Pantera's Intense Lyrics Not Pleasant To Absorb

Concert preview

Pantera, Sepultura and Prong, 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Seattle Center Arena; $21.50, 628-0888. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Pantera stunned the music business in April when its "Far Beyond Driven" album entered the Billboard charts at No. 1. Not only was it unusual for a non-Seattle rock band to hit the top spot right out of the box, it was even weirder that it was an uncompromising speed metal band with absolutely no chance of acceptance from mainstream radio.

Actually, Pantera has little chance of acceptance from anybody other than teenage boys with too much energy, overactive glands and a taste for the macabre.

Not only does Pantera mount a nonstop barrage of head-banging aural intensity, its lyrics - if you can hear them - are not just angry and violent, they're bloodthirsty and perverse. Rape, murder and necrophilia are common fodder for Pantera's songs.

"Far Beyond Driven" is laughable, as long as you don't read the lyric sheet. Lead singer Philip Anselmo doesn't just growl the lyrics, as most speed metal vocalists do, he actually growls, like a kid pretending to be a ferocious lion.

The songs are heavily padded with repetitious riffs. They're repeated not just six or seven times, like most speed metalists, but dozens of times. This music is not exactly challenging. Or original.

Surprisingly, though, there is one listenable tune. "Planet Caravan," the last cut, is a pleasant, jazzy little ballad. Go figure.

Sepultura is a Brazilian band with a sound much like Pantera's. Its lyrics are obsessed with decay, from inner cities to the environment to civility.

Prong has evolved beyond thrash on its new album, "Cleansing," which has songs that are actually lyrical, sensible and listenable. Must be wimps.