Pantera – “I’m Broken” (STUDIO)

Getcha Pull!

Next to The Great Southern Trendkill, Pantera’s 1994 album Far Beyond Driven is my favorite. Phil Anselmo got a little more personal with his lyrics, the band tuned down to as far as a C# standard for certain songs, and Dimebag Darrell was absolutely vicious in the way he constructed and approached his guitar parts!

The album yielded the single ‘I’m Broken’ and at over 4 minutes of pure, unbridled fury wrapped in Pantera’s signature Southern grooves, it’s one of the stars of Far Beyond Driven and one that actually drove the band to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

Riff Rundown

According to Dime, ‘I’m Broken’ was a sound check riff – “One of them ones where I’d walk in with a hangover from ripping it up night after night with everyone in every town. That’s where a lot of the best riffs I ever wrote came from. I just played the first riff I thought of, Vinnie started kickin’ in on it, Rex joined in – we didn’t write the entire song on the spot, but we kept toying with it and finally worked on it once we got into the studio.”

He makes it sound so easy, right?

Regardless, ‘I’m Broken’ still goes down as one of the most vicious tracks from Far Beyond Driven, and one that makes us really, really miss Dime. If that solo at 2:27 doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will!

+ I’m Broken lyrics +

I wonder if we’ll smile in our coffins
while loved ones mourn the day
the absence of our faces
living, laughing, eyes awake
Is this too much for them to take?

Too young for one’s conclusion, the lifestyle won
Such values you taught your son
That’s how

Look at me now
I’m broken
Inherit my life

One day we all will die, a cliched fact of life.
Force fed to make us heed
Inbred to sponge our bleed
Every warning, a leaking rubber,
a poison apple for mingled blood

Too young for one’s delusion the lifestyle cost
Venereal Mother embrace the loss
That’s how

Look at you now
You’re broken
Inherit your life