Reinventing the Steel

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Reinventing the Steel
Pantera Reinventing the Steel.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 21, 2000 (2000-03-21)
Recorded1999–2000
GenreGroove metal
Length43:53
LabelEast West
Producer
Pantera chronology
Official Live: 101 Proof
(1997)
Reinventing the Steel
(2000)
The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!
(2003)
Pantera studio album chronology
The Great Southern Trendkill
(1996)
Reinventing the Steel
(2000)
Singles from Reinventing the Steel
  1. "Revolution Is My Name"
    Released: January 23, 2000
  2. "Goddamn Electric"
    Released: March 17, 2000
  3. "I'll Cast a Shadow"
    Released: June 16, 2000
  4. "Hole in the Sky"
    Released: November 21, 2000 (Japan)

Reinventing the Steel is the ninth and final studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on March 21, 2000[1] through East West Records. It was reissued in October 2020 with extra discs including a new mix by Terry Date and unreleased tracks to honor the album's 20th anniversary.[2][3]

Background[]

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.

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.

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 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.

Reception[]

Commercial performance[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3/5 stars[4]
Alternative Press5/5 stars[5]
The Austin Chronicle2/5 stars[6]
Blabbermouth.net8/10[7]
Chronicles of Chaos7/10[8]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[9]
NME6/10[5]
Q3/5 stars[5]
Robert Christgau(dud)[10]
Rolling Stone3.5/5 stars[11]

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 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,[12] 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.

Review scores[]

Rolling Stone (5/25/00, p. 73) – 3.5 stars out of 5 – "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."[11]

Entertainment Weekly (3/24/00, p. 102) – "...resumes their scorched-earth policy with vigor....dropping aural anvils [along] with a dash of inventiveness..." – Rating: B+[9]

Q magazine (6/00, p. 112) – 3 stars out of 5 – "Pantera's attempt to upgrade [Judas Priest's] British Steel-era pure metal spirit....unequivocal heavy metalness."[5]

Alternative Press (7/00, pp. 108–9) – 5 out of 5 – "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."[5]

CMJ (4/3/00, p. 32) – "Crammed with everything they've used to revolutionize metal....so old-school it could have been easily made in between the quartet's back-to-back classics."[5]

NME (4/15/00, p. 34) – 6 out of 10 – "An unfashionably old-school metal album....it's Pantera's bid to herald the rebirth of bullet-belt, cut-off denim metal....It's a solid album, oozing drunk-as-hell metal spirit."[5]

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".[13]

"Revolution Is My Name" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2001, but lost to Deftones' "Elite".

The album was ranked at #2 on Guitar World's Readers Poll for "The Top 10 Guitar Albums of 2000".[14]

A section of "Death Rattle" was used for the 2001 episode of SpongeBob SquarePants called "Pre-Hibernation Week".[15]

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by Pantera[16].

No.TitleLength
1."Hellbound"2:41
2."Goddamn Electric"4:56
3."Yesterday Don't Mean Shit"4:19
4."You've Got to Belong to It"4:13
5."Revolution Is My Name"5:15
6."Death Rattle"3:17
7."We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time"3:44
8."Uplift"3:45
9."It Makes Them Disappear"6:21
10."I'll Cast a Shadow"5:22
Total length:43:53
Japanese edition bonus track
No.TitleLength
11."Hole in the Sky" (Black Sabbath cover)4:17
Total length:48:10

Personnel[]

Pantera

Additional musicians

Technical

  • Sterling Winfield – production, engineering, mixing
  • Dimebag Darrell – production, engineering, mixing
  • Vinnie Paul – production, engineering, mixing
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering

Charts[]

Weekly[]

Chart (2000) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[17] 2
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[18] 26
Canadian Albums Chart[19] 8
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[20] 55
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[21] 3
French Albums (SNEP)[22] 21
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[23] 18
Irish Albums (IRMA)[24] 31
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[25] 10
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[26] 14
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[27] 27
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[28] 84
UK Album Chart[29] 33
US Billboard 200[19] 4

Singles[]

Song Chart (2000) Peak
position
"Revolution Is My Name" US Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 28
UK Rock Chart 20
"I'll Cast a Shadow" 15

References[]

  1. ^ "pantera.com". Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  2. ^ "PANTERA: 'Reinventing the Steel' Expanded 20th-Anniversary Reissue Details Revealed". September 10, 2020.
  3. ^ https://panterastore.com/
  4. ^ Huey, Steve. "Reinventing the Steel – Pantera". AllMusic. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Pantera – Reinventing the Steel CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  6. ^ Renshaw, Jerry (May 5, 2000). "Review: Pantera Reinventing the Steel (EastWest) – Music". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  7. ^ Krgin, Borivoj. "Pantera – Reinventing the Steel". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  8. ^ Schwarz, Paul (August 12, 2000). "Pantera – Reinventing the Steel : Review". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Hiltbrand, David (March 24, 2000). "Reinventing the Steel Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 13, 2012.
  10. ^ Christgau, Robert. "CG: Pantera". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Diehl, Matt (May 25, 2000). "Pantera: Reinventing The Steel : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  12. ^ Pantera at the RIAA's Gold & Platinum Program database
  13. ^ Metal Edge, June 2001
  14. ^ http://www.guitarworld.com/readers-poll-results-top-10-guitar-albums-2000#slide-8
  15. ^ "Remember when Pantera were featured on that episode of Spongebob?". Alternative Press. March 30, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  16. ^ Reinventing the Steel liner notes. Warner Music Group. 2000. p. 2.
  17. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  18. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b "Reinventing the Steel [Amended Version] – Pantera". Billboard.
  20. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  21. ^ "Pantera: Reinventing The Steel" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  22. ^ "Lescharts.com – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  23. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  24. ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Pantera". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  25. ^ "Charts.nz – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  26. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  27. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  28. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Pantera – Reinventing The Steel". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  29. ^ Zywietz, Tobias. "Chart Log UK: Rodney P. – The Pussycat Dolls". Zobbel. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
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