This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Slayer‘s Seasons In The Abyss. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 68 features comments from Gene Hoglan, Alan Tecchio, Dave Reffett, Jon Leon and Giovani Durst of White Wizzard, author Martin Popoff, Mitch Lafon of Pure Gain Audio, Andrew from Metal Assault, and Roch from Radioactive Metal. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.

Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.

Here are the written comments that were submitted:

Dan Lorenzo – Well I’ve been awake for 25 straight hours as I just flew home from Italy. So let me throw on some Slayer so I can stay awake a bit longer. Slayer to me, are one of the most consistent bands with the most integrity. I would put South of Heaven and Reigning Blood at the top of their output, but I am listening to Seasons right now for you Victor. War Ensemble is classic Slayer, particularly the break at 2:35. Blood Red is bad ass. The opening of Dead Skin Mask is pure evil. The title track is probably the 2nd coolest intro they ever wrote. When I first heard it I actually thought it was Trouble! Great production, great performances, a bit more melody/singing from Tom than previously, but another classic by….SLAYER!!!

Jon Leon – The finest hour of Slayer in the charts. Rick Rubin and the band dumbed down the sound JUST enough to crack Slayer in the Billboard top 100. Slayers best will always be Reign in Blood though….seriously. Show no Mercy also pisses on this album. So does South of Heaven. Then again…only Master of Puppets can even hang with those 3. Slayer are THE masters of thrash PERIOD.

Erik Kluiber – Born of Fire!

Ricky Armellino – This record ruled.

Mitts – An improvement in the thrash department from South Of Heaven. After Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven seemed like someone pulled the emergency brake. Seasons brought back the pace.

Scott Middleton – Most people will hail Reign in Blood as Slayer’s best record, but I had Seasons first, and really, this has all the best songs. The title track is certainly the catchiest and most hook laden Slayer has ever been. This is the Slayer sound perfected. Evil melody, brutally heavy, frightening lyrics, and terrifying artwork make this the quintessential Slayer record.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!

JL – Slayer have always been the exception. They have a lot of what I hate in other bands and yet how they present it they make it undeniably attractive. This album is a demonstration of full-fledged fierceness, from the very beginning “War Ensemble” it is clear exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Fer Fakyea – Well, what to say about the legendary Slayer? Their career spans nearly 30 years and with 10 albums behind him, all heavy and known for their uniquely characteristic “speed metal”. Seasons In The Abyss is composed of long, elaborate songs, combining speed with half time playing, that helped drive the band to the monster career they are today. The album isn’t as fast its two predecessors, but it’s definitely a very complete and extreme album that brought us classics like “War Ensemble”, “Dead Skin Mask” or one of his most emblematic yet perhaps less know tracks due to how stylistically different it is, would be the title track, “Seasons In The Abyss”. I honestly would not recommend the disc to someone who had never listened to Slayer, but it is an album that any fan of the band should have in collection.

David Lozano – Dead Skin Mask is the first song I ever heard by the band, as a result I have special attachment to this album. Great album that came out during such hard times.

Chris Shrum – A piece of metal art from a deep, dark place.

Mikey Pannone – The first time I heard this album, I had to check my skull to make sure it was still intact…it wasn’t. That’s all I have to say. None more evil than the almighty SLAYER!

Sean Bryant – So evil!! there were a few tapes that I had in my VW bug and those were Slayer, Seasons, Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy, and probably Lenny Kravits Let Love Rule, all of which got significant amount of play time. I can say that when Seasons came out, I was certain that they were products of an under-worldly creation, especially when you heard the demonic chords of the title track and that first drum roll. My steering wheel was certainly abused by the pounding out of the drums while blasting this, windows down, rolling through the Mormon neighborhoods. 666!!

Will Carroll – I never understood the popularity of this album. Aside from the two video songs (War Ensamble, Seasons In The Abyss) its pretty generic. The follow up (Divine Intervention) blows doors over this one This is my least favorite Slayer album not counting anything after Divine..

Steve Smyth – Slayer really grew into something with this album, I think. Lots of powerful compositions, great ensemble playing from the team of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo and Tom Araya. Every song is a favorite of mine, I can’t pick favorites when it comes to Slayer! Ha ha!

David Ellefson – We did a lot of touring together during this time period and I personally liked that Slayer was doing more than just playing fast. To me, this album showed a lot of maturity in their song writing and broadened their scope of world views, which Thrash fans love.

Domonic Rini – Seasons In The Abyss is a natural progression for Slayer. This one really, in my eyes was one of the heaviest ones they put out. With tracks of “Skeletons of Society” and the title Track “Seasons In The Abyss” it made you want to break something whenever you heard it.

Niek – I love this album for only one reason: the title track! What a delicious piece of ass! For a band that spent 99.9% of its career on making lightning-fast but not all too intelligent Thrash, the song Seasons in the Abyss is an absolute masterpiece. And it would have been for any other band too. The long-stretched tension-building intro has a habit of making me very impatient, in particular because I know what’s coming. But never is what’s coming so amazing as when you’ve listened to the intro in full. When the main riffs breaks loose, there’s no helping the headbanging. The progression of chords and vocals in the chorus is tasty as bacon. But the best things in the whole songs are the heroic drum fills by Dave Lombardo and the characteristic tearing-up-the-sky guitar solo by Kerry King (still with hair) and Jeff Hanneman.

