Far Beyond Driven

Almost certainly the noisiest, ugliest album to ever top the Billboard charts, Pantera’s sequel to Vulgar Display Of Power was a squalling, rattling, skull-bashing collection of songs that seemed to move thrash beyond the realm of rock ’n’ roll into some kind of hellish netherworld of industrial-sounding squeals (Dimebag Darrell’s pinch harmonics sound more like an angle grinder attacking a steel beam than a guitar) and dry, punching percussion. Vinnie Paul’s drums are mixed with an ultra-dry precision that keeps every hit separate, striking you like bullets. It’s frequently slower and doomier than Vulgar Display, too, but morose dirges like “Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks” and “25 Years” are balanced by the ferocious assault of “Becoming,” “I’m Broken,” and “Use My Third Arm.”