Personally, I listen to albums by their release date, oldest first. I feel it allows you to appreciate how a band progresses over the years and gives you a better understanding of how their early material compares to their newer material. I find it interesting how the band adapts their sound and to hear the subtle changes between albums. I also tend to listen to songs in the correct order within an albums, as this was the intended order to listen to the songs, decided by the artist/s.
Agreed on your points overall, but as I get older and time slowly disappears, I appreciate friends’ recommendations more than anything - whether they completely ignore an album/song entirely, depending on the friend, I guess lol. I used to know a guy that hated Pantera pre-Cowboys from Hell. Needless to say I haven’t spoken to him for a long ass time.
As someone who has a CFH tattoo, I don’t hate the pre CFH stuff … But I like it for completely different reasons than why I like the mainstream Pantera albums.
It’s like comparing the Beatles to Cannibal Corpse. Both make you feel emotions, but there’s zero overlap.
That being said… VDOP is probably the best place to start someone on Pantera IMO.