Jason Bittner – Just spent the last 5 1/2 weeks on tour with Slayer watching them every night…Still one of my favorite bands ever and they still crush every night! Seasons- not much need to be said about this album- its my favorite!!! Well maybe “Reign” is, but this is damn close!

Davish G. Alvarez – This is my favorite Slayer album, we’ve been talking about covering the title track live. The song is unbelievable, and is possibly my favorite by the band. When this album came out I was listening to a lot of Mercyful Fate, I was looking to discover something new, and you hear that song how it builds, little by little, how the arpeggios come in, and the song keeps building, to me it’s the perfect song. They were playing the song live while we were opening up for them, and I watch them do the song, and get almost like a holy shit type feeling. You see them play the song, and the guitar parts aren’t that complex, but it’s the entire composition, the whole package, how it builds, and changes, and then the end, just an awesome song.

Erun Dagoth – This album really blew my mind. When I started listening to extreme metal I started with Life And Death and Show No Mercy by Slayer. I started listening to them in like 91, so by that time they had release a bunch of albums by then. I started listening to every album Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, all the way up to this album, and again, it just blew my mind. The album has a certain feel to it, a certain atmosphere that sound super satanic, especially the title track. At the same time I started discovering bands like Venom, and Bathory, and things of this nature, and it was like a extreme metal boom time for me. Then they put out Diabolus In Musica and it was the last album of theirs that really blew my mind. After that, things just weren’t the same, the band had changed. And a lot of people had criticized them over Divine Intervention because they had slowed down a little, but it still sounded really cool to me, it still had the same appeal.

Keith “Keefy” Chachkes – When the bands from the 80s Thrash scene era continued releasing albums into the 90s, and interesting split occurred among people. Many bands tried to shift with the already changing times in music to get further away from labels like Thrash or Speed Metal. Other bands were changing more naturally on their own, modernizing the sound of what had been a sub-genre with a growing cult following and making it more successful overall. SLAYER’s Seasons In The Abyss set a bench mark for the old-school American bands, which is saying a lot since both MEGADETH and ANTHRAX released great albums in the months prior to its release. Yes, there were unhappy fans griping that the totality of “Speed Metal” days of the band were lost to the past. Critics and fans that didn’t like South of Heaven, didn’t say they loved SITA when it was new. People were finding fault with a more grown up, better songwriting band that was trying to stay true to who they were and still progress further out. As it turns out SITA is one of the most complete and solid of the DAVE LOMBARDO albums, with better production, memorable riffs, sick solos and batshit insane, yet smart lyrics. “Dead Skin Mask” was even said to be a sellout by some at the time, but is one of the most enduring cuts by any band of the time. “War Ensemble” was a throwback to the early days of the group. Other tracks like “Spirit In Black”, “Expendable Youth” and “Skeletons of Society” have so much balls and groove to them, it’s tough to believe people at the time said they were lame. The title track is a masterpiece all on its own. Personally, I count SITA as one of the top four SLAYER albums ever and it still sounds fresh and vital to me today as when I first heard it.

Bruce Moore – I am a huge fan of Slayer especially their earlier material like Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits. Seasons In The Abyss is a mixed bag for me while it contains some of my favorite all time Slayer tunes War Ensemble”, “Dead Skin Mask”, and “Seasons In The Abyss other songs just fell flat for me and did not get my blood flowing.

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This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Suicidal Tendencies‘ self-titled debut. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 64 features comments from Charlie Benante, Gene Hoglan,  Alan Tecchio, author Martin Popoff, Mark Strigl from Talking Metal, and Aaron from Iron City Rocks. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.

This month we kick the comments off in a special way, Keith “Keefy” Chachkes of Metal Army America was nice enough to send us some regarding the album from ST frontman Mike Muir. This actually is part of a series Keefy has started over at Metal Army America called Conversations from the Crypt. Here are the excerpts that were sent along:

Asked about the DIY history of the band and carving out success

MM: “When we put out our first record. We had two labels call us about signing to a major. They both said ‘you have to change your name to sign with us’. They said ‘most of the stores won’t carry your albums because of your name.’ We said ‘forget that, we’re not changing our name!’ Then we put out our second record and we had eight labels call up. When we signed to CBS at the time, which became SONY, we were the first band ever in the history of that label to have it written in our contract that we had complete artistic control of the music, lyrics and artwork and if the label didn’t put our records out, we could leave the contract and still own everything. That’s how we were able to put out a record like (Controlled by Hatred)Feel Like Shit…Déjà Vu at the same time the PMRC was trying to whine and this and that. So we never had to submit any songs (to the label) or do anything like that.”

When asked about the legacy of the band after 30 years since the first record

MM: “When we first started off the punk magazines said ‘first record sucked, it was metal’. The metal magazines said ‘it sucked, it was punk’. Other than the skaters who were the first kind of people to get into us, nobody really like us. We didn’t have a built in audience to cater to, we built our own audience. We were able to get people that were really open minded. Consequently this really helped us out years later being able to play to really diverse crowds. We’re able to do a lot of things that other people haven’t, and it’s because we refused to kind of fit into to other people’s ideas of what success is. That is the most important thing. We did the right things and didn’t listen to the people who ‘knew what was going on.’ We were more concerned about the music than what other people wanted us to do. “

You can find the entire interview with Mike Muir here.

Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – Great fucking band, ahead of their time.

