray for never

Spitting teeth, oral lust, alley fuck, angel dust,
anal whore, bleeding knees, it's times like this to pray for murder

So now I've seen it all, Hells' wrath , 
no man has greater glory, 
cause now you're living through me

9: Floods
A dead issue, don't wrestle with it, deaf ears are sleeping
A guilty bliss, so inviting (let me in), nailed to the cross

I feel you, relate to you, accuse you
Wash away us all, take us with the floods
Then throughout the night, they were raped and executed
Cold hearted world
Your language unheard of, the vast sound of tuning out
The rash of negativity is seen one sidedly, burn away the day

The nervous, the drifting, the heaving
Wash away us all, take us with the floods
Then throughout the day mankind played with grenades
Cold hearted world
And at night they might bait the pentagram
Extinguishing the sun
Wash away man, take him with the floods

Die

10: The Underground in America
Put in position to wage teenage mayhem
A common affair for the ones who are juiced
If it is weakness that grants us the power
We thrive on what's stronger than most of the world

Glass breaks, the dimming lights, sweat, heat and profane debate
the smart ones stay on the outside, while drunken heads and
arms erupt, centered man, swings a punch,
spits a tooth, postures odd, 
a punk rock escapade,
five bucks a head to be king dick in the crowd

We are the ones who must sport the position
cheap beer, trendy clicks, lesbian love is accepted and right
shaved heads meet hair in the mix,
blending the 80's and 90's with hate

Put in position to wage teenage mayhem
A common affair for the ones who are juiced
If it is weakness that grants us the power
We thrive on what's stronger than most of the world

Shows on, dates canceled, kicked out for reasons
that seem so unfair
skin crusts against the cops, a foregone conclusion
that's tired and beat
Ringworm, crabs and lice, V.D., ecstasy, speed and horse
a heaven, of unmatched importance,
an honor of sex to be stuck by the punk
Rich homes, with money and food,
abandoned for the bums on the street 
a lifestyle that's unexplainable, don't try and save what is
all meant to be

Put in position to wage teenage mayhem
A common affair for the ones who are juiced
If it is weakness that grants us the power
We thrive on what's stronger than most of the world

If it is free, from a family that's seen, you can just keep it
if you must beg, it's better instead, you must follow the etiquette
fake
You know when it rains you're in your bed at home
You act so real when you are alone
fake
You better not let the mohawked crowd see, haha ya fuck
Give it five years, you'll retire your piercings
You must admit that you mimic the weaklings

The trend is dead

11: (Reprise) Sandblasted Skin
Scrape it, grind it, peel it, hide it
The trend is over, and gone forever
Shelf it, box it, save it, frame it
You won't need that anymore, it's on sale at the fuckin' dollar store
Waste of time, pantomime, circus doll, at the local mall

Exterminate, it's all fake

Sandblast yourself

Sandblast

It's getting old