WAR NERVE

Pretty sure I've mentioned on this blog before my roots in popular metal of the 90's. The first aggressive bands that I ever took interest in were typical 90's Roadrunner groups like Fear Factory and Machine Head. I still remember the day I bought my first ever metal CD's with my own money. They were "Astro Creep: 2000" by White Zombie (a record that I plan to obtain at some point), and this, "The Great Southern Trendkill" by none other than Pantera. Two years ago I posted about the reissues of the bands albums "Far Beyond Driven" and "Vulgar Display Of Power" when they were initially released, but to my dismay I wasn't able to speak about this record as it didn't get that reissue treatment at the time. Well Rhino Records finally decided to give this thing another shot this year. Beats paying upwards of $100 for an original. Not sure how this edition differs to the original, as this comes as a 2 x LP in a gatefold sleeve but I know that for the first time the track "Suicide Note Pt.1" has been included. For whatever reason it was omitted on the vinyl version the first time around. Probably a censorship thing, I remember being aware when I was a kid that it ruffled some feathers at some sort of corporate level.

Regardless of if I still pay much attention to this band these days or not and aware of how they're generally looked at by most punks as uncool, they'll always be a band that I regard highly. The ethos of the title alone dictated a massive part of my life as a youngster. Whether the band members themselves were just big rockstars making a good amount of cash or not, at the time I think I was too young to really understand the music business (do I "understand it" at this point?) and so as a result I hated just about everything that I regarded as the mainstream. To this day that attitude still resonates within me quite a bit and is likely the main reason why I'm so attracted to things like punk and anti social forms of music. I don't at all maintain any kind of a hero worship mentality when it comes to any bands that I love, but if there's any one musician that I would give a left nut to meet before I die, it would be Phil Anselmo. He wasn't a rockstar, just a social fuck up. He still is. I bet (and hope) he came up with the title for this album.