Pantera

Pantera, the powerhouse Texas outfit, stood among the leading metal acts throughout the 1990s and effectively buried every lingering trace of the prior decade’s metal landscape, rendering hair metal, speed metal, power metal and similar styles instantly obsolete. Although reluctant to acknowledge it, the group had itself operated as one of those 1980s metal bands, issuing largely unsuccessful and subsequently disavowed glam-flavored recordings for most of the decade. The decisive shift occurred in 1986 when vocalist Phil Anselmo entered the lineup alongside bassist Rex Brown, drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Following the 1988 album Power Metal, the quartet drove its sound further outward on the major-label debut Cowboys from Hell (1990). Their commercial ascent arrived with the next release, Vulgar Display of Power (1992), which placed the band at the forefront of the metal world together with established acts Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax as well as rising peers Sepultura and White Zombie. After extensive touring that stretched across two years, Far Beyond Driven (1994) arrived and instantly elevated Pantera to the position of the era’s most dominant metal act: the album entered the Billboard Top 200 at number one while its lead single “I’m Broken” received saturation radio exposure.

Even at the peak of their reach and sway, internal fractures began to surface. Less than two months after The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) appeared—an album laced with references to substance abuse and personal collapse—Anselmo suffered a heroin overdose following a hometown performance in Texas. Growing friction with his bandmates prompted him to pursue an expanding roster of outside projects that distanced him from Pantera. When it became clear no new studio material would surface soon, the live collection Official Live: 101 Proof (1997) was assembled. One last studio effort, Reinventing the Steel (2000), materialized, yet it essentially marked the close of the group’s brief reunion period. The members again pursued separate paths, launching Damageplan, Down and Superjoint Ritual.

The conclusion of Pantera’s original chapter was sealed on December 8, 2004, when Dimebag Darrell was fatally shot onstage by a deranged fan during a Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio. The widely reported killing returned widespread attention to the band, and amid the resulting tributes a shared recognition emerged: looking back, no metal group of the early to mid-1990s surpassed Pantera, whose “groove metal” approach—resistant to every prevailing movement from hair metal and grunge to nu-metal and rap-metal—fueled a devoted following and continues to stand apart decades later, as much through Anselmo’s vocals as through Dimebag’s guitar work.

In subsequent years Anselmo and Rex Brown sustained their work in Down while Vinnie Paul formed the supergroup Hellyeah alongside members of Mudvayne and Nothingface. The 2010 compilation 1990-2000: A Decade of Domination collected Pantera’s key tracks. Before any long-rumored full reunion could occur, Paul died on June 22, 2018. Anselmo and Brown later joined Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante to perform as Pantera, sharing a co-headlining bill with Judas Priest at the Monterrey Metal Fest in December 2022. That appearance launched an extended touring schedule that included Hell & Heaven Metal Fest, Knotfest and Metallica’s M72 World Tour.