“NEW” PANTERA IS HERE, FEATURES AN EARLY VERSION OF A RIFF FROM “THIS LOVE?”
So last week Vince told you that “The Will to Survive,” a “new” Pantera song — actually a previously unreleased track from the Cowboys from Hell sessions — would be debuting today on the band’s Facebook page in order to promote the upcoming Cowboys anniversary reissue… and it’s here! (You have to agree to make your love for Pantera public by hitting the “I Like” thinger, but it’s Pantera, so you shouldn’t be afraid to let the world know how you feel anyway.) It was s’posed to go live at noon EST today, but technical difficulties seem to have delayed its arrival. But fuck it, it’s metal, who’s wearing a watch, y’know?
ANYWAY, so the song. Bram Teitlelman at Metal Insider pretty much slapped the wench on the ass with his assessment of the track, so I’m just gonna quote him here:
“…it definitely sounds like the bridge between the Power Metal-era Pantera and the crushingly heavy band they became on Cowboys From Hellonward. You can definitely tell it’s the late ’80s, and the band dug Judas Priest, but it’s still riffy as hell, and dammit, Phil could really scream if he wanted to!”
Which is as accurate a description as you’re gonna get. But what Bram did not point out — and what I’ve yet to see anyone point out, if I may wax my own car for a moment — is that the song, at least to my ears, features a riff which also appears in “This Love.” I assume that even after “Survival” didn’t make the Cowboys cut, the band still recognized the coolness of the riff in question, and thus folded it into Vulgar Display. I’m actually shocked that no one has mentioned this up ’til now, unless either a) they did and I just missed it somehow, or b) I’m crazy and the riffs aren’t the same, which I don’t think is the case. (UPDATE: The answer is apparently “a.” Thanks to OBEY1019 for letting me know!)
The riff begins at roughly the :35 second mark in “Survive,” and then the 2:48 mark in “This Love.” Compare the two and let me know what you think.
The Cowboys reissue comes out September 14, by the way.
-AR
