Book Review: Reinventing Metal
Katie 
Reinventing Metal is the true story of Pantera and the tragically short life of Dimebag Darrell.
If you come to my page often you know that what I listen to is certainly not metal. I have heard of Pantera and the news when Dimebag Darrell was killed, but I don’t know that I could name you any of their songs or even know what their songs are if I heard it. But I always like reading music biographies to find out more and that is why I chose to check out this book.
The book is broken up in to 3 parts – The Glam Metal Years, Southern Cowboys from Hell and The Great Southern Trend Killers.
The story is how they formed, changes in band members and then their eventual signing and major label release. It also talks a bit about how in the early 90s, Metal began to be overtaken by the whole grunge music scene.
In 2003, the band broke up after a series of issues with communication between band members and various side projects that were popping up. They released a best of compilation CD.
A year later, Dimebag Darrell was tragically killed by a disturbed “fan”.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Pantera is widely regarded as one of the most influential and revered American metal bands of the past 20 years. Although its output was relatively short – from 1983 to 2000 it released only nine studio albums – its impact on the metal scene since the band split up in 2003 is still felt to this day. Guitarist Dimebag Darrell was tragically killed in 2004 but his legacy remains undiminished.
Pantera had an enormous influence on nu-metal, groove metal, metalcore, and grindcore and continues to be publicized and written about. Its 1990 breakthrough album Cowboys from Hellis still regarded as one of the greatest metal albums in history, as is Pantera’s sixth opus,Vulgar Display of Power.
Previously, the band had been associated with the glam metal scene, but as 1987 saw the release of many important thrash albums by such bands as Slayer and Metallica, Pantera recruited underground metal fan Phil Anselmo and changed its image and sound to something more aggressive, becoming a thrash-groove metal crossover band.
With a wide array of research and many first-hand interviews with those who knew the group well, Reinventing Metal is an unauthorized, first-ever biography that focuses on the entire band – from its Texas high school start to the global mega-success that anchored Pantera as one of the most important metal names ever.