Maps of Music

Reinventing the Steel (2000)

Where the lyrics of Reinventing the Steel take you, and where it was really made.

This was the last Pantera studio album before the band's 19-year breakup, and the last one with both Abbott brothers.

Key places

Recorded at Chasin Jason Studios in Arlington (2000)

Recording site Chasin Jason Studios — The album was recorded at Chasin Jason Studios in Arlington, Texas. The point sits at the city centre of Arlington, not at the studio building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Ninth and final studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera
• Released 21 March 2000 (UK 27 March, Japan 5 April) through Elektra Records and East West Records
• Last studio album before the band's split from November 2003 to July 2022
• Final album featuring Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, who died in 2004 and 2018

Background

• The band was in intense internal strife during this period
• Singer Phil Anselmo's heroin addiction began as a way to cope with back pain
• The addiction escalated into an overdose on tour with Eyehategod and White Zombie, leaving him legally dead for five minutes
• Anselmo pursued more side projects and Pantera became less of a focus for him
• The band later fractured and eventually split
• Produced by the Abbott brothers with Sterling Winfield
• First Pantera studio album since 1988's Power Metal not produced by Terry Date
• Two B-sides were recorded during the sessions, Avoid the Light and Immortally Insane, which appeared on movie soundtracks

Recording

• Recorded at Chasin Jason Studios in Arlington, Texas
• Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York
• Vinnie Paul, Dimebag Darrell and Sterling Winfield handled production; Vinnie Paul and Sterling Winfield also handled engineering and mixing
• Kerry King played the outro guitar on Goddamn Electric

Cover

• Cover art by Scott Caliva (1967–2003), a friend of Anselmo
• The photo shows a partygoer at Anselmo's house jumping through a bonfire while clutching a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon
• The bottle is pixelated so the label is not visible, avoiding trademark infringement

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Pantera is an American heavy metal band formed in Arlington, Texas, in 1981 by the Abbott brothers, guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul.
• The band started as a glam metal act and was originally named Gemini, then Eternity, before settling on Pantera.
• Rex Brown joined on bass in 1982 and Phil Anselmo became vocalist in 1986, forming the best-known lineup.

Members

• The best-known lineup was the Abbott brothers with Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo.
• Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed on stage in December 2004; Vinnie Paul died of heart failure in June 2018.
• Currently the band features Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante.

Career

• The band pioneered and popularized groove metal in the 1990s with Cowboys from Hell (1990) and Vulgar Display of Power (1992).
• Far Beyond Driven (1994) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
• Pantera disbanded in 2003 and reunited with a new lineup in 2022, touring the world since.
• The band has sold around 20 million records worldwide and received four Grammy nominations.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Generally well received on release, though reviews were less enthusiastic than for the band's previous albums
• Rolling Stone gave it 3.5/5, calling it metal-revivalist, relying on the genre's primal elements of rage and analog noise, brutal enough for underground purists and familiar enough for weekend headbangers
• Q magazine gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said it was Pantera's attempt to upgrade Judas Priest's British Steel-era pure metal spirit
• Alternative Press called it an undiluted, unvarnished slab of riffs paying distinct homage to Judas Priest's British Steel, in song construction as well as in title
• AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey gave it 3 out of 5 stars, calling it a nonstop assault that comes off as a cut below the band's best albums
• Huey wrote that the sound lacks the freshness that sparked Cowboys from Hell, Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven
• Entertainment Weekly said the album resumes the band's scorched-earth policy with vigor
• Singer Phil Anselmo named it his favorite Pantera album

Reappraisal

• In a 2022 interview with Gibson TV, Rex Brown blamed the album's lacklustre success on the dominance of nu metal when it was released
• A three-disc 20th anniversary set was released on 20 October 2020, with remixes of the original tracks by Terry Date and other material

Records

• Debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and number five on Top Internet Albums
• Sold 161,105 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan
• Fell to number 24 in its second week, selling 59,962 copies, a 62.8% drop
• Spent 12 weeks on the chart in total
• Certified gold by the RIAA, denoting 500,000 units
• Has not reached platinum, making it Pantera's only major-label studio album not to reach 1,000,000 sales
• Sold 593,000 copies domestically as of October 2003 according to Nielsen SoundScan
• Debuted at number eight on the Top Canadian Albums chart
• Won Album of the Year and shared Album Cover of the Year at the 2000 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards
• Revolution Is My Name won Song of the Year at the same awards
• Revolution Is My Name was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Metal Performance, losing to Deftones' Elite
• Ranked No. 2 in Guitar World's Readers Poll for the Top 10 Guitar Albums of 2000

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Kerry King recorded the solo for Goddamn Electric in a bathroom after Slayer performed at Ozzfest in Dallas on 13 July 1999
• Part of Death Rattle was re-recorded and renamed Pre-Hibernation for a SpongeBob SquarePants episode
• The band dedicated the album to fans they viewed as their brothers and sisters
• In Australia a two-disc Tour Edition was released, with the second disc an unofficial hits compilation
• The album's B-sides were unusual because two were recorded during its sessions, unlike other Pantera releases

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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