Phil Anselmo (32,755 views)

[Kreuger]

Fantastic!

[jessicavey]

He also did some nice clean stuff with Southern Isolation back in the day

youtu.be/tnSCplqF4Ow

[Kreuger]

youtu.be/p4_y6D_Sdwc

This video lists the end notes of Cemetery Gates as C5, G5, although she didnt pitch the G#5.

The C5 and G5 dont appear listed here. Is there any reason? Im wondering if the one she said was C5 is actually the listed B4.

[Rodney Blazershorts]

The end notes are E5, G5 and G#5 for one thing. Since they’re done in the same sequence, the OP likely didn’t see the need for all the notes.

[Kreuger]

Fair enough.

[Bink]

are we sure that G#5 in Cemetary Gates is actually an A5?

[MrToddington]

Well the intended note is obviously an A5 given that's what the guitar follows with, but he does come up slightly short which is what causes issues.

This isn't a "usual" A5, as the instruments in Cemetery Gates are tuned slightly lower, whereas our threads are effectively referenced against a standard A440.

In other words, if we reference it against A440, the intended note sits right between G#5 and A5, but given he is slightly flat on the note, it's actually closer to a G#5 in A440. Hence, G#5 in the OP.

This slightly-downtuned thing presents an issue with pitching across the whole Pantera discography, where the guitars/bass are tuned down a little to give them a slightly different feel - it's not consistent from song to song. There are plenty of artists who do this (some even play with the tape speed to create a similar effect, which causes even more issues for pitching), though I imagine it's less common now in the digital age.

Listen to the full Cowboys From Hell album + get out a keyboard app and try it for yourself - the title track and Cemetery Gates are about a quarter-step lower, whereas others like Psycho Holiday and Heresy are tuned down very marginally (like an eighth of a step or less).

[Kreuger]

They didnt tune down. Its a common misconception. Dime said that the guitars were out of tune and he left it because it was more rock n roll, like the intro for Iron Man.

[MrToddington]

I wasn't saying that it was an intentional tuning down per se, given that it seems pretty varied per song how far the instruments have drifted from A440.

But it does have the effect of redefining what "A" really is; for argument's sake if Phil had recorded his vocals first @ A440, they'd likely sound a bit out of place.

[Kreuger]

Fair enough.

[Henny Macc]

Are there any live recordings of Phil singing Terry Glaze era Pantera material? I feel like they must've played at least a couple songs off their first three albums with him when he first joined the band.

[MrToddington]

A quick search pulled up this live clip which has Hot and Heavy and Right on the Edge: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y7AsmK9A4w

The quality isn't that good, but I'm sure there are others if you dig around more.

[Henny Macc]

Yep, I ended up having a look around myself last night and found that clip, along with this one, which is also off I Am the Night:


Then from the same concert I also dug up this little nugget:


Unfortunately my laptop's audio doesn't seem to be working at the moment so I can't notewatch these myself for the time being, but I'm definitely curious to check them out when I get the chance.

[Henny Macc]

Jan 10, 2022 9:38:28 GMT MrToddington said:

A quick search pulled up this live clip which has Hot and Heavy and Right on the Edge: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y7AsmK9A4w

The quality isn't that good, but I'm sure there are others if you dig around more.

Finally getting around to reviewing these. Here's an individual link to "Hot and Heavy", which is easier to timestamp:

It's a little hard to tell with the quality, but I think I'm hearing C♯5s on every chorus (like at 1:19), F♯4 at 1:35, D5 at 1:52, E5s at 2:33, F5s at 4:41, and an F♯5 at 5:54. I'm having a bit of a hard time telling who's doing which harmonies at the points where Rex Brown does backing vocals though (like at 1:07, 1:58, and 3:01) - it would make more sense for Phil to be doing the higher ones, but I think I recognize Phil's fourth octave tone on the lower ones, so I'm not quite sure.

Jan 10, 2022 23:10:13 GMT Henny Macc said:

Yep, I ended up having a look around myself last night and found that clip, along with this one, which is also off I Am the Night:

For this one, I think I'm hearing E♭5s at 0:44, a bunch of D5s at 2:22, and E5s at 3:37.

Jan 10, 2022 23:10:13 GMT Henny Macc said:

Then from the same concert I also dug up this little nugget:

I'm hearing something like F♯5 on the first note at 1:30, but I'm not quite sure. E5 at 2:27 I think, C♯5 at 4:09, D5 at 4:48, and G4s at 5:12.

[Henny Macc]

Well, I stand corrected - turns out there was quite a bit more stuff out there from Pantera's early live days with Anselmo!


Here's a cover of Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules" from their first concert with him - sounds like maybe a quick F♯5 right off the bat at 0:08, C♯5s throughout the verses at 0:16, a sustained D5 at 1:16, C5s at 2:02, and an E5 at 2:32. Assuming the tape is correct, they actually play it half a step higher than the original!