Greg Prato – I love punk rock (I’m talking real punk rock from the 1970′s and early 1980′s though – not the crap that MTV played after the fact), and some could say that ST’s debut was the last true classic punk rock release. It’s amazing how many of the melodies in these songs stick in your head INSTANTLY, while it’s still pretty darn vicious. And the video for ‘Institutionalized’ remains one of the best!

Jon Leon – Classic anthems all over this record. I hold it in high regard. Everytime I see them and Mike live-they really bring it. How can you not like ST-like Motorhead they just kill you with anthems and character. First ST like Ace of Spades is as essential as it gets.

Erik Kluiber – Favorite album by far is how can I laugh tomorrow.

Ricky Armellino – I seriously spent a week learning a few of their bass parts. I love Tendencies.

Mitts – Classic debut record from a highly underrated band. This came out during the peak of the “speed race” years. Metallica, D.R.I., S.O.D., and tons of other bands, in a competition to see who can play the fastest.

Scott Middleton – Suicidal Tendencies A Crossover classic that still holds up to this day. Mike Muir and Rocky George produced a record that actually bridged the gap between metal and punk, not to mention skate boarding and street gangs. No band has ever sounded anything like these guys, yet everything about this band has had huge influence on my own band and music.

Jaye Schwarzer – This record rules!! I used to listen to this a lot while my cousin was teaching me to skateboard. Shred!!

Scott LePage – DRI and Suicidal were my two favorite bands at the time this came out. This is my favorite Suicidal album still. Very powerful album with damn good production compared to the first albums of other bands around the same time.

JL – I found out about the band thanks to the skater videos I used to watch, every time I hear them I remember all of the good times I spent skating. Back then it was infinitely more difficult to get your hands on certain albums, when you’d get a hold of an album like this you’d play it like there is no tomorrow.

Jandro Storm – A friend gave me a tape that had Metallica’s 91 performance at Donnington. To “fill out” the tape he added side one of the first ST album. The first thing that came to mind was “this album is perfect to skate to”, I wasn’t all that off. Since then Suicidal Tendencies has become one of my all-time favorite bands. Not only because of their music, but because of what they represent.

Chris Shrum – Some of the best and funniest punk rock ever!

Sean Bryant – God damn this reminds me of skating so much. Getting rad, breaking shit, throwing skateboards through windows and pissing off the cops. We used to wear our tattered clothing and destroy our Chuck Taylors shoes every week. sorry mom. it truly was the music. you did a wonderful job, I swear!!

Will Carroll – This is an album which seems to me if you listen to thrash than you HAVE to like it. Well I’m not one of those people. Its OK but I have a copy of it (which a friend GAVE me) and I NEVER listen to it.

Steve Smyth – Total classic album by the masters of LA hardcore punk/crossover thrash, or whatever “genre” you want to call them. I had friends that were deep into the band at the time, and they got me into them. Institutionalized is of course is a classic, but what about Two Sided Politics, Subliminal, the ever borrowed from I Saw Your Mommy?

Domonic Rini – All I can say about ST in 1983 was: Mike Muir and crew was a genius at putting out the classic hit “Institutionalized”. The punk scene was in high gear and ST was trying to capture both the punk and the metal scene and their debut was able to get them into the mainstream punk scene and movement into the metal world. ST was very well known for their gear. The inverted cap lids with the scribed Suicidal Tendencies were everywhere. A great record for a wondrous period of time.

The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:

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This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Pantera‘s Far Beyond Driven. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 60 features comments from Rex Brown formerly of Pantera, and currently in Kill Devil Hill, Gene Hoglan, Alan Tecchio, Dave Reffett, author Martin Popoff, Mitch Lafon from Bravewords, and Aaron from Iron City Rocks. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.

Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – This is the album that made me a total Pantera fan, this, Vulgar, Cowboys, Trendkill, Steel… another band that inspired a thousand more…

Dan Lorenzo – Before I tell you my thoughts on this album I have to interject with one of my highlights of my musical career involving Pantera. Right after ‘Cowboy’s came out, my band NON-FICTION opened up for Pantera in NYC. I don’t even think I even met any of the members of Pantera that night. In all honesty I thought ‘CFH’ was a bit too derivative of Metallica when I first heard it. I fell in love with Pantera when ‘Vulgar’ was released. By that time NON-FICTION had gotten signed and I was in L.A. with Alan Tecchio doing press for the first NON-FICTION cd. At one point I went back to my hotel room and I found myself alone in the hallway. Phil Anselmo was walking towards me. I said, “Phil..I don’t know if you know who I am, I’m Dan from Non-Fiction.” Phil said, “Of course I know who you are.” Then he started singing “The My Way” (the first song off the first NON-FICTION cd ‘Preface’) at the top of his lungs. How cool is that? Anyway, Far Beyond Driven contains the songs, “I’m Broken” and “5 Minutes Alone”. Monstrous riffing. Incredible vocals. Barreling drumming. And they just ripped it up live. ‘Vulgar” is still my favorite Pantera cd, but Far Beyond Driven is “Far Beyond” anything new coming out today for sure.

Peter Ellis – By the time Far Beyond Driven came out Pantera was a beast of a band! Each member had found their place and was comfortable within the spectrum of the band and were comfortable taking their music to uncharted territories. Also this album features one of my all-time favourite covers, Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath. I honestly don’t think any other band on the planet could have done a better job than Pantera did covering this song. Phil Anselmo will always be the best extreme Metal singer in history and the reason no other hardcore singer can sound like him is the fact that HE COULD ACTUALLY SING!!! He didn’t get into screaming because he couldn’t sing well like 99.9% of screamers. One of my favourite albums by one of my favourite bands.

