Available on Tuesday, May 20th, Harmonix today announced that the long awaited Pantera DLC will appear in the music store, and it is none other than ten tracks from “The Great Southern Trendkill“  from 1996.  The DLC will cost 1280 MSP for the entire offering, and 160 MSP a-la-carte.  Harmonix has released yet another full album of music that is sure to be a top seller.

• “The Great Southern Trendkill”
• “War Nerve”
• “Drag the Waters”
• “10′s”
• “13 Steps to Nowhere”
• “Suicide Note Pt. II”
• “Living Through Me (Hells’ Wrath)”
• “Floods”
• “The Underground in America”
• “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”

It’s really happening.  Drag the Waters!  War Nerve!  Flood!  That solo from Flood!  Those vocals from Flood!  Rock Band DLC is going to be on fire next week.  The fans have been waiting for over two years for this day to come, including us at MyGGGo.

Pantera is the modern American standard for Heavy Metal.  Formed in Texas in 1981 by original members Rex Brown, Diamond “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, they originally focused on the popular “Glam” scene of the day.  It was only after vocalist Phil Anselmo joined in 1987 and the band changed their sound to metal that the band gained any notoriety, particularly with 1990′s “Cowboys from Hell”.    The band followed up with chart-breaking album after album, not the least of which were ’92′s “Vulgar Display of Power” and ’94′s “Far Beyond Driven”.  By 1995 the group’s morale had hit an all time low – in fact Anselmo recorded all the vocals to “The Great Southern Trendkill” in a completely separate studio.   Although Pantera released nine studio albums, had several platinum albums (an achievement for any group, let alone a metal band) and countless world tours, the disharmony in the band caused the group to break up forever in 2002.  Tragedy struck again in 2004 when Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage while performing with his new band, Damageplan, which destroyed any hope of a Pantera reunion.  The band has since released a greatest hits album of sorts, in March of this year.

“Trendkill” is one of their masterpieces, and the only Pantera album I perfer to listen to in its entirety.  One track is notably missing, “Suicide Note Pt. I”, and I can only assume this is because of the diverse nature of the song which features 12-string acoustics, keyboards, and no electric guitar, or perhaps the fact that the band preferred to play this song over the P.A. in concert rather than try to play it live.  Instead we are given the bonus track, “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”.

Next Week’s Predictions:  It’s going to be 1992 all over again with music from Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots, all of which have new albums on May 25th.