10 Most Underrated Metal Albums

There's probably a certain subsect of Pantera fans who pretend that Cowboys From Metal is the group's actual debut record. Long before they got down to business as one of the gnarliest metal acts to come out of the '90s, these Texas rockers' first foray into glam rock was something to behold, with albums like Metal Magic being waaay too out of place in their discography. On the other hand, that grizzly energy did show its face a bit earlier on Power Metal.

First things first, the band did themselves a great service by firing original vocalist Terry Glaze and bringing in Phil Anselmo behind the mic. Though there are still some hair metal tropes that have yet to die, the bellowing voice of Anselmo feels much more at home when playing off the riffs of Dimebag Darrell. On songs like the title track and Death Trap, you can really hear the future sounds of Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power coming further into focus.

This album also isn't afraid to have some fun either, with Dimebag taking over vocal duties on the album closer PST 88, which is basically just a down and dirty thrash tune. For as intimidating as something like Far Beyond Driven may seem, this is a snapshot of the world's hardest metal act trying to figure things out, oftentimes with fantastic results.