Reinventing the Steel is the ninth and final studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on March 21, 2000, March 27 in the UK and April 5 in Japan, through Elektra Records and East West Records. This was the last studio album Pantera released before their 19 year breakup from November 2003 to July 2022. Further, it is the band's final album to feature the Abbott brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul before their deaths in 2004 and 2018, respectively.
The album was released at a time of intense strife for the band, especially as Phil Anselmo's heroin addiction escalated into a near-fatal overdose in 1996. After the release of this album, the band would fracture and eventually split due to these tensions and Anselmo's pursuance of side projects.
Reinventing the Steel received positive reviews, although critically and commercially, it was not as successful as their previous albums, becoming Pantera's only major label album to not be certified platinum.
Background
After the release of The Great Southern Trendkill, Pantera was experiencing an intense period of strife between its members. Singer Phil Anselmo had developed a heroin addiction to cope with back pain, which eventually escalated into an overdose while on tour with Eyehategod and White Zombie, which would leave him legally dead for 5 minutes before being revived. Additionally, by this point he was pursuing more side projects and Pantera became less of a focus for Anselmo.
Reinventing the Steel was produced by the Abbott brothers in addition to Sterling Winfield, making it Pantera's first studio album since 1988's Power Metal not to be produced by Terry Date.
Unlike other Pantera releases, two B-sides were recorded during the Reinventing the Steel sessions. The B-sides are "Avoid the Light" and "Immortally Insane", found on the Dracula 2000 and Heavy Metal 2000, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtracks, respectively.
Musical Style
Reinventing the Steel contains lyrics mostly about the band itself, as on "We'll Grind that Axe for a Long Time" (where the band members tell about how they have kept it "true" throughout the years, while many of their peers "sucked up for the fame") and "I'll Cast a Shadow" (about Pantera's influence on the genre). There are also songs about their fans, like "Goddamn Electric" and "You've Got to Belong to It". "Goddamn Electric" mentions Black Sabbath and Slayer, two of Pantera's main influences. The solo for "Goddamn Electric" was recorded by Kerry King in a bathroom after Slayer performed at Ozzfest in Dallas on July 13, 1999. The band members dedicated Reinventing the Steel to their fans who they viewed as their "brothers and sisters".
Artwork
The cover art is by Scott Caliva (1967–2003), a friend of Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo. Caliva took the photo of a partygoer at Anselmo's house jumping through a bonfire clutching a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey. The bottle is pixelated on the cover so the label would not be visible, to avoid trademark infringement.
The 20th Anniversary Edition cover art was only made with the steel marking background, along with the logo and the album name similar to their 1990 album, Cowboys from Hell.
Release
The album was released on March 21st, 2000 by Elektra Records and East West Records. In Australia, a two-disc "Tour Edition" of the album was released as well. The first disc consists of the album proper while the second is an unofficial hits compilation.
The album was reissued on October 20, 2020, with extra discs including a new mix by Date and unreleased tracks to honor the album's 20th anniversary.
Commercial performance
Reinventing the Steel debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and number five on the Top Internet Albums, selling 161,105 copies in its first week of release according to Nielsen Soundscan. On its second week, it fell to number 24, selling only 59,962 copies, a 62.8% drop in sales. In total, the album only appeared on that chart for 12 weeks. On May 2, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting 500,000 units sold. However, it has yet to reach platinum status, making it Pantera's only major-label studio album not to reach sales of 1,000,000. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold 593,000 copies domestically as of October 2003. It also debuted at number eight on the Top Canadian Albums chart.
In a 2022 interview with Gibson TV, Rex Brown blamed the album's lacklustre success compared to the band's previous albums on the dominance of the nu metal genre at the time of its release.