When you get someone to review a Pantera album, you should at least get someone who likes or appreciates heavy metal. Winegarner appears not to really understand or care about heavy metal. Anyone with an appreciation for the genre would have at least given kudos to the amazing musicianship that catapulted Pantera to its current status and gave it its reputation for being incredibly tight and technically superior.
Winegarner could not even give a technical critique of the music: was the album produced well? Did the guys play well? Were the songs better or worse live?
Are reviews written so that the fans of the music can decide which albums to spend their money on, or merely to provide some writer who lacks the barest bit of journalistic sense a platform to tee off on a group that derivates from the status quo?
In the future, please assign the music to someone with at least a minimal reference point to the genre involved. While I realize you probably don't care that much about heavy metal fans as a target demographic, I am hoping that you will at least care that your critics are telling what passes for the truth these days.
And yes, you guessed it. I am a musician.
SETH CALDERHEAD
Los Gatos