Jon Leon – Dimebag was a hero of 90′s metal guitar. That said….Pantera put out 3 albums that helped save metal in the 90′s, this one being the best of them. RIP Dimebag and Pantera will always be one of the all-time great heavier bands.

Erik Kluiber – must have seen Pantera 10 times between 93 and 95. They hit Detroit every few months. Their scene kinda turned less cool as time went on due to skin heads and jocks.

Phil Rind – Vulgar Display of Power is my favorite. I love the song “Rise”.

Mitts – Pantera’s best album. They were one of a few bands who kept metal alive through the 90′s era of grunge rock.

James J. LaRue – I got into Pantera with Vulgar Display. But I can’t stand phil’s voice or MMA/bro-down attitude. He ushered in a whole bunch of angry bros with thick necks shouting over stuff (“bro-cals”) and trying to be tough instead of learning proper vocal technique, but Dime was so great, and I suffered through the alpha male vocals because of that ultra-heavy guitar tone and wild leads. Once in a while I’ll throw this one on if I’m really really pissed. Anyways, I love Dime and his whole personality on the guitar and as a person. He had a huge effect on how I approach getting heavy tones. Pre-distortion EQ and solid state amps, later the tube Krank heads. He was friends and jam-buddies with another favorite player of mine, Blues Saraceno. I wish there was more recordings of Dime outside of Pantera. He was awesome.

Scott Middleton – Essentially Far Beyond Driven is the bench mark for modern heaviness and true attitude. Anything since has copied, borrowed, or stole something from this band. Straight up, this record is where 90% of metal and hardcore bands have stolen their tones from, whether they realize it or not! This band changed the way things were done, and no one since has put out a true metal record that really eclipses what this band accomplished. For christ’s sake it debuted at number one in ’94 when most metal bands couldn’t give away their records.

Jaye Schwarzer – The song ‘The Badge’ is a shredder of a tune that uses sound clips from the movie Taxi Driver. This record rips!! Dimebag Forever!

Seth Thacker – I personally think Pantera is the greatest metal band ever, always have and always will feel that way. I remember Far Beyond Driven being the first real metal record that I heard. It was so powerful, and it had so much attitude. It really opened me up to metal because up until then I really never cared for music of any kind. Once I discovered Pantera it was no holds barred on looking for other metal bands. Naturally I went backwards and discovered the previous records Pantera released. But Far Beyond Driven is probably one of my favorite records of all time. You just and beat it, the groove, the guitars, and Phil’s vocals just make for the perfect sound.

Scott LePage – Good Lord. This album is far beyond brutal. Especially for 1994 when most of the popular stuff was mid tempo grunge. I think I blew the tweeters in my car to this cassette. The riffs! And that clicky kick drum! My ears are still ringing….. Hold on, I’m gonna go put this on now!

Chris Biermann – Total fucking destruction in every note.

Jim Florentine – The heaviest album I ever heard at the time!

Raul L.R. – This sonic temple was released in ’94, it made clear to me that I would choose Pantera for life, instead of the metal gods like Metallica or Sepultura. I am no ashamed to say this. Phil Anselmo stands out, and is Darrell my favorite guitarist, I love the way his development of riffs and solos, the perfect balance, just perfect, just great, the whole album stands out, but to me tracks like 3 and 4 just shatter my brain, 5 Minutes Alone and I’m Broken, possibly because seeing the videos for this song really resonated and help form how I play guitar.

JL – With the “Vulgar Display of Power” Pantera were gaining considerable notoriety, which made many of us imagine that the next album would take advantage of the notoriety the band was having (with Vulgar Display). What happened was that none of us saw what was coming. As a result, the album is heavier, less polished, sharp as a razor, and powerful as a wrecking ball across the face.

Fer Fukyea – To begin I must say that Pantera is one of the best metal bands of all time, pioneers in this genre (abstain from mentioning Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and these sort of groups that do not belong to this style) and that have influenced probably 99% of the groups of metal today. What to say about “Far Beyond Driven,” well it is a very impressing, great album, the heaviest album they recorded up until then. It did not shake things up like when “Cowboys From Hell” was release, and won’t be remembered like “Vulgar Display Of Power”, but it is a tremendous album from start to finish. The Abbott brothers put together one hell of a set of song, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (guitar) and Vinnie Paul Abbott (drums), they demonstrate strength and incredible skill of the instrument on this album. Vinnie Paul does not need to play hundreds of notes per minute to back up a strong and brutal riff, and Dimebag … How original is the fucking man! Each song is different. I must say, while I am critical of James Hetfield (lead singer/guitarist of Metallica), and Phil Anselmo, lead singer of Pantera, I must say that in the studio he has a voice that varies between lower and higher registries, gravely and melodic, with impressive ease, but live, well, I do not know if he would have performed better sober, but he was drunk, almost always, and left much to be desired.

Jandro Storm – It was the album that we were all anxiously looking forward to hearing, after Vulgar Display Of Power. The truth is that nothing I was not disappointed and definitely put Pantera on my top 5 metal bands of the moment. I have the vinyl edition of this album, which has a different more explicit cover.

