Far Beyond Driven is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera,released on March 22,1994,by Elektra Records and East West Records. Pantera's fastest-selling album,[3] it peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200[4][5] and was certified Platinum by the RIAA.[6] The album was also certified Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.[7]Far Beyond Driven is the first album by Pantera where the band's guitarist Darrell Abbott is credited as "Dimebag Darrell",having changed his nickname from "Diamond Darrell" soon after Vulgar Display of Power was released. The Japanese and the Driven Downunder Tour '94 Souvenir Collection editions contain a bonus thirteenth track,"The Badge",a Poison Idea cover. This cover was also featured on The Crow soundtrack.[8]
The original album cover shows a drill going into someone's anus,but the record label rejected it,worrying it would harm sales and would be rejected by stores like Walmart and Target. The band then changed it to a drill put in the frontal lobe of a human skull.[9]
At the time of its release, Pantera's vocalist Phil Anselmo was injured with ruptured discs in his back and was suffering from chronic pain from degenerative disc disease. Anselmo began drinking heavily, abusing painkillers and muscle relaxants, and using heroin to alleviate the pain.[10]
In an interview at Loyola University in March 2009, Anselmo said:
"Well, I think it was about the time when the record [Far Beyond Driven] came in at #1. I was pretty terrified. I was happy as hell; don't get me wrong, man — I was like, 'Oh, my God, yes!' At that point, I had just gotten back from the doctor — from having my second MRI done — and I realized I had two blown-out disks. Now, in order for me to be this Superman that the media had built me up to be, I had to quell that pain. So I started off with regular painkillers and muscle relaxers. Eventually, you climb up the painkiller ladder, because painkillers lie to you; they will magnify that injury. And that's all that's on your mind — the injury and painkillers."[11]
The song "I'm Broken" is about back pain that Phil Anselmo felt. Anselmo said "This is right when I started feeling the pain in my lower back, and it felt scary," says Anselmo. "I think this is one of the first times in my life, man, that I had this thing called 'vulnerability' kick in, and that was a very uncomfortable feeling." Anselmo adds, "I think that was really my first glimpse into kind of screaming to the world, 'Fucking... I am broken! Somebody fucking help me here!'"[12]
"The story behind this song is we were opening for Megadeth, and there was a guy that was flipping us off the whole show and so we stopped the show. And I was like, 'Listen, in case you haven't noticed there's 18,000 people who really dig what we're doing. You're the only one doing that stupid shit without even having to egg the crowd on.' Ten guys just jumped the guy and beat the shit out of him. His dad called the manager after all the lawsuits and this and that, and basically said, 'Give me five minutes with that Phil Anselmo guy. I want to whup his ass.'"[4]
Anselmo spoke about what the song "5 Minutes Alone" is about saying:
"There are always gold-diggers out there. The way I remember it was there was this kid that swore that I jumped off the stage and beat him up. Well, that was bullshit. That did not happen at all. When the father asked for five minutes alone with me, our manager responded aptly and perfectly: 'No, you don't.' [Laughs] 'I really doubt that,' and basically hung up on the guy. But once that story was conveyed to me, it actually made me angry because it wasn't fucking true. I basically plucked out those words from my agitator's mouth and yeah, man, 'five minutes alone,' fucking bring it."[4]
In the liner notes of the album, all the songs' lyrics are printed apart from the cover of "Planet Caravan". The liner note reads:
"This is a Black Sabbath song off of the Paranoid album. So don't freak out on us. We did the song because we wanted to. It has nothing to do with the integrity of our direction. It's a tripped out song. We think you'll dig it. If you don't, don't fucking listen to it. Thanks. On behalf of the rest of Pantera, Phil Anselmo '94."
