Reinventing the Steel is the ninth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on March 21, 2000[1] through Elektra Records and East West Records. This was the last studio album Pantera released before their nineteen-year breakup from November 2003 to July 2022, and it is the band's final album to feature the Abbott brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, before their deaths in 2004 and 2018, respectively.
Background
Reinventing the Steel was produced by the Abbott brothers in addition to Sterling Winfield, making it Pantera's first studio album since 1988's Power Metal not to be produced by Terry Date.
In Australia, a two-disc "Tour Edition" of the album was released. The first disc consists of the album proper while the second is an unofficial hits compilation.
The album was reissued in October 2020 with extra discs including a new mix by Date and unreleased tracks to honor the album's 20th anniversary.[2][3]
Unlike other Pantera releases, two B-sides were recorded during the Reinventing the Steel sessions, those being "Avoid the Light" and "Immortally Insane", found on the Dracula 2000 and Heavy Metal 2000, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtracks, respectively.
Singer Phil Anselmo named Reinventing the Steel as his favorite Pantera album.[4]
Lyrics and style
Reinventing the Steel contains lyrics mostly about the band itself, as on "We'll Grind that Axe for a Long Time" (where the band members tell about how they have kept it "true" throughout the years, while many of their peers "sucked up for the fame") and "I'll Cast a Shadow" (about Pantera's influence on the genre). There are also songs about their fans, like "Goddamn Electric" and "You've Got to Belong to It". "Goddamn Electric" mentions Black Sabbath and Slayer, two of Pantera's main influences. The solo for "Goddamn Electric" was recorded by Kerry King in a bathroom after Slayer performed at Ozzfest in Dallas on July 13, 1999.[5] The band members dedicated Reinventing the Steel to their fans who they viewed as their "brothers and sisters".
Artwork
The cover art is by Scott Caliva (1967–2003), a friend of Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo. Caliva took the photo of a partygoer at Anselmo's house jumping through a bonfire clutching a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey. The bottle is pixelated on the cover so the label would not be visible, to avoid trademark infringement.
The 20th Anniversary Edition cover art was only made with the steel marking background, along with the logo and the album name similar to their 1990 album, Cowboys from Hell.
Reinventing the Steel reached number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, number 8 on the Top Canadian Albums chart, and number 5 on the Top Internet Albums chart. It held its position in the Billboard 200 for over 12 weeks. The record sold more than 161,000 copies in its first week of release.[14] The album's fifth track, "Revolution Is My Name", reached number 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on May 2, 2000,[15] however, it has yet to reach platinum status, making it Pantera's only major-label studio album not to reach sales of 1,000,000.
In a 2022 interview with Gibson TV, Rex Brown blamed the album's lacklustre success compared to the band's previous albums on the dominance of the nu metal genre at the time of its release.[16]
Reception
The album was generally well received upon release, though reviews were less enthusiastic than on their previous albums. Rolling Stone gave the album a score of 3.5/5, and called it "Metal-revivalist....relying on the genre's primal elements of rage and analog noise...chopped up with squealing dissonance....brutal enough to please underground purists and familiar enough for weekend headbangers."[13]Entertainment Weekly stated that it "...resumes their scorched-earth policy with vigor....dropping aural anvils [along] with a dash of inventiveness..."[11]
Q magazine gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said it was "Pantera's attempt to upgrade [Judas Priest's] British Steel-era pure metal spirit."[7]Alternative Press echoed this sentiment, calling it "An undiluted, unvarnished slab of riffs paying distinct homage to Judas Priest's British Steel, and not just in a titular sense, but in basic song construction."[7]AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, and stated "Reinventing the Steel is a nonstop assault on the senses, offering no respite from the intensity until the album has stopped playing. Yet somehow, it comes off as a cut below their best albums; perhaps it's that the band's sound lacks the sense of freshness that sparked Cowboys from Hell, Vulgar Display of Power, and Far Beyond Driven."[17]
Accolades
In the 2000 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards, the album was voted "Album of the Year" and "Album Cover of the Year" (tying with Iron Maiden's Brave New World for the latter), while the single "Revolution Is My Name" won "Song of the Year".[18]
The album was ranked at No. 2 on Guitar World's Readers Poll for "The Top 10 Guitar Albums of 2000".[19]
A section of "Death Rattle" was rerecorded and renamed to “Pre-Hibernation” for the 2001 episode of SpongeBob SquarePants called "Pre-Hibernation Week".[20] The song appears in the SpongeBob Original Theme Highlights album.
Track listing
All credits adapted from the original CD issue.[21]
Released in October 2020, The 20th Anniversary Edition of Reinventing the Steel includes re-mixes of the tracklist done by longtime Pantera producer Terry Date, as well as singles that were previously not released on any studio albums also remixed by Terry Date, radio edits of album tracks, and instrumental rough mixes of the album's original tracks.
All tracks are written by Pantera (except where noted)
Disc one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Hellbound (2020 Terry Date mix)"
2:41
2.
"Goddamn Electric (2020 Terry Date mix)"
4:56
3.
"Yesterday Don't Mean Shit (2020 Terry Date mix)"
4:19
4.
"You've Got to Belong to It (2020 Terry Date mix)"
4:13
5.
"Revolution Is My Name (2020 Terry Date mix)"
5:15
6.
"Death Rattle (2020 Terry Date mix)"
3:17
7.
"We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time (2020 Terry Date mix)"
3:44
8.
"Uplift (2020 Terry Date mix)"
3:45
9.
"It Makes Them Disappear (2020 Terry Date mix)"
6:21
10.
"I'll Cast a Shadow (2020 Terry Date mix)"
5:22
Disc two
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Hellbound (2020 Remaster)"
2:41
2.
"Goddamn Electric (2020 Remaster)"
4:56
3.
"Yesterday Don't Mean Shit (2020 Remaster)"
4:19
4.
"You've Got to Belong to It (2020 Remaster)"
4:13
5.
"Revolution Is My Name (2020 Remaster)"
5:15
6.
"Death Rattle (2020 Remaster)"
3:17
7.
"We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time (2020 Remaster)"
3:44
8.
"Uplift (2020 Remaster)"
3:45
9.
"It Makes Them Disappear (2020 Remaster)"
6:21
10.
"I'll Cast a Shadow (2020 Remaster)"
5:22
11.
"Goddamn Electric (Radio Mix)"
4:57
12.
"Revolution Is My Name (Radio Edit) [2020 Remaster]"