David Lozano – With Far Beyond Driven I discovered an energy in music that I had previously never experienced. They are definitely one of my favorite bands, and one that has influenced me a great deal as a musician.

Mikey Pannone – I honestly didn’t believe it was possible for any band to be THIS heavy. This album is the very definition of metal. Every song on this thing is like a natural disaster…tornado, hurricane, earthquake, volcanic eruption…all the above. R.I.P. Dimebag.

Owain Williams – One of the heaviest albums ever! Everything just sounds brutal. Except the bass drums. They sound like a typewriter! Haha. Throes of Rejection has to have one of the best Dime solos ever. I miss Dime.

Steve Smyth – Standout album from the legendary Pantera! You had the amazing chops of Dime and Vinnie, Rex holding it down, and Phil getting across all kinds of crazy sh*t vocally and lyrically! Awesome power on this album, in tracks like Strength Beyond Strength, Becoming, Five Minutes Alone, Shedding Skin, and their cover of Planet Caravan? A hard album to beat by a band on fire at the time, and in my opinion, I think they found it hard to follow as well…

Bat – I loved Vulgar display of Power and it has such great riffs and grooves and hooks. I found this album difficult to get into but I loved the version of “Planet Caravan” I was very lucky to meet and smoke spliff with Dimebag and Phil Anselmo in Dublin 93 just before this album came out

Clay Withrow – When Far Beyond Driven first came out it put Pantera on the map for a lot of metalheads. At a time when Korn and Limp Bizket were mainstream radio acts, most critics had given up on heavy metal thinking the audience had moved on. Thank god Pantera wasn’t led astray and continued to fly that heavy metal flag high. I honestly can’t think of many albums that top this, aside from the band’s later effort The Great Southern Trendkill. It’s a perfect mix of abrasive vocals, groovy rhythms, infectious guitar riffs and precision drumming. My favorite songs on that album would have to be “Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks” for its breathtaking solo and “Shedding Skin” for that insanely awesome opening verse. There’s no doubt in my mind Pantera is the most important metal band to come out of the 90s and one of the most influential heavy bands in history.

Kenny Pierce – Oddly enough by the time that “FBD” was released my interest was waning in Pantera. Having owned and loved “Cowboys From Hell” and “Vulgar Display Of Power” when they were released I was not prepared for the changes in the bands groove as this slightly new sound and direction were not my cup of tea. Back in the day this shift of interest was thanks to my switching over to more melodic Power Metal and believe it or not I sort of embraced the earliest providers of the Grunge Movement who were manifesting on that side of the USA. I felt that the strongest of the Hard Rock and Metal bands would survive that wave of “newness” that many felt was killing Metal, so while the USA moved to the plaid shirts my musical head turned to Europe where Power Metal continued to proliferate and dominate for many years. Looking back on “Far Beyond Driven” I can say that it was a solid album but not one of my favorites. I did enjoy the bands take on Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” of course and was shocked to see that one pulled out of the idea bank and delivered to fans.

Etan Rosenbloom – Far Beyond Driven was the first Pantera album I bought, and one of the first albums to spark my interest in the more extreme forms of metal. The album meant the world to me when I was a teenager and it still holds up. It’s got some of the band’s all-time grooviest riffs (“5 Minutes Alone,” “I’m Broken,” “Slaughtered,” “Shedding Skin”), and just as important, this was where Pantera embraced the swampy blues vibe that made them unique – “Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks,” “25 Years” and, especially, their cover of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” all pointed to a more nuanced, subtle approach to aggression than we’d heard from Pantera before, but also a nastier one – no wonder it was also the first Pantera record where our dear departed Mr. Abbott changed from “Diamond Darrell” to “Dimebag Darrell.” This must count as the heaviest album ever to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. Man…times have changed!

Grover XIII – When it comes to Pantera, Far Beyond Driven is a distant third behind Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power, but this album has some great tunes. The drumming on ‘Becoming’ is fantastic, and it took serious balls for these guys to cover a song like ‘Planet Caravan’, just because it’s so different from what they normally played.

Wayne Findlay – Far Beyond Driven is EPIC… Love that album.

Doug Gibson – Far Beyond Driven marked a noisier sound than the previous albums and it took me a while to warm up to it. “Becoming,” “Five Minutes Alone,” and “Becoming” were instant winners, and worth the purchase price alone. The latter half of the album pushed the boundaries a little more into noisier and more extreme sounds. Eventually, the entire album grew on me and is one of my all-time favorites, right behind Vulgar Display Of Power.

Jason Bittner – Great fuxking record by a great band- Becoming has one of the greatest double kick grooves ever by VP- the Bonham of groove metal!! Actually were in Australia now doing a lot of hanging together once again!! I met the Abbott brothers for the first time way back in 2004 when we toured with Damageplan- always straight up good dudes and never rock stars towards us!! Vinnie is the man, my bro-and we all still miss Dime every day! LITE ‘EM UP!!!

Jose Izquierdo – That’s the first album I heard by the band. A friend’s sister bought it for him on vinyl with the original cover. The first time I heard a song by the band was on the show El Pirata (famous metal show in Spain), I was sitting there with my brother, and my other brother and we all looked at one another and sort of said “What is this?” Getting back to my friend, his album is completely scratched, due to all of the times that we listened to the album. It was also the typical what is this reaction where the music just punches you in the face, and you’re trying to figure out exactly what you’re listening to. Planet Caravan winds things up perfectly, you really enjoy all of the other crushing tracks on the album, and then this track winds it all down perfectly.

