This band is a pretty decent Bolt Thrower clone, with two caveats: their riff-writing relies on Pantera-blockhead phrases based purely in rhythmic expectation, and their songs are extremely simple in form in part because they are based around tropes borrowed from albums by that English band.
Nonetheless, Honourable Discharge is pleasant to listen to, and there are no extraneous parts or obvious non-sequiturs, even if the hard rock + muted power chords riffs make me groan. When this is on in the background, nothing sounds out of place or wrong but I cannot imagine putting this on and looking forward to listen to it, and this is entirely unrelated to its style. It relies on too many mentally basic riff and song structure techniques to interest me.
Other than that, there is no point saying bad things about these guys however. They are probably a great local band, one that you might explain to friends as “recent Bolt Thrower as if played by 1992 Bolt Thrower,” and they clearly understand and take great joy in their primary influence. If you wonder what Num Skull, the last Bolt Thrower album, and Motley Crue might sound like if blended well, Honourable Discharge provides a portal to that vision.
Tags: anal sex, Bolt Thrower, Grindcore, hard rock, humiliation, review
That’s a bit deplaced here but so be it: Someone played some Pantera to me during a recess in 1990, very likely before my 18th birthday, describing this as a great, new band he just found. That was music I should have liked as all its parts were of the kind also appearing in music I did like, but it just failed to catch my interest (other bands have since been able to reproduce this effect, most recently Aborted, and that even during a London club concert — quite an accomplishment). This non-experience has consistently repeated whenever I encountered the band again over the course of the years. The craziness that’s US college/ university politics is virtually unknown outside of the USA, hence, until very recently, I was – in addition to my numerous, other shortcomings – also living with the hidden stigma that “something must be terribly wrong with me because I’m the only guy on this planet who doesn’t think that’s a great band”.
Pantera had some talent, but also a LOT of dumb, boring songs.
There are plenty of bands / records that do zero for you because they probably suck shit.
It doesn’t matter if others praise them, real metalheads will not follow hype/trends.
Yes, give whatever it is a chance, but if it is garbage, then realize you are surrounded by idiots.
There are bands that are better than what are on record labels (even these days, on what are the well-known indies, like NWN, Dark Descent, HRR, etc), but will never be picked up / heard by most.
Do not try too hard to please others at your own expense.
Follow the voice of blood.
People’s love for Pantera is typically a farce. Most fans go ape-shit over a riff or a solo, maybe one of Phil’s silly lyrics. But I don’t know any Pantera fan that listens to one of their albums all the way through because the songs themselves are repetitive and hardly scratch the surface of a fraction of an idea. I don’t resent Pantera like a lot of older metal-heads, they are just one of a handful of bad bands. At least they have/had the accidental purpose of getting young teens into music heavier than pop/alt rock. If someone likes Pantera it isn’t hard to steer them in a different direction and turn them toward a much better path for heavy music.
Though why a young kid wouldn’t just do the Maiden to Metallica to Slayer to Morbid Angel route like a decent human being is beyond me.
Pantera were an amazing band. They stood head and shoulders over other metal bands for multiple reasons that are not worth listing if you can’t hear it for yourself, but in their defence I will. First and foremost their songs were structured with brilliance. Take for example Mouth for War, the first track off Vulgar.. listen to how the riffs cycle through and then see how Phil lays his vocals over it, the build up, the verses and the choruses unfold over the same series of same riffs and yet it is never dull, its dynamic. Have a listen.
I really admire Cowboys.. and Vulgar.. to be frank, the other releases are not nearly as remarkable in my opinion. The riff ingenuity of Cowboys.. is remarkable. Notice how Dime adds all those little counterpoints at the end of almost every riff. He was a master, and the solos were the polish.
Obviously if you are drawn to the mood and style of darker genres of metal, as I prefer, Pantera just doesn’t have the depth and despair, or instrumentation, but you can’t really compare it because it’s a totally different style and approach, for sure, using the same instruments.
I’ve honestly tried that (for about 40s). If you’re interested in nice, harmless, bay area style thrash with a similar guitar sound, reassuringly delivered by band of grandpas who at least don’t sound as if they had to fight for every move because they’re hip deep in molasses, you could try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uIGjMEJZVw.
Pantera has excellence at the level of technique, no doubt, but fail to assemble that into anything but pop songs. Therein is the criticism: surface-level, shallow, sort of like AC/DC but without the organic sense of masculinity without blockhead aggression.
If you need to rape a donkey, Pantera is excellent music. If you want to be a well-rounded, thoughtful human being, it is the worst thing on earth. We never criticize Pantera enough for being the wrongheaded opposite of “gay,” which is blockhead fratboy get juiced and masturbate music. If only it had more homosexuality, it might improve Pantera.
While I really don’t like the music (or – more accurately – really don’t care about it), I nevertheless like to point out that this quite needlessly sexualised interpretation is entirely of your own making. Also, considering that there’s certainly no shortage of homosexual jackasses on this planet (I’m about 5’6″ and have on more than one occasion wished all these home(phobe|sexual) entities could sort out their difference with each other while leaving me alone without me having to resort to rather drastic actions) I doubt your conclusion: While people tend to make a big fuss about their current, sexual preferences, I doesn’t change or define them half as much as they seem to believe.