Pantera

About

Pantera essentially invented groove metal as the world knows it today. Formed in Arlington, Texas in 1981 by the Abbott brothers, Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, the band spent most of the 1980s playing glam metal before Phil Anselmo joined on vocals in 1986 and everything shifted. Cowboys from Hell in 1990 announced a completely new, crushing sound, and Vulgar Display of Power two years later pushed it even further. Far Beyond Driven then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1994. Across their run they sold around 20 million records worldwide. The band's story carries real weight beyond the music. Internal tensions, fueled partly by Anselmo's struggles with addiction stemming from serious back injuries, eventually tore the group apart by 2003. Dimebag Darrell was tragically shot and killed on stage in 2004, and Vinnie Paul died in 2018, leaving Brown and Anselmo as the surviving members of the classic lineup. In 2022 those two announced a reunion with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante stepping in on guitar and drums, kicking off with a show in Mexico in December of that year.