Davish G. Alvarez I remember listening to Becoming for the first time and things, my god how is doing that. To this day, I don’t think I know exactly what he’s playing during that solo, I can’t play it exactly the same. You also have to look back and realize that with all of the Grunge that was being played at the time, they came out with a crushing album, heavy as anything, and it was the number one album. In reality I probably prefer Vulgar Display of Power, but this album was an evolution of the band, great, strong tracks throughout, even their cover of Black Sabbath’s Planet Caravan was incredible. It worked perfectly with the album, perhaps they put this cover on another album, and you sort of thing to yourself, what have you done? But it works on this album, it’s perfect.

Jorge Salan – Great album, Dimebag Darrell definitely had his own style, the way he played his solos, and in my opinion they created a style that so many others have followed. They have fans everywhere. I was actually invited to a Dimebag Darrell tribute in Madrid where I got to play Shattered, which is my all-time favorite track by the band.

Erun Dagoth – Crystal Moors lead singer Uruksoth brought this album to my attention, he’s a big thrash metal fan. He bought the album, and loved it, so I asked him to let me borrow it, since I was curious to hear what the band was all about. I also found it odd that a lot of people here in Santander (Spain) wore Pantera t-shirts. I listened to the album, and didn’t like it. Years later I asked to borrow the album again, and the same thing, I tried, and tried, but I just can’t get into them. They have songs that I think are really cool, and they’re all great players, but there is something about their style that I just can’t fully get into. They created their own style, which is very admirable, but they unfortunately don’t do anything for me.

The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

Podcast: Embed

Light Among Shadows –Lying Among Shadows
Noctem – The Arrival Of The False Gods
Sexplosion – She’s Ready To Lick
77 – Are You Ready For Rock N Roll
Nami – The Inner Man – Materia
The Eyes – Die To Rise
Arenna – The Strangest Of Lives
Haemorrahage – Open Heart Butchery
Gauntlet – In The Name Of ( )
Omission – Traitor
Vhaldemar – Arrows Flying High
Violent Eve – The Whisper Of The Shrouded Child
Steel Horse – Run To Survive
Crisix – Ultra Thrash
Angelus Apatrida – Clockwork
Clockwork – One Last Fight
Hannah – A Life In Rock Minor
Bifrost – Freedom
Crystal Moors – Circle Of The Five Serpents
Briargh – Cult Of The Ancient Oak
Moonshine – Into The Boundless Spheres
Bittencross – Summoning The Leviathan
Hell’s Fire – Lost Highway
The Revenge Of Hannya – Leave Behind
Rise Of Fury – Death Is Forever
Stunts – Medicine (A Brand New Day)
Khayman – God Is Redneck
Pray For Satan – Desert Highway 666
Masque Of Death – Abeyance
Face The Void – Sex Drugs And R’N’R
Wayne – Zenith

At 8PM EST / 5PM PST / 2AM CET you’ll hear the latest episode of the Mars Attacks Radio show. This episode contains a bunch of great bands from Spain, including 77, The Eyes, Arenna, Gauntlet, Omission, Vhaldemar, Crisix, Angelus Apatrida, Clockwork, Hannah, Bifrost, Crystal Moors, Bittencross, Hell’s Fire, The Revenge Of Hannya, and Wayne, etc. This actually forms part of a Spanish music special that will be spread out between Mars Attacks Radio (which includes hard rock and metal bands that sing in English), Fusion Sonica Radio (hard rock and metal in Spanish) and The Incoherent Rambling Of Victor M. Ruiz (some indie, some rock, some rap, etc. from Spain).

This page will serve as the index for the Classic Albums Column, you read a comment and want to know who that person is, where you can listen to their music, how follow them on twitter, Facebook, etc., come here to find all of the pertinent links associated to each of the posters.

Ted Aguilar – Guitarist for Death Angel
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Alex – Co-founder of Dose Of Metal
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube

David G. Alvarez – Guitarist for Angelus Apatrida
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Vinny Appice – Drummer for Kill Devil Hill, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell and Dio
Official Web Site
Official Kill Devil Hill Web Site
Official Black Sabbath Web Site
MySpace
Wikipedia

Ricky Armellino – Lead singer of This Or The Apocalypse
Facebook
MySpace

Steve Banks – Guitarist, lead singer and synth programming for The Freeze Tag Assassins
Facebook
MySpace
ReverbNation

Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal – Editor In Chief and host of Metal Assault
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter

Chris Barnes – Lead singer of Six Feet Under formerly of Cannibal Corpse
Official Web Site
MySpace
Wikipedia

Charlie Benante – Drummer of Anthrax and S.O.D.
Official Web Site
Official Anthrax Web Site
Facebook Charlie Benante Fan Page
Facebook Anthrax
Twitter Charlie Benante
Twitter Anthrax
MySpace Anthrax
Wikipedia

Chris Biermann – Guitarist, bass player, drum programming for The Freeze Tag Assassins
Facebook
MySpace
ReverbNation

Jason Bittner – Drummer of Shadows Fall
Official Web Site
Shadows Fall Web Site
Facebook Jason Bittner Fan Page
Facebook Shadows Fall
Twitter Jason Bittner
Twitter Shadows Fall
MySpace Jason Bittner
MySpace Shadows
Wikipedia Jason Bittner
Wikipedia Shadows Fall
ReverbNation
YouTube Jason Bittner
YouTube Shadows Fall

