Tuesday, July 17, 2001 | 8:18 a.m.
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It's easy to pick on Metallica at the moment.
Even though it just recently settled its lawsuit with Napster over the free downloading of the metal act's music, the fact Metallica even took a pro-record label stance against the song-swamping service irritated many fans.
The resulting public outcry didn't go unnoticed by other artists either.
"I'm just glad it was their stick and not ours," Pantera drummer and pseudo-spokesman Vinnie Paul said.
Calling recently from a hotel room in Grand Rapids, Mich., where the band was performing, Paul called Metallica's war on Napster a "double-edged sword."
"I remember being a kid and getting bootlegged Kiss albums and things for free that were really cool," he said. "I've yet to meet a single person on the face of this Earth who doesn't enjoy getting something for free. But at the same time, if McDonald's started giving away hamburgers, they wouldn't stay in business very long.
"It's one of those things where it's really hard to take a side. I understand the fans' side of it, but I'm also a musician and that's how I make a living, so I understand that side of it, too."
Does Paul feel that Metallica made a mistake?
"Metallica did what they felt like they needed to do," he said. "I'm sure when their next album comes out it'll sell six or seven million (records) just like all of them, whether they attack Napster, MTV or whomever."
Nonetheless, don't look for any overt stance from Pantera in the near future. Paul said the band steers clear of political or controversial issues.
"We're just a rock 'n' roll band and we have fun doing what we're doing," he said.
The strategy has proven successful thus far.
Headlining the "Extreme Steel Tour," which on Wednesday stops at the Thomas & Mack Center, the bill features four other metal acts, including Slayer and Static-X.
But don't be fooled: It's Pantera's show all the way.
A darker, less pretty-boy version of Metallica, Pantera is speed metal with less polish and flash. It's hardcore headbangin' without the perfectly moussed hair and zebra-skin tights.
It's music for the people, by the people.
In fact, being metal's equivalent to blue collar is something the Dallas quartet prides itself on, especially considering its past.
Formed in the early '80s at first Pantera was nothing more than its hair-band idols, such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.
"We were 14 years old at the time and that's when we started out," Paul, 37, said. "You start out emulating your heroes, and then you get to the point where you're writing your own songs and you really discover yourself. We realized that magic clothes and magic hair don't play music, we do. So we ditched the image thing and just went of the straight-forward rock thing. And that's when things started coming together for us."
As Pantera got recognition -- all on word-of-mouth since radio and MTV wouldn't touch the group (too loud for radio; not pretty enough for MTV) -- the band was placed in a position as opening act for many of the groups it had grown up listening to -- which wasn't as glamorous as it sounds.
"There were experiences on the way up when we'd been treated less than anything ... here and there on a tour. People who really had rock-star attitudes and we just told ourselves upfront that we're never going to be like that," Paul said. "We're going to be down to Earth, we're going to be the same people we were before all this happened to us. And anytime we tour we do our best to make sure all the bands feel at home."
Playing on the road all the time paid off when, in 1994, Pantera's third album, "Far Beyond Driven," debuted at No. 1. A development that "completely shocked the music industry," Paul said.
It also helped prove that country acts aren't the only performers coming from Texas.
"I just think it made people aware that music comes from all different places," Paul said, and not just the East and West Coasts.
"When we first got our record deal, it took us seven years to get it. It was like next to impossible to get your foot in the door because the whole music scene is really based in Los Angeles or New York," he said. "Unless you live there you can't beat down the door every day and you can't run into A&R people and they can't come to your shows all the time. It's a more difficult place to get recognized."
And now 14 years later, as one of the premiere metal acts, Pantera has inspired many of today's headbangin' bands.
"I understand now how it feels when the bands like the guys from Static-X, all these bands on our tour, come up (and say), 'Pantera's the reason why I play music ... that was the first record I ever bought,' " Paul said. "If we hadn't had the opportunity to get to play with Judas Priest, Kiss or Black Sabbath, I probably wouldn't know how to take all that. It might make me feel like an old man or something.
"But I understand. Music is a chain. It was great to be able to do that to my heroes."
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