ARTIST: Pantera 
TITLE: The Great Southern Trendkill
YEAR RELEASED: 1996
CHART ACTION: #4 US, #17 UK
SINGLES: Drag the Waters, Suicide Note Pt. 1, Floods
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: If you bought it, you know it. Otherwise, no.
LINEUP: Phil Anselmo, Dimebag Darrell, Rex Brown, Vinnie Paul
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: An even louder and aggressive record than the other 90’s Pantera albums, except for the ballads.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Starting out with a hearty GROWL from Phil Anselmo, Pantera’s fourth major label album is loud and angry. Sometimes that’s all you need from metal, but, in this case it’s not
The songs that have a memorable riff and melody (well, as melodious as Anselmo gets) and hook are right there with the best of their tracks. That’s only a couple. The rest of the aggressive ones are just a blur of volume.
The ballads get them encroaching on Alice in Chains territory that doesn’t really bring out the strengths of the group (which in my ears are all metal). And that makes a track like “Floods” a bit schizophrenic, with a definite mellow kind of vibe, then it hits you over the head in kind of an abrupt transition.
It’s not bad, I’m not going to lie. But it’s something that won’t be on my regular rotation.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: The band was fighting among themselves, so Anselmo did his vocals in another studio away from the rest of the group.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: A live track in Japan, and an anniversary edition, of course.
GRADE: C+: I’m not feeling this one.
