PANTERA - Drummer Vinnie Paul Says That All The Band's Releases Will Receive 20th Anniversary Treatment

August 28, 2010, 14 years ago

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Legendary US southern trend-killers PANTERA are celebrating the original release of Cowboys From Hell with a 20th Anniversary Edition due out on September 14th via Rhino. An Ultimate Edition of the album will be available on November 23rd. BraveWords.com spoke with drummer Vinnie Paul (HELLYEAH) about the landmark release and he revealed that all Pantera albums will be treated similarly.

"We plan on doing this with all the Pantera releases as they come up on the 20th year," Paul mentioned while discussing the Cowboys From Hell anniversary. Which means 1992's Vulgar Display Of Power is up next. "We've got two years to go for that," he laughs, "but I know that it's already in motion and there's another track that we discovered that we never put on the record. It will have one more jam that nobody has ever heard. We were always a band that believed when it came to song-writing it was all about quality and not quantity. A lot of bands would write 40 songs to see if they have ten good ones to put on the record. We wrote what was on the record - ten or eleven and that was it. We rarely had any extras and that's why there hasn't been any hidden b-sides or anything like that. 'The Will To Survive' (one of the unreleased tracks on the Cowboys From Hell 20th Anniversary) came up and then this other one that's going to be included on the Vulgar package. So there will be something new on there that people haven't heard."

Stay tuned for more of BraveWords.com's chat with Vinnie Paul as well as former singer Phil Anselmo (DOWN) in the upcoming weeks.

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Pantera will be premiering the track 'The Will to Survive' on their official Facebook Page at Noon EST on August 30th. Stay tuned for more details.

Pantera found its growl and groove on Cowboys From Hell, a landmark album whose bone-powdering intensity, razor-sharp riffing and pummeling rhythmic assault represented a turning point in modern metal when it was released in 1990. More than just Pantera's major label debut, many consider this album to be the official debut of the Pantera lineup with singer Philip Anselmo, guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul and bassist Rex Brown.

As mentioned above, the 20-year anniversary of Cowboys From Hell, Rhino has roundes up a three-disc Ultimate Edition, a three-disc Deluxe Edition, and a two-disc Expanded Edition. All three editions include a newly remastered version of the original album along with unreleased and rare live performances from the Cowboys From Hell tour. The Ultimate and Deluxe editions will also feature a disc of unreleased demos for nearly every album track, plus, 'The Will To Survive', a previously unreleased song recorded during the album's sessions.

"'The Will To Survive' is a great track. With so many killer songs, it was hard to pick and choose the ones that should make our major label debut," says Vinnie Paul. "After hearing it for the first time in about 20 years, it's a pretty stellar performance and I am definitely proud that it will see the light of day for all the die-hard Pantera fans around the world! It shows the true musical diversity of the band at that time!"

The Ultimate Edition will feature all three discs included in the Deluxe Edition and will be housed in an intricate box including several replica memorabilia pieces from the Cowboys era.

Along with the remastered version of Cowboys From Hell, all three sets include a disc of live music recorded during the tour for the album. It begins with seven unreleased performances from Pantera's September 15, 1990 appearance at the Foundations Forum metal convention in California, a show recorded for radio broadcast but never released commercially. The remainder of the disc contains the five-song EP Alive And Hostile, a collection of performances recorded in 1991 at the Monsters of Rock festival in Moscow that was previously available only in Australia as part of a 1994 boxed set.

The Ultimate and Deluxe editions of Cowboys From Hell include a third disc that contains the previously unreleased 'The Will To Survive', along with demos for ten of the album's 12 songs, including early versions of the title track 'Psycho Holiday', 'The Art Of Shredding' and 'Cemetery Gates'.

After being turned down "twenty-eight times by every major label on the face of the earth," ATCO Records A&R; rep Mark Ross saw the band when Hurricane Hugo stranded him in Texas. The rest, as they say, is history, including another seven years and over a million miles of touring for Cowboys to be certified platinum (one million album sales) by the RIAA.

The album's liner notes include essays by each of the band's surviving members, producer Terry Date, and the aforementioned Ross. Recalling the first time he saw Pantera, Ross writes, "By the end of the first song, my jaw was on the floor. The sonic power of it all - the attitude and the musicianship - blew me away. Basically, you had to be an idiot to not think they're amazing. I mean, how could you see these guys and not think, holy shit!?"

Cowboys From Hell 20th anniversary reissue track listing:

Disc One - Ultimate, Deluxe, and Expanded Editions

'Cowboys From Hell'

'Primal Concrete Sledge'

'Psycho Holiday'

'Heresy'

'Cemetery Gates'

'Domination'

'Shattered'

'Clash With Reality'

'Medicine Man'

'Message In Blood'

'The Sleep'

'The Art Of Shredding'

Disc Two - Ultimate, Deluxe, and Expanded Editions

'Domination' (live) *

'Psycho Holiday' (live) *

'The Art Of Shredding' (live) *

'Cowboys From Hell' (live) *

'Cemetery Gates' (live) *

'Primal Concrete Sledge' (live) *

'Heresy' (live) *

'Domination' (live, Alive And Hostile EP) +

'Primal Concrete Sledge' (live, Alive And Hostile EP) +

'Cowboys From Hell' (live, Alive And Hostile EP) +

'Heresy' (live, Alive And Hostile EP) +

'Psycho Holiday' (live, Alive And Hostile EP) +

Disc Three - Ultimate and Deluxe Editions Only

'The Will To Survive' *

'Shattered' (demo) *

'Cowboys From Hell' (demo) *

'Heresy' (demo) *

'Cemetery Gates' (demo) *

'Psycho Holiday' (demo) *

'Medicine Man' (demo) *

'Message In Blood' (demo) *

'Domination' (demo) *

'The Sleep' (demo) *

'The Art Of Shredding' (demo) *

* Previously unreleased

+ Unreleased in North America


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