Phil Anselmo

Phil Anselmo — born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 30 June 1968 — has been Pantera's singer since 1987 and is the voice of the phase in which the band redefined American metal. His arrival changed the group. Pantera had existed since 1981 playing glam-influenced hard rock; with Anselmo, and above all from Cowboys from Hell (1990), it became a band of declared aggression. He quickly abandoned the high singing of the early years and developed a guttural, shouted, hammered delivery that synchronised with Dimebag Darrell's riffs instead of floating over them — the voice began working as a percussion instrument. That result came at a physical and personal cost. Anselmo developed chronic spinal problems while still young, treated the pain with heroin and overdosed in 1996, being declared clinically dead for some minutes before he was revived. The addiction and the tensions arising from it contributed to Pantera's end in 2003, in a bitter break with the Abbott brothers that was never repaired — Dimebag was murdered the following year. He has kept other groups throughout his career, notably Down, a sludge metal band formed with musicians from the New Orleans scene. In 2016 he made a gesture and a remark of racist content at an event, which drew a strong public reaction; he apologised afterwards. Since 2022 he has sung in Pantera's reunion line-up, alongside Rex Brown, Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante.