Pantera (band)

Pantera is an American groove metal band founded in 1981 by the Abbott brothers, Darrell and Vinnie Paul, in Arlington, Texas. Bassist Tommy Bradford would join vocalist Donnie Hart at the beginning of 1981 until the end of the same year in which Tommy would be replaced by Rex Brown and Donnie by Terry Glaze, who was also a vocalist and keyboardist.

In 1987 Phil Anselmo would become the group's lead vocalist. The band remained active from 1981 until its dissolution in 2003. A reunion of the band with Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown is confirmed on July 14, 2022, as well as a world tour for 2023.

The gender of the group varied over the years. During the 80's, along with singer Terry Glaze, glam metal predominated in the band's appearance and style. After the dismissal of Glaze and the arrival of Phil Anselmo, the band abandons its roots, heavily influenced by Kiss, and turns to a heavier style, a period marked by the publication of the studio album Cowboys from Hell in 1990, which catapulted them to fame. In 1992 they released their album Vulgar Display of Power, considered one of the pioneering albums of groove metal. In 1994, his album Far Beyond Driven debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and in this way Pantera is considered responsible for "keeping alive" to heavy metal in a decade in which grunge and alternative rock reached the mainstream.

In the mid-1990s, Pantera began to suffer numerous arguments and tensions among its members, mainly due to Anselmo's drug abuse, which led to erratic and volatile behavior on his part, which made him distance himself. of his classmates. The singer attributes the reason for his drug addiction to a chronic problem in his spine, caused by years of violent performances on stage, which caused him great pain. In 2001 they decided to take a break, and its members took different paths.. Anselmo continued with his projects that he had previously founded, Superjoint Ritual and Down, the latter together with his partner Rex Brown, bassist for Pantera, and the Abbott brothers formed the band Damageplan, after waiting and trying repeatedly and unsuccessfully to contact Anselmo, who had immersed himself in his other projects. Pantera officially disbanded in 2003.

Any hope of a reunification would be dashed by the tragic death of their legendary guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was shot and killed on the Alrosa Villa stage in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2004. by a Marine named Nathan Gale, just seconds into the Damageplan concert.

Only a few days before the tragedy, Anselmo had told Metal Hammer magazine that the other members of Pantera had no reason to comment on his addiction, and that Dimebag deserved to be beaten. These comments ended up breaking the friendship between the members of the already defunct band. The singer would later say that it was a tongue-in-cheek comment, complaining about the sensationalism of the heavy metal press in general, and assuring that he would never have been able to hurt his late friend. However, Vinnie Paul he did not believe this, and accused Anselmo of being indirectly responsible for his brother's death, as his behavior and words could have triggered the actions of Darrell's killer, who was found to be schizophrenic and upset by the separation. de Pantera. The guitarist's family did not allow Anselmo to attend his former partner's funeral.

Despite everything that happened, many fans of the band demanded a meeting of its members; asking that Anselmo, already recovered from his addiction and his back problem, and Vinnie Paul, who was part of the supergroup Hellyeah, make amends in honor of the memory of Dimebag Darrell. But everything remained as a memory. The possibility of a regrouping of the band with guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society) had also been discussed, who was a great friend of the late Pantera guitarist and who has a quite style of playing. Similar to him, both Anselmo and Wylde have stated that they were willing to meet, but Vinnie Paul stated that this meeting would not happen, since, in his words, he said that Pantera without Dimebag Darrel was nothing. In 2018, Vinnie Paul passes away due to a heart attack. In 2022 after having spent approximately 20 years of inactivity, the band confirms a tour for 2023, with the members for the tour being: Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown, Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante.

Biography

Childhood of the Abbott brothers

Vinnie Paul and his brother Dimebag Darrell were born in Dallas, Texas, in 1964 and 1966, respectively, to Jerry Abbott, a country musician who owned a recording studio in Pantego, Texas, so both brothers quickly got used to it. to the music world. At first, Vincent, nicknamed Vinnie Paul, was interested in drums, so his parents bought him one. His brother Darrell was drawn to his brother's drumming, but later, seeing numerous country and blues guitarists parading his father's studios, he preferred the electric guitar. Both brothers, lovers of rock music from the seventies and heavy metal and thrash metal bands, with groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Venom, Slayer, Metallica, Dark Angel, Van Halen and Kiss, decided to form a musical group that collected these influences, together with the dominance that the Abbott brothers were taking on their respective instruments; this dream would come true in 1981.

Formation: the glam metal years (1981-1990)

Pantera was formed in Arlington, Texas, in 1981, by singer Donnie Hart, guitarists Darrell Abbott (nicknamed "Diamond Darrell" or "Dimebag Darrell") and Terry &# 34;Terrence Lee" Glaze, bassist Tommy Bradford and drummer Vinnie Paul, Darrell's brother. They began playing covers of Quiet Riot and Van Halen, as well as their own material framed within glam metal and hair metal , in nightclubs in Texas.

In 1982, Hart left the band, and guitarist Glaze took over vocals. Shortly thereafter, Tommy Bradford was replaced by Rex Brown, then known as "Rex Rocker". Pantera became one of the underground's favorite bands, though their regional tours never took them beyond Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The band began opening for other glam metal acts, such as bands like Stryper, Dokken, and Quiet Riot, who in turn promoted Pantera's debut Metal Magic. This album was released on the band's own label, with the same name, in 1983, and was produced by the Abbott brothers' father, Jerry Abbott, at Pantego studios.

Later, Pantera released two more unnoticed albums: Projects In The Jungle and I Am The Night, in which he continued to dominate glam metal in his compositions, although they gradually diverged from those of his predecessor album. This latest album, I Am the Night, sold only 25,000 copies, making it a collector's item today.

The influence of two key records in the development of thrash metal (Reign in Blood by Slayer and Master of Puppets by Metallica) had marked the band's career towards said style, in which Glaze did not fit, for which he was fired. Phil Anselmo, from New Orleans, was his replacement as vocalist after considering the entry of singers like David Peacock or Matt L'Amour. With him they released the album Power Metal (1988), which contains the song Proud To Be Loud, written by Keel's guitarist, Marc Ferrari. The style of said work was oriented more towards a mixture of the hard rock of the eighties and the nascent thrash metal, also adding Anselmo's vocal style, rougher and ruder. than Terry Glaze's.

The subsequent stylistic change of the band made these albums almost collector's items, even being ostracized by the band itself, since they do not appear in the discography present on their official website.

Style change: thrash metal and groove metal (1990-2003)

Cowboys from Hell (1990-1992)

Shortly after the release of Power Metal, Dimebag Darrell auditioned for Megadeth, to be part of the group led by Dave Mustaine. Darrell had made it a condition that his brother Vinnie Paul also join, but since Megadeth already had a steady drummer, Nick Menza, Darrell was not hired, being chosen in his place by Marty Friedman.

After searching for a long period of time for a label to accompany Pantera on the recording of the band's next album, Mark Ross, working for Atco Records, saw the band perform at a Texas venue and convinced Pantera to your company to file the group. Atco agreed, and the band capped off 1989 by recording their next material at Pantego Studios.

Cowboys from Hell (1990) marked a drastic change in the music of Pantera, who opted for a more battle-hardened and powerful sound, leaving glam behind, conditioned by the aguardiente voice of Anselmo and the thick guitar riffs by Dimebag Darrell. Released on June 24, 1990, its most notable songs are Domination, Cowboys from Hell, Cemetery Gates, Psycho Holiday and Primal Concrete Sledge. Many fans, and even the band members themselves, considered this work their official debut. Dimebag Darrell made his riffs and solos more complex, and Anselmo adopted an even more abrasive vocal style than on < i>Power Metal. To properly introduce the work, Pantera toured for a while with Exodus and Suicidal Tendencies, before opening for the likes of Metallica, AC/DC and Judas Priest, playing to an estimated crowd of 1.6 million in Moscow to celebrate one one of the first Western music concerts since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Vulgar Display of Power (1992-1994)

Later on came Vulgar Display Of Power (February 25, 1992), which presented even more maturity, more personality and its own style, slightly approaching hardcore. On the album, the slowing down of the tempos and the even more abrasive and violent style of Anselmo in the vocal part stands out. From this album we should highlight the songs Walk, A New Level, This Love, Fucking Hostile, Rise, Mouth For War and Hollow. Fans and critics considered this work as the band's greatest effort. In addition, the public accompanied the album, reaching 44th place on the Billboard charts thanks, among other reasons, to the impact that some of the videos had. of the album on the influential MTV.

Shortly after editing the album, Pantera collaborated with the vocalist of Judas Priest, Rob Halford, to record the song Light Comes Out of Black, which formed the soundtrack of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For this, Halford took the main voice and Anselmo the choirs. After this short foray into the recording studio, the band embarks on a tour of Japan first, and then Italy, sharing the stage with metal giants Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

Far Beyond Driven (1994-1996)

After Vulgar Display Of Power, in 1994 the album Far Beyond Driven was released, slightly more direct and brutal than its predecessor, which debuted at number one on the Billboard American and Australian charts. From this album we could highlight the songs 5 Minutes Alone, Becoming and I'm Broken (nominated for a Grammy in the category of best metal performance in 1995). With this album they gained great respect among the most die-hard fans of the most "brutal" music. The original cover of the album was explicit and caused a great impact, an anus pierced by a drill. Due to the pressure received, it was replaced by the current one, the skull being pierced by a drill.

On the tour to promote the album, Pantera began a tour of South America and another of the "Monsters of Rock" festivals. Around this time, Anselmo and the Abbott brothers began to grow apart, due, according to Anselmo, to chronic back pain that prevented him from behaving normally. To try to solve these back problems, Anselmo became addicted to alcohol, something that ended up further distancing him from the band members according to his own statements. This led to some of his statements at a concert in Montreal, Canada, in which he said that "rap music induces to kill whites" ("rap music advocates the killing of white people"). drunk and that it was a mistake. The doctors recommended that he undergo surgery to solve these problems, but Anselmo refused since he would have to spend a year in total rest, for which he began to use heroin as a pain reducer, becoming addicted to that drug.

In 1995, Anselmo created a project called Down, parallel to Pantera, along with bassist Todd Strange, guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein, and drummer Jimmy Bower. Down released their first album in September of the same year under the name NOLA. For the supergroup's second album, Strange would be replaced by Pantera bassist Rex Brown, who would record Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, the title is one of the verses from the well-known song by Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven.

The Great Southern Trendkill (1996-2000)

Pantera's next album, The Great Southern Trendkill, was released in 1996 at the end of the grunge boom and the rise of rapcore and nu metal. It is worth mentioning the songs Floods, The Great Southern Trendkill, War Nerve, Drag The Waters and the complementary ones < i>Suicide Note Pt. I and Suicide Note Pt. II, two songs dedicated by singer Phil Anselmo to his heroin addiction. Anselmo recorded his vocal parts in a New York studio together with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, while the rest of the group recorded what remained in Texas, further proof of the progressive distancing that Anselmo suffered from the rest of the Pantera members.

On July 13, 1996, Anselmo suffered a heroin overdose an hour after a concert belonging to the tour that the band was doing throughout the state of Texas. His heart stopped for five minutes, so the doctors who treated him administered a strong dose of adrenaline and he was sent to the hospital. After waking up, Anselmo thanked his bandmates for their support during his overdose, although this did not do much in terms of estrangement between Anselmo and the other members, as the Abbotts were embarrassed by the vocalist's behavior.

In 1997 they released the live album Official Live: 101 Proof, compiling the best songs from their four previous albums played on the Tourkill tour between 1996 and 1997, demonstrating its brutal staging and live sound, one of the strong points of the group. They also added two previously unreleased studio tracks, Where You Come From and I Can't Hide, both recorded in 1997. Two weeks before the album was released., the band got their first platinum record of their career for Cowboys from Hell. Barely four months later, Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven also won this award.

During 1997, Pantera also played at the Ozzfest festival, being headliners along with Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson and Machine Head. A year later they would repeat the experience, playing at Ozzfest in 1998 together with Slayer, Foo Fighters and Soulfly.

Throughout these two years, Anselmo embarked on more parallel projects, including his collaboration as a guitarist on the Necrophagia album Holocausto de la Morte, and helped the black metal bands Viking Crown and Eibon. For their part, the Abbot brothers and Rex Brown formed Rebel Meets Rebel together with vocalist David Allan Coe, in which they added country sounds to the sound of Pantera.

Reinventing The Steel (2000-2003)

After rumors of the group breaking up due to the large number of projects by its members, the group counterattacks with what would be their last album, Reinventing the Steel (2000), recovering a more heavy where the roots of Black Sabbath are felt more than in their latest works. Featured songs from this album are Goddamn Electric, Yesterday Don't Mean Shit, You've Gotta Belong To It and Revolution Is My Name (first single and video in which the members can be seen in their preteens painted as the members of Kiss).

This same year, Pantera embarked on another Ozzfest together with Ozzy Osbourne, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age or Black Label Society. After Ozzfest ended, the band toured Australia, the United States, South Korea, and Europe. However, the attacks of September 11, 2001 caused the European tour to be cancelled, returning the members of Pantera to their homes in the United States. Once home, the Abbott brothers had planned to write and record another album with Pantera, something that never came to fruition. During this time, Anselmo founded new projects, such as Superjoint Ritual, and released Down's second album. Drummer Vinnie Paul expressed that Anselmo had told him that he would not tour during the time that Pantera was stopped, something that the singer allegedly broke by organizing the tour to present Down's second album and the Superjoint Ritual album. However, and according to Anselmo's statements, Pantera's rest and his tours with Down and Superjoint Ritual were carried out "by mutual agreement".

Breakup and new projects

The band officially disbanded in 2003, when the Abbotts (Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul) realized that Anselmo had abandoned them and would not return. The breakup of the band was not friendly at all and it transcended the musical world to reach the news and general circulation newspapers. While Darrell and Vinnie Paul, along with the Pantera technicians and other helpers, swore and perjured that they had tried to contact Anselmo by phone, Anselmo claimed that no one had taken an interest in him. Such was the confrontation between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers, that the vocalist, in an interview with Metal Hammer magazine, said: "Dimebag deserves to be beaten up i>". Anselmo would later say that it was an ironic comment, something that Vinnie Paul did not believe, worsening, if possible, the relations between the members of the now defunct band.

In July 2004, Vulgar Display of Power again went platinum, and The Great Southern Trendkill went platinum as well.

A year after Pantera broke up, the Abbott brothers founded Damageplan along with Bob Zilla on bass and Patrick Lachman on vocals to release a single album, New Found Power, in 2004.

Murder of Dimebag Darrell

During the tour to present New Found Power the catastrophe occurred. On December 8, 2004, exactly twenty-four years after the assassination of John Lennon, during a concert at the Alrosa Villa venue in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag Darrell was murdered at point-blank range by Nathan Gale, an allegedly alienated fan of the band who was suffering from with schizophrenia, who was later shot dead by a police officer while holding a hostage. In addition to the late Darrell, three more people suffered fatal injuries, including twenty-three-year-old Nathan Bray, a fan of the band; Erin Halk, a twenty-nine-year-old store clerk; Jeffrey Thompson, Damageplan's head of security, aged forty. Chris Paluska, tour manager, and John Brooks, drum sound technician, were also injured by Gale. This caused a shock among metal fans, turning Dimebag Darrell into a legend. Although Anselmo stated shortly after Darrell's murder that he was considering reuniting Pantera, Vinnie Paul said a year later that the reunion "will never happen." Paul also declared that a reconciliation with Anselmo was impossible.

Dimebag Darrell and his brother Vinnie Paul were on tour with Damageplan, just days away from wrapping up and going home for Christmas. According to Rita Haney, Dimebag Darrell's girlfriend, in the last days before his death, Dimebag Darrell called her a lot on the phone, telling her that he was fed up with Pat Lachman (Damageplan vocalist) with whom he had arguments since he did not want to sing Pantera songs, tired of the tour and wanting to go home for Christmas. Dishearteningly, on December 8, 2004, when Damageplan walked onstage at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, within 10 seconds of starting to play the first song, Dimebag Darrell was shot 5 times. in the head by a schizophrenic ex-marine named Nathan Gale, who also shot several people in the public and on the Damageplan team. Fortunately, he did not have time to locate Vinnie Paul, whom he was desperately looking for after shooting his brother, to also end his life. Dimebag Darrell died on the spot, along with several other people killed by the ex-Marine that night. Police arrived on the scene two minutes after receiving the first emergency call, and Nathan Gale was shot dead by police officer James Niggemeyer, who shot him in the face as he was about to kill a hostage, John &# 34;Kat" Brooks, a member of the Damageplan team and a former friend and member of the Pantera team, who confronted the killer trying to take his gun, thus saving the life of the hostage and many others.

According to police investigations, Nathan Gale suffered from schizophrenia and had been discharged from the Marine Corps. He was determined to commit murder against Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, since he claimed that Pantera stole his lyrics. In addition, a fan of Pantera, it is believed that the breakup of the band led him to want to commit the murders against its members as revenge. Apparently, Nathan Gale had caused an altercation at the previous concert that Damageplan had given in Columbus, Ohio, wanting to sneak on stage by claiming that Pantera stole his lyrics, but he was thrown out of the concert by members of security.

Death of Vinnie Paul

On June 22, 2018, Vinnie Paul dies at his home in Las Vegas in his sleep; Two months later it was revealed that the musician died of dilated cardiomyopathy, his remains were interred next to the grave of his brother and his mother Carolyn in Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.

Reunion (2022-present)

On July 13, 2022, Billboard reported that Brown and Anselmo will reunite in 2023 for Pantera's first major tour in 22 years, and it was announced that they have signed with Artist Group International to book a North American tour. Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante were later announced as the respective replacements for Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul.

Pantera performed their first shows in 21 years in December 2022, co-headlining Mexico's Monterrey Metal Fest with Judas Priest, and also appearing at Hell and Heaven Fest in Mexico on the first day of activities and Knotfest in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. The band will then embark on their first full-scale tour of Europe since 2000 in May and June 2023, and will support Metallica on select North American dates of their 72 Seasons.

