PANTERA — Far Beyond Driven (review)

Album · 1994 · Groove Metal

4/5 · 2011-04-03
UMUR

"Far Beyond Driven" is the 7th full-length studio album by US groove metal act Pantera. The album was released in March 1994 by East West Records. Upon release the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and it has been certified platinum in the US. Without a doubt Pantera´s most commercially succesful release. The blue cover artwork that most people are familiar with, which features a drill going through a skull, actually isn´t the original cover artwork. The original cover artwork which depicted a drill impaling an anus was censored by the record company and never made it unto the CD version of the album. The vinyl version ( or at least the vinyl version I´m holding in my hand) features the explicit artwork though.

The music on the album has taken a turn towards a much more groove based metal sound than the style Pantera played on the last couple of albums but the band have also started experimenting with unconventional riffs, various types of aggressive vocals and also some less straight forward rythms. "Far Beyond Driven" features some absolutely infectious groovy metal tracks like "5 Minutes Alone", "Broken" and "Use My Third Arm" ( check out the breakdown in the middle of that song) but also some highly aggressive and at times even brutal tracks like "Strength Beyond Strength" and "Slaughtered". My personal favorites on the album are the rythmically unconventional "Becoming" and the excellent "Shedding Skin" though. The noisy and repetitive "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" and "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" don´t go down well with me. The album ends with a cover version of "Planet Caravan" by Black Sabbath which is a great mellow way to end an otherwise relentlessly aggressive album.

Besides the awfully triggered drum sound on the album I think the production is very powerful and professional. It does lack a bit of warmth though.

"Far Beyond Driven" is an immensely influential groove metal album and probably the most famous and commercially succesful album in the genre. In the years after the release of the album the metal scene would be flooded with imitators and worshippers. Some good, some bad. The point is that Pantera should be credited for being the band that brought the groove metal style to the masses. Personally there are things I really enjoy about this album and things I enjoy less, but viewed upon objectively this is quite a unique album and also a very innovative one, so somewhere between a 3.5 and a 4 star rating is fully deserved. After giving the album one final listen I´ve settled with a 4 star rating.

more than 2 years ago
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The Angry Scotsman wrote:

more than 2 years ago

7th? You mean 3rd! We all choose to ignore those first four I thought ; )

Great review as usual man, I like the album but a bit hot/cold for me. A bit of Pantera trying to out-pantera themselves and maybe lots of drug use starting to take its toll...a bit of Black Sabbath style :(