Upcoming Reissues You Do and Do Not Want: Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven and Def Leppard’s Slang

Well, folks, I’ve good news and I’ve got weird news.

The good news is that Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven is getting a twentieth anniversary reissue on March 25, reports Metal Insider. This is a big deal because Far Beyond Driven is probably the heaviest album ever to debut at #1 on the charts, and is the last Pantera album that is universally beloved. (On a more personal note… from start to finish, Driven is probably my favorite Pantera album. What can I say? I have anger issues, and Far Beyond Driven is angrier a dude with a Morbid Angel tattoo the day Ilud Divinum Insanus was released.) The reissue will be fully remastered, and physical copies will come with a DVD the band’s performance at the Monsters of Rock Festival in 1994 (the year Driven was released, in case math isn’t your strong suit). No word on whether or not it will come with the album’s original cover art, which showed a drill entering not a skull, but, rather, some unfortunate person’s ass. I know it’s been used on a vinyl reissue from a few years back so here’s hoping…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7no5OV29FE

The weird news is that, according to Classic Rock, Def Leppard are reissuing their album Slang. This is weird both because 2014 isn’t a notable anniversary for the album (it came out in 1996), and because, well… does anyone really like Slang? It was Def Leppard’s attempt at sounding “more grown up” and “less polished” as grunge overtook hair metal, and like pretty much every other glam band’s trend-chasing release from the era (Mötley Crüe’s Generation Swine, L.A. Guns’ American Hardcore, etc.), it’s largely forgettable. I mean there a couple of catchy songs on it, but does anyone really walk into a Def Leppard concert thinking “Man, screw Pyromania, Hysteria, and Adrenalize, I’m sick of those albums — I really hope they play something from Slang!”? I seriously doubt it! But if you’re either a Def Lep completist or that one dude who really does love Slang with all his heart, the reissue comes out February 10, and will include “a second disc of previously unheard tracks, demos and alternative versions.” Have fun with those.