Next up they play Anthrax's "Madhouse". A4s at 0:51, B4 at 1:06, B♭4s at 1:34, and an E5 at 3:04. I'd say this one didn't really suit Anselmo's voice great - he more or less managed to hit all the notes correctly, but you can hear some awkwardness/shakiness in his upper fourth octave trying to bridge between those higher parts. Definitely shines some light on why he tended to avoid singing in this range on studio tracks.


At 7:07 here, they play a rendition of "Come-on Eyes" off I Am the Night with Anselmo on vocals. I think I'm hearing some A4s at 8:18, but the audio quality is unfortunately a bit too shoddy for me too pick out much else. Feel free to give it a try yourself if you'd like though.

A brief snippet of this song with a B4.

There's a whole bunch of other bootleg stuff and covers on this channel, but I think that's about all I have in me right now. I'll come back to check more later if no one else is interested in doing so.

[Captain Planet]

Feb 24, 2022 20:23:03 GMT Henny Macc said:

Next up they play Anthrax's "Madhouse". A4s at 0:51, B4 at 1:06, B♭4s at 1:34, and an E5 at 3:04. I'd say this one didn't really suit Anselmo's voice great - he more or less managed to hit all the notes correctly, but you can hear some awkwardness/shakiness in his upper fourth octave trying to bridge between those higher parts. Definitely shines some light on why he tended to avoid singing in this range on studio tracks.

This really sums up Phil in the 80's, the 5th octave wails and sustained notes are no problem for him, but actually singing lyrics through his bridge wasn't his forte.

One notable time he didn't shy away from including this on a studio track is Hard Ride, with the verses all being sung around Bb4. He just about managed it in the studio but completely butchers it live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHeBeG65iq0#t=59s

[Henny Macc]

Yeah, I noticed that when listening to more of these old recordings - in the studio, Phil could pull off those kinds of A4-B4 notes well enough, and even managed the occasional well-blended C5/C♯5. Live, however, his blending was kind of messy when it came to singing melodies in that range. Seems like that was literally his only weak point as a vocalist back then though, because otherwise he was truly a force to be reckoned with.

Anyway, after checking the OP I discovered that Platypus had already notewatched/listed several of those videos that I linked in the last post, so whoops that was some wasted effort on my part lol. But oh well, it also cuts down the remaining content that I needed to check that's missing. Here's the rest of that:

A small snippet of Black Sabbath's "Children of the Sea" here, with G♯4s and a couple short B4s. Can't imagine him making it through the rest of this one too successfully though lol

Sounds like a short C♯5 at 0:36, a short B4 at 1:02, and a kind of shaky C5 at 2:07.

Here we have a mashup of "Heading Out to the Highway", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Painkiller", "Iron Man", and "Somebody Get Me a Doctor".

During "Heading Out to the Highway", there's a G4 at 0:10 and G♯4s starting at 0:23, though he seems hesitant to go for the sustained G♯4 at the end of the chorus.

They only play short snippet of "Painkiller", but it sounds like he gets a C5 or two at 1:40. Would've been interesting to hear how the rest of that one would've gone.

In "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" we've got G♯4s starting at 2:30 and an A♯4 at 2:43.

In "Iron Man" it sounds like an E5 at 2:33 and F♯4s starting at 4:44.

During "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", we've got an E♭5 at 6:32, an A♭4 at 6:44, an E5 at 6:48, and G♭4s at 7:00. You can definitely hear him struggling on some of those A♭4 parts though.

Also, nice low note at 10:03, though probably not countable.

[Kreuger]

Phil claims that he wants to use his range more on a potential project, including a Halford-esque style.

[Rodney Blazershorts]

My larynx hurts just thinking about that

[Goober]

I heard in a interview somewhere that phil couldn't do falsetto. Was he just wrong or is the falsetto in floods and jail fake?

[Bes]

Sept 15, 2022 15:32:30 GMT Goober said:

I heard in a interview somewhere that phil couldn't do falsetto. Was he just wrong or is the falsetto in floods and jail fake?

I think that's more of a generalization, i.e. saying that he's not proficient at it and/or would rather not use it

[Goober]

i mean he tries it in the interview and it sounds kinda bad, but it was fairly recent

[Bes]

Sure, he probably sounded better doing falsetto in like, 1996 than now, but I don't think that his statement is completely literal is my point. It's just not his thing vocally, not that it's 100% impossible for him

[CT]

Sept 15, 2022 16:33:44 GMT Bes said:

Sept 15, 2022 15:32:30 GMT Goober said:

I heard in a interview somewhere that phil couldn't do falsetto. Was he just wrong or is the falsetto in floods and jail fake?

I think that's more of a generalization, i.e. saying that he's not proficient at it and/or would rather not use it

I recall him saying that it comes and goes and is just extremely inconsistent not that he can’t do it, I think its in some interview about “Floods” and why they didn’t preform it much

[Goober]

youtu.be/G_4nKosG0ZM 9:35 Link to the interview if you're interested.