PANTERA - "A New Way Of Making METAL"! Page 2

"There's absolutely nothing that you wouldn't expect from Pantera," he reinforces with self-honed pride. "There's no rappin', there's no drum machines, it's three musicians and a bad-ass lead singer comin' atcha full on. We definitely have come up with some different sounds and some things that we haven't done in the past and I think some of the record is more in the groove-oriented vein of Vulgar Display Of Power and the heavier stuff is more in the vein of Far Beyond Driven. It's a combination of the two. To me, every song is killer. Put it on, drop the needle anywhere you want and there's something there that is going to move ya."

And as he speaks, the artwork decisions for the album is right in front of him. "I've got about eight ideas sitting right in front of me. About four of them I like, four of them I don't. My next phone is to call Elektra and pass a few things by them and I think by the end of next week we'll be completed settled on an album cover. We're on of those bands that is constantly hands on, and for that matter, we're always running right up to the deadline. We like to take as much time with it as we can. There's four of us and we want everybody to agree on it."

And the tour is "All set," Pantera set to bruise it's way around the world reinforcing their vision. "We start April 15 in London and we're going to start in Europe this time, which is something totally different that we've never done. Then we go to Japan in May and then we start on June 2 as the top-billed band on Ozzfest, besides Ozzy. Ozzy will be performing. It's a major with Ozzy and as far as I know right now there's Ozzy, Pantera, Slipknot, Powerman 5000 and a million other ones. So it's going to be one heck of an ass-kicking summertime bill. Then we start our own tour in September in the U.S., then we'll do Australia, South America. We're just going to keep kickin' as much ass as we can with this thing."