Had never heard the album in its entirety before, and since the stuff I was familiar with--the title track and "Cemetery Gates"--always seemed a bit silly to me, I wasn't very positively predisposed to it going in. But since unabused Pantera discs are a bargain bin rarity, thought I'd give it a chance.
It's easiest to think of this as a hybrid album with a lot of varying song types and blended influences, much like their previous material contained actual metal right alongside extremely glammy commercial hard rockin' stuff, or even something like The Black Album mixes rock and metal. The more aggro groove stuff like "Primal Concrete Sledge" is clearly in the vein of subsequent Pantera albums, there are residual elements from Power Metal in some of the guitarwork and in Phil's higher vocals, there's groovier more rocking stuff ("Psycho Holiday") with elements that remind me of early Alice in Chains or even the 2nd White Zombie album, and then there are the thrashy parts. Don't get me wrong, they're a welcome relief on an album like this, and while they represent the most interesting parts for me personally, they never rise above being rather generic Metallica homages. While there is certainly thrashiness here, this is definitely not a thrash album overall, no matter what deluded fans or whitewashers may say.
I'd often heard from non-fans that "Domination" was the best track on here, and I suppose it's alright. Personally I like "Heresy" more, as it's the thrashiest track on the CD. But again, I don't like it because of any distinct identity or particularly great songwriting, it's just because it sounds very Master of Puppets-era Metallica-ish (especially when coupled with Phil's gruffer vocals), which I can appreciate.
So yeah, this is about what I expected. Certainly as close to thrash as they ever got. Not as ridiculous as their later stuff, but nowhere near as good as Power Metal or the heavier songs from the first 3 albums. While I don't mind if someone likes this album, for anyone to insinuate that this was the heaviest, most aggressive, most brutal metal someone could easily access at the time (in the early '90s, any well-stocked major music retailer had plenty of releases from the bigger indie labels) is just laughable.
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