The Great Southern Trendkill is the eighth studio album by Pantera. It was released in May, 1996 through East West Records. It reached #4 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The Great Southern Trendkill features some of the fastest tempos and most down-tuned guitars that the band ever recorded. It also has a more experimental nature to its songs, such as the acoustic guitar and keyboard-laden "Suicide Note Pt. I".Unlike Pantera's first three major label albums, the vocals are often double tracked and layered to create a more "demonic" effect. An example of this can be heard in the chorus Read more on Last.fm.
Rarely has such an important album been so readily dismissed, frowned upon and misunderstood. If you follow Panteras pantheon, excluding everything prior to Cowboys From Hell, the pattern they follow is simple. Pantera’s goal from that break through was to get heavier, more pissed off and less commercial with each release. Call it reversing the trend, career suicide, whatever. It allowed them to weed out the true believers from the average head banger.
The Great Southern Trend Kill is the fulfillment of that goal, a merciless succession of brawling, hate filled gristle aimed at any and everyone. The record is opened with Phil Anselmos drug addled scream, The title track lays the foundation for what comes next, an album polarized by race groups, debated by longtime fans and shunned by mainstream magazines for fear of a public backlash.
It’s track listiing is heavy on popular concert cuts, the epic “Drag The Waters”, the chaotic, almost hardcore sounding “Suicide Note Part 2” and the seething angst of “War Nerve”. Dimebag Darrels riffs here are disjointed, almost barberic jabs of gutter noise, beautiful in their awsome lack of melody. His trademark Texas groove is nowhere to be found, a sign of artistic growth and a willingness to take chances. Elsewhere, Vinnie Pauls drumming is a foreshadowing of the new crop of metal bands that would soon incubate in the late nineties and become gods alike in the new millenium. The double bass, the speed and the adherence to non-conformity made this outing Pauls most exciting. Anselmo is his usual angry self, spewing his amusing neandrathal tirades in a choked roar slightly jilted by the copious amounts of heroin he was ingesting. Still, he’s in rare form, really selling the hate he’s come to be associated with.
Even with the negative buzz enveloping it, the album became a landmark for the scene. At a moment when bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn were pushing metal in a generic, radio friendly direction, Dime and company were on the other end of the spectrum, refusing to lose any ground. If you’ve never heard Pantera and you’d like to start with their heavist album, Trendkill is it.