Pantera

Pantera formed in Arlington, Texas, in 1981 by brothers "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott on guitar and Vinnie Paul Abbott on drums, with bassist Rex Brown joining in 1982. The group spent its first decade in near-total obscurity, self-releasing four albums on the family-run Metal Magic label — Metal Magic (1983), Projects in the Jungle (1984), I Am the Night (1985) and Power Metal (1988). Fronted for most of that run by singer Terry Glaze, these records traded in the hairspray-and-spandex glam metal of the era, a period the band would later work hard to disown; the albums were never reissued and remain absent from streaming services. The turning point came in 1987 when New Orleans vocalist Phil Anselmo replaced Glaze. His raw, hostile delivery pushed the band away from melodic hard rock and toward something far heavier. Power Metal was the transitional record, but the true reinvention arrived with Cowboys from Hell (1990), their major-label debut for Atco and their first album to chart on the Billboard 200. Working with producer Terry Date, Pantera stripped away the glam entirely and built a sound around down-tuned, percussive, mid-tempo riffing — thrash's aggression slowed down and locked to a swaggering rhythmic pulse. That template effectively defined groove metal, the dominant post-thrash subgenre of the 1990s, and its influence ran through everything from Machine Head to Lamb of God. The band's commercial peak followed quickly. Vulgar Display of Power (1992) became their best-selling record, certified multi-platinum and home to "Walk" and "Mouth for War". Far Beyond Driven (1994) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 — an almost unthinkable feat for an album that extreme. The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) turned darker and more chaotic, and Reinventing the Steel (2000) proved their last studio album. Central to it all was Dimebag Darrell, whose squealing pinch harmonics, blues-rooted phrasing and razor-sharp riff construction made him one of the most imitated guitarists of his generation. Internal tensions — largely between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers, aggravated by Anselmo's substance problems and outside projects — corroded the band, and Pantera collapsed acrimoniously in 2003 amid public feuding. The brothers formed Damageplan. On 8 December 2004, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, by a gunman during a Damageplan performance, ending any hope of reconciliation. Vinnie Paul, who never spoke to Anselmo again, died of heart failure on 22 June 2018. In 2022, Anselmo and Brown announced a reunion honouring the Abbotts, with longtime family friend Zakk Wylde on guitar and Anthrax's Charlie Benante on drums. The lineup played its first show in twenty years at Hell & Heaven Open Air in Mexico on 2 December 2022, and has toured extensively since.