In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Moby became the most renowned DJ in the world, and emerged as a vocal proponent of veganism and other progressive causes. But little did any of us know that the whole time, he was blasting “War Nerve” by Texan groove metal legends Pantera. Now, a new open letter from Moby expresses his undying love for Pantera’s darkest album, 1996’s The Great Southern Trendkill.
Moby’s confession of love for Trendkill comes from Ultimate Classic Rock, for which he penned a love letter extolling the band even as they were at the height of their personal issues.
“The first time I heard Pantera was their [1994] album Far Beyond Driven,” wrote the chrome-domed techno god. “I always feel weird lumping Pantera into the speed metal genre. They were so qualitatively different from anyone else. They occupied their own niche.
“The Great Southern Trendkill is so unrelentingly dark. The lyrics of War Nerve are the most unrelentingly evil lyrics you can imagine. They make church-burning Norwegian Satanists sound like Sunday school teachers. It’s just that whole vituperative expression of anger and rage.
“Pantera even managed to be, dare I say it, kind of funky at times. One of the ways they were able to get such a huge guitar sound was because [Dimebag] Darrell double-tracked all his guitar parts.”
Apparently, Moby even got to know Pantera, going out to see the band and hang out with his buddy Tommy Lee (yeah, apparently Moby’s also a friend of Tommy Lee).
“I’d known Tommy for a while, so we were just hanging out afterwards, when Darrell and Vinnie [Paul, drummer] came backstage with a bunch of Hell’s Angels. We all started drinking, then went to the strip club which Pantera owned and we had this long, crazy, whiskey-fuelled night.
“At some point, about four in the morning, Darrell, Tommy and I – in our completely devastated state – decided to form a band. We just thought that was the best idea anyone had ever had. Of course, nothing came of that – except a hangover that lasted for days.”
You can read the whole thing online now. From now on, just keep in mind that whenever you act like you’re a tough guy for listening to Pantera, those dudes would have probably hung out with a bald vegan electronic artist before partying with you.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
