Tags Matching: Down

Most people know that Pantera started off as a total glam band, but I remember finding this record at Fast Forward not long after ‘Cowboys From Hell’ came out and being totally shocked! I’m sure the records before this (without Phil on vocals) are even worse, but this one is not very good even by ‘Power Metal’ standards. My friends and I met Pantera outside a show in 1992 and asked Phil about this record and he got VERY angry and walked away from us… hahaha!

So sometime after the Power Metal record the Pantera boys decided to ditch the spandex and hairspray for camo shorts, facial hair & head tattoo. When I saw the video for Cowboys From Hell on Headbangers Ball I was hooked. In Hindsight the rest of the record is not great, but it did set up all the following realeases including the other 2 in this lot, The Great Southern Trendkill and Official Live 101 Proof, which is one of my favorite live records of all time (along with Kiss Alive II & Biohazard No Holds Bared)

During the time that Phil was with Pantera he had a side project called DOWN with Pepper Keenan from COC, Kirk Windstein from Crowbar, Jimmy Bower from EyeHateGod and was eventually joined by Rex Brown also from Pantera. DOWN was always an on and off band because everyone was always in other active bands, but they did manage to release 3 albums from 1995 to 2007 and are working on a 4th for hopeful release in 2011.

Suposidly the story behind Superjoint Ritual is it started out with Phil and a bunch of friends that just got together to smoke weed and then they started playing music. Most notable of this group of friends are Jimmy Bower from Eyehategod, Crowbar & Down and Hank Williams III. This is the first Superjoint record which I think is amazing, but the follow-up from a couple of years later was a huge letdown!

Southern Isolation was a mini sideproject that feature Phil on guitar & vocals along with his wife Stephanie Opal Weinstein also on guitar and vocals and Sid Montz from Crowbar on drums and all they released was this one EP on Phils label Housecore Records.

Viking Crown was another sideproject consisting mostly of Phil using his pseudonym Anton Crowley playing bass, guitar & drums, his wife using the name Opal Enthroned playing keyboards and Killjoy the singer of Necrophagia on vocals. The band recorded twice, once with Phil playing ALL the instruments and doing the vocals, but never actually played live.

Necrophagia was a death metal band from Ohio in the early 80′s that broke up in 1987. The singer Killjoy became friends with Phil and reformed the band with Anselmo in 1997. Once again Phil used his alter ego Anton Crowley and played guitar on 3 albums including this ep which was a tribute to the ‘horror’ movie of the same name.

Christ Inversion was another side project that I think consisted of pretty much just Phil to start. They recorded this one ep which came out once again on Phils Housecore Records, but I’m not sure if the recording features other musicians or if he played and recorded it all himself. This is actually the only one of these bands that I’ve never heard at all.

I believe that Arson Anthem is the only one of these bands (besides Down) that is still considered to be active. The band started when Phil had a friend staying at his house and they decided to start writing old style hardcore punk songs (with their own twist on them). The band consists of Phils friend Collin on bass, Mike Williams from EyeHateGod singing, Phil on guitar and Hank Williams III playing drums. They released this ep and suposidly have a second record coming out later this year.

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