PANTERA — Metal Magic (review)

PANTERA — Metal Magic album cover Album · 1983 · Glam Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Metal Magic" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Texas based heavy metal act Pantera. The album was released in June 1983 on the band´s own label, which like the album was also called Metal Magic. The band consisted of Terrence Lee Glaze (vocals), Rex Brown (bass), Diamond Darrell (guitars) and Vinnie Paul (drums). "Metal Magic" was produced by Jerry Abbott, who is the father of Diamond Darrell and Vinnie Paul and a respected country musicians in his own right.

Stylistically the band play a melodic heavy rock/metal style, not too far removed from a band like Van Halen, but with the occasional glam metal edge thrown in. Keyboards are occasionally used. The material are generally nothing out of the ordinary for the genre and seriously lacks in attitude, and you probably won´t be able to remember many of the tracks on the album when it´s finished playing. At this stage of their career Pantera were definitely second tier imitators and not first tier innovators like they would be in the nineties. The band are relatively well playing and Terrence Lee Glaze has a decent voice and delivery. To my ears it´s Diamond Darrell´s guitar solos and general guitar playing that´s the most interesting feature on "Metal Magic". Already this early on you could hear that this guy had a lot of talent.

The guys in the band were very young when they recorded "Metal Magic" and as the band had only existed since 1981, both the musicianship and especially the songwriting are pretty immature. The sound production is also rather amaturish and thin sounding, which is not exactly something that helps on the listening experience either. The youthful energy and determination that´s so pivotal in metal is here in limited quantities though, so while the album as a whole doesn´t score too high in my book, there is promise and obvious talent that need to be mentioned as positives when evaluating "Metal Magic". A 2.5 star (50%) rating is deserved.
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Vim Fuego wrote:
more than 2 years ago
@ siLLy puPPy: So's Phil Anselmo...

Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good review, while I actually like some of Pantera's early stuff, this is definitely the weakest.

Power Metal is well worth checking out, there's nothing glam about it and is instead a killer mix of thrash, classic heavy metal, and hints at what was to come.
siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I haven't had the courage to visit this far back! I'm still deluding myself that Cowboys From Hell was the debut album :P

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