UMUR
"Projects in the Jungle" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Texas based heavy metal act Pantera. The album was released on the band´s own label Metal Magic in July 1984. Like the case was on the debut album Jerry Abbott (the father of guitarist Diamond Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul) acts as producer.
The music on the album pretty much continues down the same melodic heavy metal path as the music on it´s predecessor. However the quality of the material is generally much higher than the case was on the debut album and the sound production is more powerful and well sounding too. Soo all in all "Projects in the Jungle" is a massive improvement over "Metal Magic (1983)". It´s also obvious that the four guys in the band have honed their skills in the year between the two albums. They sound tighter and more aggressive now and especially lead vocalist Terrence Lee Glaze has lifted his performance to a much higher level. His use of high pitched screaming vocals are more dominant here and suits the more aggressive music well. This is still predominantly heavy metal in the more melodic end of the scale though (especially Van Halen comes to mind), but there are a few nods toward harder edged metal styles here and there, which wasn´t the case on the debut album. Keyboards are still occasionally used.
So upon conclusion "Projects in the Jungle" is a positive listening experience if you compare it to Pantera´s debut album. As an individual entity it´s not the most original sounding melodic heavy metal album out there, and the songwriting is in places still rather immature (which is perfectly understandable if you take into account the very young age of the band members). There are however both youthful energy and determination behind the delivery on the album, which save a lot for the band. A 3 star (60%) rating is fair.