The band tuned lower on the album than on previous efforts, with many songs going as low as C# standard. Several lyrical topics appear on Far Beyond Driven. The track "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" seems to be a reference to the song "Good Friends and a Bottle of Wine" on the Ted Nugent album Weekend Warriors. Phil Anselmo spoke about the track "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" saying:
"The lyrical content was me probably giving a nod to my fascination at the time with Nick Cave's Birthday Party. Nick Cave was a genius. I will say the lyrics [on 'Good Friends'] tell a true story. I made a lot of mistakes as a youngster, and to reveal to this particular person who it was about, why it was about, what happened that particular night, would not be a very kosher. I can't do it. To this day, I won't do it. It would just be in bad taste. At this point, I don't think that person would want five minutes alone with me, unless we have a sip of white wine."[4]
Pantera's bassist Rex Brown spoke about "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" saying:
"It was just kind of fucking around – Vinnie had a drumbeat, Dime was just fucking around with that pedal, and I had the five-string bass. It was just this little groove that we had. We listened to it and at first, we went, 'What the fuck is that?' Then when Phil put the vocals on it, it just blew everybody's fucking minds. I don't know what the fuck he was thinking with the lyrics."[4]
Phil Anselmo talked about the song "Strength Beyond Strength" saying "I was a rambunctious child," begins Anselmo. "None of it is regrettable, lyrically. You can look back at your lyrics and snicker. I'll always do, whether I'm embarrassed over it, or whether I'm embarrassed over it, or whether I'm embarrassed over it. You can tell growing spurts and pains and where you were in life, so I don't know. Strength fucking Beyond Strength is the old puffin' the chest up, 'look at us now,' we're as cute as [we're] fucking extreme."[13]
Anselmo explained the meaning behind the song "Becoming" saying "The most popular heavy metal bands in the world at that time were, in my estimate and definitely all of our estimates, playing the game," Anselmo says. "They had reached this pinnacle; now they were kind of tapering off and writing more commercial stuff, whereas we realized our strong point, once again, was sticking to heavy metal and making it as heavy as our style would allow. Therefore, with 'Becoming,' it is what it says. We were becoming. Honestly, we had arrived."[14]
Anselmo talks about the meaning behind the song "Shedding Skin" saying, "'Shedding Skin' was about me being in my 20s and any girlfriend, lady-friend of mine trying to tie me down at that age, at that particular time," begins Anselmo. "Basically, 'lay off, right now.' A relationship with me? A serious relationship with me at that age? Forget it, fuck off. Really, it's impossible."[15]
Anselmo talked about the song "Slaughtered" saying "I've always had a distorted view of organized religion and I was never more confused than when I was in my 20s and whatnot," Anselmo says about 'Slaughtered.' "And still I like to use a fusion, if you will, of religions and fuck with them, so to speak. And then tear them down and piss all over them or build them up only to tip over."[16]
Anselmo spoke about the song "Use My Third Arm" saying "A song like 'Use My Third Arm'... sometimes I just go off on just, tangents," Anselmo explains. "It's almost like a formulated temper tantrum over aimless things. Try and find the dead target on that song and I'll shake your hand, because I really don't know. It might take a psychologist or something. It's a temper tantrum, really, put to music."[17]
Anselmo spoke about the song "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" saying "I think it was a foreshadowing of the fear that I felt of not being the same. ... I know for a fact, I guess, that I dabbled in pain pills and stuff like that because I was miserable, and that's always a friggin' dead end, dead road, a terrible path to take. But at the time, I didn't have any other answers."[18]
The song "25 Years", one of Pantera's most personal songs, is about Phil Anselmo's father. Anselmo said, "'25 Years' was written about my father. At the time [I] had a gigantic falling-out with him and I resented the fuck out of him and wrote a beautiful song about it." Anselmo continues, "It was a time capsule of how far he and I had not come, and I think a lot of fans could relate with the dysfunctional family vibe. I think I put in some pretty clever wording here and there, and it might be that wording that they had been searching for themselves for quite a while when it comes to anger."[19]
Release and reception
At midnight on March 22, 1994, Pantera launched the release of Far Beyond Driven with an extensive record store campaign. They traveled to 12 cities in almost five days with MTV documenting their progress. Band members signed autographs, met fans, and promoted the album. The band released "I'm Broken" as the album's first single, which reached #19 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's highest-charting single worldwide. The LP also contained the first cover song on one of their major-label releases—Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" which served as the album's closing track and reached #21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and #26 on the UK Singles Chart. By March, the LP had sold over 185,000 copies and had reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts and Australian charts upon release. It remained on the Billboard 200 for 29 weeks.[20]
The album received positive reviews. Rolling Stone gave the album four out of five stars. Rolling Stone would eventually rank Far Beyond Driven #39 on their list "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[25] However, AllMusic reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia stated "Far Beyond Driven may have been Pantera's fastest selling album upon release, but it's hardly their best. In fact, although it shot straight to the number one spot on the Billboard sales chart in its first week (arguably the most extreme album ever to do so), this incredible feat doesn't so much reflect its own qualities as those of its predecessor, 1992's Vulgar Display of Power."[3]
In November 2011, Far Beyond Driven was ranked number six on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1994.[26] The album was also ranked at number twenty in Guitar World's "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.[27]
Reissue
On March 24, 2014, a two-disc deluxe edition of Far Beyond Driven was released to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Disc one is a remastered version of the original album. Disc two is a live album featuring Pantera's set at the 1994 Monsters of Rock Festival.
Tour
Pantera toured South America, and were accepted into another "Monsters of Rock" billing. At that festival on June 4, 1994, the Abbott brothers got into a scuffle with journalists from the music magazine Kerrang! over unflattering cartoon depictions of drummer Vinnie Paul. Then in late June, Anselmo was charged with assault for hitting a security guard after he prevented fans from getting on stage, Anselmo was released on $5,000 bail the next day.[28][29] The trial was delayed three times.[30] In May 1995, he apologized in court and pleaded guilty to attempted assault and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.[31][32] Pantera continued their tour of the United Kingdom and eventually the United States in mid to late 1994, where the band was opened for by fellow heavy metal bands Sepultura and Prong. The tour of Far Beyond Driven also took Pantera to Australia and New Zealand for the first time in November–December 1994. The tour ended in March of 1995 with another run through the United States, this time with Type O Negative opening.