When asked by Bravewords.com in November 2022 if Pantera was planning to record any new material, Benante said: "Oh man, who knows? Creatively, if we're flowing and getting going, and things are starting to get really good, musically speaking, you never know what can happen. I have tons of riffs".

The band's concerts at the Rock im Park and Rock im Park festivals in Germany and their concert in the Austrian capital Vienna in 2023 have been canceled following a protest over earlier racist comments by singer Phil Anselmo and his display of the Hitler salute at previous events.

Features

Appearances in Popular Culture

Pantera has been featured in a multitude of entertainment shows and acts. The animated series Beavis and Butt-Head included the videos for the songs "Mouth for War", "Psycho Holiday", "I' m Broken" and "This Love". In this series, its protagonists commented on the videos while they were interpreting them. Although these characters tend to comment negatively on most of the videos that they include in their series, with those of Pantera they make an exception by commenting on them relatively and favorably. "Walk" was used during the broadcast of the wrestling program Extreme Championship Wrestling by the wrestler Rob Van Dam. Pantera's music has also appeared in a multitude of video games, among which Doom (in which the characters appear) stand out. tracks "Rise", "Mouth for War", "Regular People (Conceit)" and "This Love", although all without part vocal), and Guitar Hero, in which the song "Cowboys from Hell" is one of the most difficult to play Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock with the song 'I'm Broken', in 2008 the American singer Madonna covered the song A New Level mixing it with the hit Hung Up during the Sticky and Sweet Tour.

On the other hand, many songs by Pantera that do not appear on any official album by the band, do appear on the soundtracks of, in chronological order, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Raven, Tales from the Crypt, Strangeland, Detroit Rock City, Heavy Metal 2000, Dracula 2000 and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Also a song similar to "Death rattle" appeared in the chapter Prehibernation Week of the SpongeBob series appearing in the credits "Special Guest Pantera Group".

Criticism

Pantera's style has been criticized numerous times due to its resemblance to that of the band Exhorder. Many fans of this band accused Pantera of having stolen their style, the groove metal that they would later popularize. The Allmusic biography says that if Exhorder had had a bigger recording budget and a big company behind it, there might have been talk of a "new Pantera." to Exhorder is Dave Mustaine, leader of Megadeth, who said it in an interview with MTV in 1994.

At the opposite pole is music critic Brian Davis, who works for English-language internet radio station KNAC, saying there are some similarities between Exhorder's sound and Pantera's, but what to say? Pantera stole Exhorder's sound is excessive. Despite the controversy that arose at the time about possible plagiarism between the two formations, Exhorder's vocalist, Kyle Thomas, stated that he does not care about the controversy surrounding his style, arguing that the members of Pantera and those of Exhorder are great friends and that he was sorry for Darrell's death.

Acknowledgments

The band is considered one of the fundamentals in laying the foundations of groove metal and one of the most influential metal formations of the nineties.

Pantera has been included in numerous lists of importance within the history of heavy metal and hard rock, reaching fifth place on the MTV list of the 10 Best heavy metal bands of all time, as well as appearing at number 45 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Bands.

Discography

Pantera's discography consists of nine studio albums, a live album, a compilation album, later this would be published in two versions. They have also released two EPs, six singles, five video albums, eleven music videos, and two box sets.

Albums of study

• 1983: Metal Magic
• 1984: Projects in the Jungle
• 1985: I Am the Night
• 1988: Power Metal
• 1990: Cowboys from Hell
• 1992: Vulgar Display of Power
• 1994: Far Beyond Driven
• 1996: The Great Southern Trendkill
• 2000: Reinventing the Steel

Members

Current members

• Philip Anselmo - voice (1986-2003, 2022-present).
• Rex Brown - bass, choirs (1982-2003, 2022-presente).
• Zakk Wylde - guitar (2022-presente).
• Charlie Benante - Battery (2022-present).

Support members

• Derek Engemann - bass, choirs (2022-present).

Derek Engemann replaced Rex Brown on the band's current tour, since he had to return to the United States due to the spread of Covid-19 after Knotfest in Colombia

Previous members

• Terry Glaze - guitar, keyboard, voice (1981-1986), choirs (1981-1982).
• Tommy Bradford - bass, choirs (1981-1982)
• Donnie Hart - voice, choirs (1981-1982)
• Dimebag Darrell - † guitar, choirs (1981-2003)
• Vinnie Paul - Battery (1981-2003)

Timeline