In this Unknown Music Thursday blog, we are going to get into solo record from former lead singer of Pantera.  I am talking about Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals and their record Walk Through Exits Only.  We will get into the history of the band and then the music.  Let us get into the history.

History:

Phil Anselmo joined Pantera in 1987.  The rest is history for this great 1990’s power house.  Pantera had several hits in mainstream and several in metal world.  Towards the middle of 1990’s with Pantera, Phil joined a super group called Down in 1991.  It was a side project but later become his main band.  Down had a few hits in the metal world.  In 2003, Pantera broke up and that led to the shooting and death of one of the founding members of Pantera, who was Dimebag Darrell in 2004.  There has been rumors after rumors of reuniting of Pantera.  It might never happen.  Down was his main band until Superjoint Ritual was formed early 1990’s but did not release their records until early 2000’s.  In 2011, Phil decided to work on a solo record and it was later released in 2013.  Let us get into the music.

Song List:

Music Media Is My Whore

It has a nice heavy and fast pace guitar.  Nice drumming with well written bass playing.  I love the pace.  It reminds me of a faster heavier Pantera.  I love the lyrics and singing.  I love the guitar solo towards the middle of the song.   The singing and some of the music reminds more as his days in the band called Down.  This is a great opening track.

Battalion Of Zero

The music from the second track is just as fast and heavy as the opening track.  I love the pace and the singing.  I love the touch of the effects on this vocals.  I love the drumming and bass playing.  The guitar playing sounds the same as the first track.  Phil has written some nice lyrics on “Battalion Of Zero.”  The ending is pretty interesting.  It has a nice creepy piano playing.  I like it.

Betrayed

“Betrayed” is slower than the first two songs.  I love the pace.  This song sounds different from the first two songs.  I love the guitar playing.  Phil singing great with some great lyrics.  There is a nice guitar solo towards the middle of the song.  To me, it sounds like the guitar player is playing the same riff over and over again through the song.  They could not write another few riffs to break it up.

Usurper Bastard’s Rant

This song is beyond fast.  It is a little  too fast for my taste.  This song sounds like pure white noise.  I love Phil’s singing and lyrics.  The music is pretty good asides for the speed of the song.  The guitar playing is off the charts.  I love the short guitar solos.  I love the music and singing towards the end of the song.

Walk Through Exits Only

I love the music and singing at the beginning of the title track.  The drumming on this song is awesome.  This song is short and to the point.

Bedroom Destroyer

Some of Phil’s singing does not really go well with the music.  This has to me my favorite song off this record so far.  It is hard to understand the singing on this song.  I can not comment on the lyrics.  There is some nice guitar playing towards the end.  I am not liking the effects on the bass guitar at the end.

Bedridden

This is a fast and to the point song.  I love the lyrics.  The music is better than the rest of the songs.  I love how they call on his punk influence.  I love the guitar playing towards the of the song. I love the ending of this song.

Irrelevant Walls And Computer Screens

This is the longest song on the record.  I love the beginning with the music and the singing.  They put some thought into the guitar playing on this song.  I love the drumming and bass playing.  I love the guitar solo and dueling between the two guitars.  Even though there is only one guitar player in this band. I love how Phil has taken some other song titles and threw them into this song’s lyrics.  The music on this track gets better and better as the song goes deeper.  The ending and the back half of the song is pretty interesting music.  It is the same thing over and over but it works.

Line Up:

• Phil Anselmo – Vocals
• Marzi Montazeri − Guitars
• Bennett Bartley − Bass Guitar
• Joe Gonzalez − Drums

Here is his website and twitter addresses:

Website:  www.philanselmo.com

Twitter:  @philiphanselmo

In closing, I was pretty excited to see that Phil came out with some new music and I love the fact Phil is still out there making music.  I was a pretty big fan of Pantera back in the early 1990’s.  I love some of the songs off his first solo record.  I just feel he could have done better than this record.  I can see people enjoying this record.   All the music from track to track sounds the same.  It is like they took a few riffs and used them in all the songs.  The last song was a little different.  The guitar player put some thought and wrote some great riffs on it.  This is not his finest work but it is not his worse.  I love how the record is short and to the point.  If you are a Pantera or just a Phil fan, I recommend you checking out this record.  Go get some!  Drink it!  Enjoy it!  Metal it!  \m/

Cheers!

Bill DJ Weiser

Email:  djweiser13@comcast.net

Twitter:  @djweiser