Jon Bodan – Guitarist of Halcyon Way
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace

Chad Bowar – Editor In Chief About.com Heavy Metal
Official Web Site

Sean Bryant – Bass player for Hull
Official Web Site
MySpace

Will Carroll – Drummer for Death Angel
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Keith “Keefy” Chachkes – Journalist at Metal Army America
Metal Army America Web Site

Metal Mike Chlasciak – Guitarist for Halford and Pain Museum former member of Testament and Sebastian Bach
Official Web Site
Twitter

Richard Christy – Drummer for Charred Walls Of The Damned, formerly of Death and Iced Earth
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace

Chris Czynszak – Host / Producer of The Decibel Geek Podcast
Official Web Site
Facebook

Erun Dagath – Guitarist of Crystal Moors, Bassist and vocalist of Moonshine, and Briargh, owner/producer of Khazad-Dûm Studio
Official Web Site
Crystal Moors Official Web Site
Moonshine Official Web Site

Glen Drover – Guitarist of The Glen Drover Band, formerly of Megadeth, King Diamond, Eidolon and touring guitarist for Testament
Official Web Site
Wikipedia

Shawn Duncan – Drummer of DC4
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
ReverbNation

Niek Elfreink – Editor In Chief of The Death Metal Baboon
Official Web Site
Facebook

David Ellefson – Bass player for Megadeth
Official Web Site
Official Megadeth Web Site
Wikipedia

Peter Ellis – Lead singer of Monument and formerly of White Wizzard and The More I see
Facebook
Monument Facebook

Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth – Lead singer of Overkill and The Cursed
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Anthony Esposito – Bassist for Ace Frehley and Pisser, formerly of Lynch Mob
Official Ace Frehley Web Site
Facebook Ace Frehley
Facebook Pisser
Twitter Ace Frehley
MySpace Ace Frehley
Pisser ReverbNation

Kevin Estrada – Photographer / Director
Official Web Site
Blog
Artist Direct

Fer Fakyea – Editor in chief Fakyea.com
Official Web Site
Facebook

Wayne Findlay – Guitarist / Keyboardist for Michael Schenker Group, Slavior and No Sky Today
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Reverb Nation

Jim Florentine – Comedian, co-host of That Metal Show
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube

Raul Galvan – Bass player and lead singer of Emboque
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Joel Gausten – Writer / Author former drummer of Electric Frankenstein, The Undead and Pigface
Official Web Site
MySpace
Louder Than Hell
Glory Is Noise
Lulu

Doug Gibson – Founder, Owner & Programmer of Metal Underground
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube

David Gonzalez – Guitarist of Face The Void
Facebook

Jane Alisabeth Grey – Lead singer of The Greatest Fear
Official Web Site

Aaron Griffith – Co-host of Iron City Rocks Podcast and editor of Signal To Noise
Iron City Rocks Official Web Site
Signal To Noise Official Web Site
Iron City Rocks Facebook
Iron City Rocks Twitter
Signal To Noise Twitter

Grover XIII – Editor In Chief at The Number Of The Blog
Official Web Site

Dustin Hardman – Web Promotion Manager for Frontiers Records US
Official Web Site

Gene Hoglan – Drummer of Fear Factory, Dethklok and Zimmers Hole formerly of Strapping Young Lad, Testament and Dark Angel
Official Web Site
MySpace
Wikipedia

Chris Howorth – Guitarist for In This Moment
Facebook
MySpace

Mark Hunter – Lead Singer of Chimaira
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Chimaira Twitter
Mark Hunter Twitter
You Tube
Wikipedia

Jose Izquierdo – Bassist for Angelus Apatrida
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Don Jamieson – Comedian and host of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show
Official Web Site
Wikipedia

JL – Guitarist of Wayne
MySpace

John Katic – Co-host of Iron City Rocks Podcast
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter

Bat Kinane – Guitarist of Glyder
Official Web Site
MySpace

Erik Kluiber – Guitarist of Gyspsyhawk formerly of White Wizzard, Overloaded, Scattered Hamlet and Shotgun
Facebook
MySpace

Raul L.R. – Guitarist of Marlenne
Official Web Site
MySpace

Mitch Lafon – Senior Writer and Photographer at Pure Gain Audio.com formerly of Bravewords.com
Official Web Site
Twitter

James J. LaRue – Lead guitarist of Vindicator, formerly of White Wizzard and Holy Grail
Facebook
MySpace

Gonzalo Leiva Palacios – Drummer of Encrucijada
Official Web Site
MySpace

Jon Leon – Bassist of White Wizzard
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Scott LePage – Guitarist of The Freeze Tag Assassins and Hades
Facebook
MySpace
ReverbNation

Dan Lorenzo – Guitarist of Hades, Non-Fiction and The Cursed
Official Web Site
MySpace

David Lozano – Guitarist of Propaganda
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace

Big Mario – Lead singer of Hell’s Fire
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube

Scott Middleton – Guitarist of Cancer Bats
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Militia – Lead vocalist for Judas Priestess and Swear On Your Life
Official Judas Priestess Web Site
Official Swear On Your Life Web Site
Facebook Judas Priestess
Facebook Swear On Your Life
Twitter Judas Priestess
Twitter Swear On Your Life
MySpace Judas Priestess
MySpace Swear On Your Life
YouTube Judas Priestess
ReverbNation Judas Priestess
ReverbNation Swear On Your Life

Mitts – Guitarist of Madball
MySpace
Roadrunner
Wikipedia

Bruce Moore – Host of Brutally Delicious
Offical Website
Facebook

Vince Neilstein – Editor In Chief Metal Sucks
Official Web Site

John Nymann – Guitarist of Y&T
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Tim “Ripper” Owens – Lead Singer of Charred Walls Of The Damned, Beyond Fear, Dio’s Disciples and Yngwie Malmsteen, formerly of Judas Priest and Iced Earth
Official Web Site
Official Ripper Owens’ Taphouse Web Site
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Mikey Pannone – Drummer of Benedictum
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Ted Parsons – Drummer of Necessary, Jesu and Teledubnosis formerly of Prong
MySpace
Facebook
Necessary MySpace
Jesu MySpace
Teledubnosis Official Web Site

Dani Perez – Drummer of Khael formerly of Skizoo, Saratoga, and Stravaganzza
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace

Doro Pesch – Lead singer of Doro
Official Web Site
Wikipedia

Ken Pierce – Editor In Chief of Piercing Metal
Official Web Site
Official Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Chris Poland – Guitarist of Ohm and Ohmphrey formerly of Damn The Machine and Megadeth
Official Web Site
Wikipedia

Martin Popoff – Writer / Author
Official Web Site

Pest – Lead singer for Gorgoroth
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Greg Prato – Writer / Author
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
UGO
LuLu Store Front
Amazon

Aquiles Priester – Drummer of Hangar formerly of Angra
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Domonic Rini – Program Director And Host of Maximum Threshold Radio
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter

Dave Reffett – Guitarist and lead singer for Shredding The Envelope
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Phil Rind – Lead singer and bass player of Sacred Reich
MySpace
Wikipedia

Etan Rosenbloom – Writer / Author for Decibel Magazine, MetalSucks.net
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace

Richard Royuela – Back Ground Noise Artist Rep and writer for Rock Hard Magazine
Official Web Site
MySpace

Angel Rubin – Lead singer of La Hermandad formerly of Agdar
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube

Jorge Salan – Guitarist for Jeff Scott Soto, his solo band Jorge Salan and formerly of Mago De Oz
Official Web Site

Brian Saunders
Official Web Site

Jessie Sanchez – Bassist of Bonded By Blood
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Ron Scalzo – producer, lead singer and keyboard player of Return To Earth and Q*Ball
Metal Blade
Return To Earth Official Web Site
Return To Earth MySpace
Return To Earth Facebook
Official Web Site
YouTube
Twitter

Jaye Schwarzer – Bass player of Cancer Bats
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Chris Shrum – Bassist of Benedictum
Official Web Site
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Steve Smyth – Guitarist of Forbidden, Sweet Leaf, Firehead and The EssenEss Project formerly of Nevermore, Vicious Rumors, Dragonlord and Testament
Official Web Site
Official Forbidden Web Site
Official The EssenEss Project Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Dave Starr – Guitarist/Bass Player Wildestarr formerly of Vicious Rumors
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace

Mark Strigl – Host/Co-host of Talking Metal, Talking Rock and The Mark Strigl Show
Official Web Site
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube

Jandro Storm – Drummer of Storms To Come
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace

Karl “Inski” Szulik – Guitarist of Divine Ascension
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
ReverbNation

Alan Tecchio – Lead singer of Autumn Hour, Hades, Non-Fiction formerly of Watchtower and Seven Witches
MySpace
Official Autumn Hour Web Site
Autumn Hour MySpace

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – Guitarist of Guns N Roses and of his own band Bumblefoot
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube
ReverbNation
Wikipedia

Seth Thacker – Guitarist of Straight Line Stitch
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Scott Thompson – Co-Host of Focus On Metal
Official Web Site
Facebook

Chris Tsangarides – Writer / Producer / Engineer / Mixer
MySpace
Wikipedia

Victor Valera – Drummer of Angelus Apatrida
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Tommy Victor – Guitarist/Lead Singer of Prong, Guitarist of Danzig and Ministry formerly of Rob Zombie
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia

Luke Wenczel – Drummer of Divine Ascension
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
ReverbNation

Owain Williams – Guitarist for Xerath
Official Web Site
Facebook
MySpace
Wikipedia

Kirk Windstein – Guitarist and lead singer of Crowbar, guitarist of Down and Kingdom Of Sorrow
Official Crowbar Web Site
Official Down Web Site
Facebook Down
Facebook Kingdom Of Sorrow
Twitter Crowbar
Twitter Down
Twitter Kingdom Of Sorrow
MySpace Crowbar
MySpace Down
MySpaceKingdom Of Sorrow
Wikipedia Kirk Windstein
Wikipedia Crowbar
Wikipedia Down
Wikipedia Kingdom Of Sorrow
ReverbNation Kingdom Of Sorrow

Clay Winthrow – Guitarist of Vangough
Official Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Vangough MySpace

Steve Zing – Bassist of Danzig and lead singer of Marra’s Drug formerly of Samhain, Son Of Sam and The Undead
Official Web Site
Twitter
MySpace
Wikipedia