A.C.

Released in 1996, The Great Southern Trendkill was Pantera’s follow-up to one of their biggest milestones, 1994’s Far Beyond Driven — still the heaviest album to debut at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album chart. Metal bands of lesser mettle might’ve pumped the brakes on the bone-breaking intensity to deliver a more populist next LP, but stubborn and steadfast, Pantera went the opposite direction. While it’s not without its moments of aching melody — including one of the greatest metal solos of all time — Trendkill nevertheless lunged at the music world with a series of depraved thrashers and venomous grooves about as deadly as the Texas diamondback hissing on its iconic cover art. But what is The Great Southern Trendkill’s deadliest number? With the record having crossed its 30th anniversary, we asked our readers this very question, and they responded accordingly. War Nerve No hate mail for this one — just like the rest of Trendkill, “War Nerve” has been grinding deep into Pantera fans’ essences since it first blasted out the speakers in ’96. Indeed, the faithful have invited its mayhem into their earholes ever since. When it came to the media entities Anselmo was raging against throughout the nasty-grooved batterer — replete with a couple exquisitely leftfield-freaky slow-moshes — Pantera’s frontman was dead set on waging war on foes like never before (“Truly fuck the world for all it s worth/Every inch of planet Earth”). Nevertheless, it became a battle anthem for metalhead masses around the globe. Drag the Waters As the introductory single to Pantera’s eighth album, “Drag the Waters” had the somewhat unenviable position of being measured closely against mainstream-crashing Far Beyond Driven tracks like “I’m Broken” and “Five Minutes Alone.” The good news is that the follow-up was as massive as it was anthemic, the quartet doling out a Southern power-groove that hits like a sledgehammer. It’s not the heaviest track on Trendkill, but it’s a people-pleaser driven by Anselmo’s bulldog roar, a classically rippin’ Dime solo, and world-shaking rhythms from Rex and Vinnie Paul. We didn’t have to drag the waters to find votes for the single, they buoyed up en masse right to the top of our comments. 10s 10/10, no notes. For real, though, “10s” is Southern gloom godhead, a Trendkill standout imbued by one of Anselmo’s most passionately rasp-crooned Pantera performances, as well as layers of eerie guitarmonizing, soul-yearning solo bends and more. Though many of our readers give “10s” a perfect score, the song also sits in the mix with a bunch of other flawless Pantera tracks. While great, it doesn’t take the top spot. Floods There are Dime solos, and then there’s “Floods.” Devastatingly beautiful, the solo had roots in Pantera’s Eighties-era stageshow as a Randy Rhoads-inspired piece of fretboard mastery before finally appearing on-record as a waterworks-inducing set of melodic squeals. While the fluid mid-song showcase marks one of the guitar icon’s most memorable performances ever, don’t forget that Dime and the rest of the band level right into a monstrously dam-breaking back-end mosh right after. Bring on the “Floods” any time of day, we say. Suicide Note, Pt. 2 Fret not, Pantera family: One of the band’s most staggeringly savage and raging songs topped the poll this week. And for good reason. “Suicide Note, Pt. 2” finds a fiery explosion of tempo-pushing thrash beats supporting some of Dime’s most deliriously noisy riffs. Anselmo is in attack mode, though guest screecher Seth Putnam — of infamous grinders A.C., paying back Pantera’s frontman in kind for his guest spots on the Massachusetts band’s 1995 LP, Top 40 Hits — goes wild on the cut, too. No pretension, pure execution — “Suicide Note Pt. 2” is a beast among beasts, and that’s why the fans voted it Trendkill’s greatest cut.