(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Pantera were formed in Texas in the early 1980s (with Cemetery Gates marking their first single and first magical guitar solo).
In the following years, they went through a long apprenticeship across five albums, with songs like Widowmaker on Metal Magic (Metal Magic, 1983), some tracks on Projects In The Jungle (Metal Magic, 1984), and Down Below on I Am The Night (Metal Magic, 1985), mostly chasing trends (pop-metal, glam-metal, etc.).
Singer and guitarist Terry Lee Glaze disappeared starting with Power Metal (Metal Magic, 1988), replaced by Philip Anselmo and a much more powerful sound. Proud To Be Loud became their first manifesto. Well Meet Again was not a prophetic title. The glam-era Pantera were definitively buried with that album.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Cowboys From Hell (Atlantic, 1990) revived their career via a stormy
heavy-metal sound that owed its sense of unbalance to hardcore.
Cowboys From Hell is emblematic of their varied and progressive sound:
the guitar's surgical bombing and the bass sexy moves,
the sudden accelerations and the countless episodes, the vocal nuances and
the dramatic tension.
If that is the "manifesto" of the new course, tracks like
Psycho Holiday and Medicine Man
pack even more morbid atmospheres in even more flexible structures.
The search for a new language peaks with Cemetery Gates, its introduction
for acoustic guitar and its panzer riffs, its desperate shout and its
epic progression.
Compared with these skillfully choreographed songs,
the fast tracks sound dated, even if at least Shattered and
The Art Of Shredding could be the envy of Metallica.
Vulgar Display Of Power (Atlantic, 1992) turned them into an arena
phenomenon. From the first notes of Mouth For War, the band shows
a far more aggressive stance.
Fucking Hostile and Rise explode like shrapnel.
The sound is fuller and darker than ever.
At the same time, the lesson of the previous album has been further analyzed
and leads to the ferocious melodrama of Walk, the schizophrenic ballad
This Love, the angst-ridden rant of Live In A Hole, and especially
the desolate lullaby of Hollow.
The only drawback of the album is a marked indulgence for horror moods
that sometimes border on the grotesque.
These two albums marked a historical turning point for heavy metal.
They literally turned the genre into the equivalent of a disgusting painting.
Dimebag Darrell (aka Darrell Abbott) is the "guitar hero" of the album, but
drummer Vinnie Paul better qualifies as their leader and spokesman.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Far Beyond Driven (Atlantic, 1994), which debuted at number one on the charts, not only delivered new classics of their vulgar style (Five Minutes Alone, Strength Beyond Strength), but also showcased some classy experimentation (the industrial pastiche of Good Friends And A Bottle Of Pills).
In 1994, the single Im Broken was released.
Moderately gothic, pensioner-friendly heavy metal comes from the supergroup Down, formed by Philip Anselmo of Pantera and Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity, along with Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange of Crowbar. Nola (Elektra, 1995) collects material written over three years. When the epic barrages of Lifer are tinged with epidermal sobs and apocalyptic marches, one can glimpse the future of heavy metal, blending folk and blues. In the cacophony of Rehab, echoes of Jimi Hendrix can be heard, while the supernatural blues of Jail drifts into new age. But most of the other tracks are grandiose concentrations of death and grind stereotypes with little imagination. In this context, only the muffled growls of Hail The Leaf bring a hint of novelty. At times, it sounds like a promising crossover between Black Crowes and Soundgarden, but overall, deadly tedium prevails.
The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) was notable mainly for the explosive energy of its thrash tracks (the title track) and the rap barrages of War Nerve. The slow, heavy Black Sabbathstyle doom of 10's and the overwhelming force of Living Through Me are merely tributes to the classic heavy metal style. Experiments (electronics, sampling) are concentrated in the ballads Suicide Note and Floods (featuring Darrells best solo).
Official Live (East West, 1997) provides an excellent live summary of the career of these metal cowboys, from their first single Cemetery Gates to their contemporary hits. Two new songs are included: Where You Come From and I Can't Hide.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Reinventing the Steel (Elektra, 2000) starts out with one of their
classic slaughterhouses, Hellbound, and then drops one bomb after
the other; but Darrell Abbott grants a couple of moments of ecstasy:
the galloping Yesterday Don't Mean and the circular riffing of Uplift.
Even more surprising,
a dark sludge envelops You've Got To Belong To It, that sounds as
industrial as metal, and an agonizing, bluesy pattern rips
God-damn Electric apart.
Pantera is reinventing the genre.
The supergroup Down II reformed to release
A Bustle In Your Hedgerow (Elektra, 2002)
an album that offers a more traditional take on heavy music over the course of
15 massive bricks of unrelenting, earth-shaking grooves.
The ferocious, panzer-grade riffing of The Man That Follows Hell and
There's Something On My Side were learned from the likes of
Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Ghosts Along The Mississippi even harks back to the Cream.
However, this is mostly a tedious assemblage of metal cliches.
The acoustic numbers (e.g., the plantation spiritual Where I'm Going,
and the lengthy blues-jazz shuffle Lies I Don't Know What They Say)
are worth much more than the regular fare.
Furthermore,
the closing track, Landing On The Mountains of Meggido, is a 12-minute
gothic/psychedelic folk trip that, while over-indulgent, shows the band
reneging the first half of the album. And rightly so.
Basically, the rest of the album didn't stand up to the opening song.
Pantera's guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul are the brains
behind Damage Plan's
New Found Power (Elektra, 2004).
In december 2004, one year after Pantera broke up, Abbott was killed by a
distressed fan.
Vinnie Paul died in 2018.
The band reformed with singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown joined by
Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax's drummer Charlie Benante.
