CoC : Pantera - Official Live: 101 Proof : Review

Pantera - _Official Live: 101 Proof_
(Eastwest/Warner, 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (3 out of 10)

What we should have gotten with this 16-track, 76+ minute CD of live music was a good assortment of live numbers done by the always powerful and energetic Pantera. Instead, we are led through a yawner of a live LP with more ranting and raving from singer/screamer Phil Anselmo than actual music. This gets annoying after a while. Examples of his segues between songs: "This song is dedicated to all those fuckers who think metal music is dead," or "Is everyone stoned yet? Everyone got a beer and ready to go fucking crazy for some more?" Or my fave and most overused comment by Phil: "You all know the fuckinggggggg words. Sing!" Sure this record has all the Pantera "hits" (e.g. "Walk" or "Cowboys From Hell") and two adequate new studio numbers ("Where You Come From" and "I Can't Hide"), but seeing that it was recorded over the course of a year at several stops along _The Great Southern Trendkill_ tour, the flow of the record never seems to get off the ground. It seems much more like a cut-and-paste collection of better live versions of songs than a coherent live recording. If they had recorded it much like Nailbomb's 1995 live LP _Proud To Commit Commercial Suicide_ (during a single live performance at Dynamo) and kept it raw and hard-hitting, then perhaps this record would have at least garnered some interest from me. Sorry, guys - you didn't score brownie points this time.

(article published 16/10/1997)

ALBUMS
12/8/2000	P Schwarz	7	Pantera - Reinventing the Steel
9/6/1996	A Bromley	9	Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill