Pantera

Pantera

STEEL RESERVE
Pantera's Vinnie Paul Tells What it Takes to Stay at the Top of the Metal Heap
Few bands have done more to wreck speakers, ears -- and, in certain moshpits, ribs and collarbones -- than Pantera. On their slow, primordial rise from the metal underground, the Texans gathered up a cult following that responded to every bellow from singer Phil Anselmo, every pounding riff conjured up by his bandmates. That following seemed to expand with every release the quartet mustered up in the '90s, each more stark and aggressive than the last. Nearly two decades after the band's inception, Pantera remains unfettered by quaint notions like emotional depth, breadth of interest or the chick-magnet power ballad. REINVENTING THE STEEL, the band's latest album, delivers ten short, sharp bursts of pure aggro -- all the better to stoke the fires burning in their fan base. Drummer Vinnie Paul gives David Sprague a crash course in what makes Pantera tick.

BARNES&NOBLE.com: The underlying emotion in just about every Pantera song is anger, to some degree. How do you stay pissed off after all your success?

Vinnie Paul: There's no real trick. It's just the attitude we express in our music. Obviously it wouldn't have the same impact on people if we were to go on stage and sing about how pretty all the flowers are.

BN: Who can you point to as influences on that attitude?

VP: Oh, man. Just about anyone loud and aggressive that was making records back then. The first Kiss album was the first record I owned. Black Sabbath, of course. Judas Priest and the original lineup of Van Halen.

BN: There's another similarity with the last band, since you and your brother, Darrell, have played together for most of your lives.

VP: Yeah, the old Eddie and Alex thing is there, more at the beginning. Like them, we both started off as drummers, and I got better and kicked Darrell off the drums. That's when he had our dad buy him a guitar.

BN: There are those who'd say that Pantera's "aggression" is a negative influence, encouraging violence and so on.

VP: Pantera is very positive. It's all about the kid who comes home to their mom and dad getting on their ass, and they can go into their room and scream and yell to one of our records. That's a lot better than some of the things they could do under the same circumstances. I can see how some older people might see some lyrics as negative, but they're really not. Take something like "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit." That may not sound very nice, but it's really just telling people to move ahead, to do something with their lives.

BN: Are you ever surprised by the wild reactions you get in concert -- the sheer intensity of the pit?

VP: Nothing surprises me anymore. Go turn on the news and see if you're surprised by what people can do [Laughs]. I went out there a few times and ended up with a broken bone in my hand -- which isn't very good for a drummer. Now, I leave that to other people.

BN: Do you look at this sort of playing as a physical grind?

VP: Sure. We've been rehearsing for a while now, and we don't really start to tour for a few weeks. It's like a football player in training camp. You get together, start to play, have a shot or two of Crown Royal to make sure all the muscles are loose...

BN: Is that difficult to capture in the studio?

VP: Recording is a pretty tedious thing for us, so we try to make it as close to playing live as we can. We have a few drinks, set up some lights so it looks a little bit like we're playing a gig instead of just playing to four walls. I think this is definitely the closest we've come to capturing the whole thing. It's the first record we've done where we've all been absolutely ecstatic about every song. That's why we wanted ten killer songs instead of 15 where each of us can say "Oh, I like that one and that one, but not that one."

BN: After doing festival shows and Ozzfest, you've probably heard a lot of bands that bear your influence. Does that make you feel like elder statesmen?

VP: It's very gratifying to hear, definitely. God knows, everybody borrows from somewhere. I like a lot of the bands that we've played with over the last few years, whether or not I can hear some part of us in there. Slipknot really kicks ass, I like Godsmack quite a bit...Sevendust, too. It's always a blast to see them.

BN: Since you released your first album, METAL MAGIC, in 1983, you're just seven years away from being eligible for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame: What are your chances of getting in?

VP: I don't think there's a chance that we'll ever make it. We were built up by fans, and not by the industry, so the industry doesn't have any interest in us. I think to most of the people that vote on those things, Pantera is just a nuisance.