Pantera is an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed in 1981 by the Abbott brothers, and currently composed of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-known lineup consisted of the Abbott brothers along with Brown and Anselmo, who joined in 1982 and 1986 respectively. The band is credited for developing and popularizing the subgenre of groove metal in the 1990s. Regarded as one of the most successful and influential bands in heavy metal history, Pantera has sold around 20 million records worldwide and has received four Grammy nominations.
Cowboys from Hell is the fifth studio album and major label debut by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on July 24, 1990, by Atco Records. It marked the first of many collaborations with producer Terry Date. This was also the album where Pantera fully abandoned the glam metal style of their previous albums in favor of a heavier sound. It has been recognized as one of the first ever groove metal albums.
Down is an American heavy metal supergroup that formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1991. The current lineup consists of vocalist Phil Anselmo, drummer Jimmy Bower, guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), and bassist Pat Bruders (Goatwhore).
Vulgar Display of Power is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera. Released on February 25, 1992, through Atco Records, it was the band's second collaboration with producer Terry Date, after having worked with him on their breakthrough album Cowboys from Hell (1990).
Darrell Lance Abbott, best known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, was an American musician. He was the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, both of which he co-founded alongside his brother Vinnie Paul. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time.
Reinventing the Steel is the ninth and final studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on March 21, 2000 through Elektra Records and East West Records. This was the last studio album Pantera released before their nineteen-year breakup from November 2003 to July 2022, and it is the band's final album to feature the Abbott brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, before their deaths in 2004 and 2018, respectively.
Philip Hansen Anselmo is an American heavy metal musician best known as the lead singer for Pantera, Down, and Superjoint, amongst other musical projects. He is the owner of Housecore Records.
The Great Southern Trendkill is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on May 7, 1996, through Elektra Records and East West Records. It reached number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and stayed on the chart for 16 weeks. During the album's production, Phil Anselmo recorded the vocals alone at Trent Reznor's Nothing Studios in New Orleans while Dimebag Darrell, Rex Brown, and Vinnie Paul recorded the music at Chasin Jason Studios in Dalworthington Gardens. This would be Pantera's last studio album to be produced by Terry Date, who had worked with the band since Cowboys from Hell (1990).
Power Metal is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on June 24, 1988, through Metal Magic Records. It is the first Pantera album to feature Phil Anselmo on lead vocals, as part of the most well-known lineup which would last until the band's breakup in 2003.
Official Live: 101 Proof is a live album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on July 29, 1997.
The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits! is a compilation album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on September 23, 2003, two months before their breakup. The title of the compilation is a combination of the titles of their first four major label albums.
"Walk" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera from their sixth album Vulgar Display of Power. A live performance of "Walk" is included on Official Live: 101 Proof, and the studio version is also on the band's greatest hits album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!.
"Cemetery Gates" is a power ballad by American heavy metal band Pantera. The song is the fifth track from the 1990 album Cowboys from Hell, the band's fifth record and second with lead singer Phil Anselmo. The song, the longest in Pantera's discography, showcases Anselmo's vocal ability and range, concluding with screaming high notes answered by Dimebag Darrell on guitar in a trade-off.
"Becoming" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera from their seventh album Far Beyond Driven. It was released as a 2-track promotional-only vinyl 12", with "5 Minutes Alone" as its B-side.
"I'm Broken" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on their 1994 studio album, Far Beyond Driven. It was the first single released from the album.
"5 Minutes Alone" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera from their 1994 album Far Beyond Driven. The song also appears on the band's live album. The song was released as downloadable content for Rock Revolution and Rock Band 3 and can be heard during a cut-scene in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
"Mouth for War" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera. It was first released on the band's sixth album Vulgar Display of Power and was the first single off that album. It was later released on the band's compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!
Repentless is the twelfth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on September 11, 2015. This is the band's first album recorded without guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who died from liver cirrhosis in 2013 and was replaced by Gary Holt. It is also the first album to feature drummer Paul Bostaph since God Hates Us All (2001). Repentless is also the only album the band released on Nuclear Blast and was produced by Terry Date, replacing Rick Rubin after twenty-nine years and nine studio albums as their producer or executive producer. The six-year gap between World Painted Blood (2009) and Repentless was the longest between two Slayer albums in their career, and it would be the band's last studio album before disbanding in 2019 until their reformation in 2024, following the conclusion of their final world tour.
Catharsis is the ninth studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released on January 26, 2018. The album is the first to be credited as completely co-written by all of the band's members since The More Things Change... (1997). Catharsis saw the band stylistically returning to the nu metal-inspired that was featured on their third and fourth album respectively, The Burning Red (1999) and Supercharger (2001). Catharsis is the final Machine Head studio album to feature drummer Dave McClain and guitarist Phil Demmel, who both left the band in late September 2018 over their dislike with the album's direction and conflicts with Robb Flynn.
"Domination" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera. It is the sixth track on their 1990 studio album Cowboys from Hell. The song is very notable for its breakdown in the middle of the song, which is considered to be the best out of all of Pantera's breakdowns. From 1990 to 1991, it was used as a live set opener.
↑ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
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