When people talk about best-selling musicians from Dallas-Fort Worth, names like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Erykah Badu, Norah Jones and Post Malone are always on the tip of the tongue.
But hardly anyone mentions Pantera — despite the fact that the quartet sold 20 million albums and earned four Grammy nominations for its hardcore collision of metal and punk.
In the ‘90s, Pantera concerts were spectacular rituals of machismo, filled with angry young fans blowing off steam by lighting their T-shirts on fire and hurling them into the air.
Everyone else kept their distance.
On Sept. 3, a controversial new version of the band headlines its first D-FW concert since splitting up in 2003. More than a few old fans are upset that Phil Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass) have revived Pantera after the deaths of guitar hero Dimebag Darrell and his older sibling, drummer Vinnie Paul. During its current shows, the group pays tribute to the Abbott brothers with a video segment.
Underrated in its hometown, Pantera was unmistakably the area’s most colorful and tragic rock band. Here’s a look at its history:
1981: Pantera forms as a glammy hair metal band and cuts Spinal Tap-esque anthems like “Heavy Metal Rules!” “Hot And Heavy” and “Ride My Rocket.”
1986: Singer Terry Glaze exits, New Orleans native Anselmo joins and the band steers toward a darker sound.
1990: Now signed to Atlantic Records, the band releases Cowboys From Hell, often described as groove metal, a slower version of thrash metal.
1992: Momentum builds with Vulgar Display of Power, ranked by Guitar Player as the best rock guitar album of ’92 and by Rolling Stone as the 10th best metal album of all time. Later, the Texas Rangers rev up the crowd by playing the Vulgar track “Walk” whenever a Rangers batter earns a free pass to first base.
1994: Far Beyond Driven debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard pop album charts. “Diamond Darrell” officially changes his stage name to “Dimebag Darrell.”
1996: The Abbotts open the Clubhouse, a strip joint in northwest Dallas that draws high-profile rockers and various Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars. Anselmo rants during a Dallas show: “Metallica has wimped out! Their new album sucks. I know it, you know it.”
1997: After surviving a near-fatal heroin overdose backstage following a show at Starplex (Dos Equis Pavilion), Anselmo tells The Dallas Morning News: “I’m through with the deluded path, the blinded path, the narcotic path. I died and came back to life … and it really opened my eyes.” He announced he was sober in 2005.
1999: The band writes and records “Puck Off” for the Dallas Stars during its championship season. During a victory party at Vinnie Paul’s house, Stars player Guy Carbonneau dents the Stanley Cup while dropping it off a balcony.
2001: Reinventing the Steel, its final studio album, debuts at No. 4. Tensions between Anselmo and the Abbotts heighten, leading the band to break up in
2003. The Abbotts form Damageplan while Anselmo performs with his New Orleans band Down.
2004: Dimebag Darrell is shot and killed onstage during a Damageplan show at a nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. The gunman, who had a history of violence and delusional behavior, also kills three others before he’s killed by police at the scene. Thousands of fans and musicians, including Eddie Van Halen, attend a public memorial in Arlington. Dimebag is buried in a Kiss Kasket with Van Halen’s famous yellow-striped electric guitar. He was 38.
2013: Brown releases Official Truth, 101 Proof, a memoir filled with harsh comments about his bandmates and regret over missed opportunities. “I truly believed that all our differences would be worked out in time … when brothers fight and don’t talk for a while, that’s what brothers do.”
2018: Vinnie Paul dies of heart disease at age 54 in Las Vegas while preparing to record with his band Hellyeah.
2022: Anselmo and Brown announce they’re reforming Pantera with guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne) and drummer Charlie Benante (Anthrax). Anselmo buries the hatchet with Metallica, whose members ask Pantera to open for them at AT&T Stadium.
2025: Pantera performs at Black Sabbath’s final concert in July in Birmingham, England. When Ozzy Osbourne dies weeks later, Pantera halts its tour to mourn “a mentor, a brother and a constant presence in our lives, both onstage and off.” The tour resumes on Aug. 2.
Details
Pantera and opening acts Amon Amarth, King Parrot and Flesh Hoarder, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, Dos Equis Pavilion, 3839 S. Fitzhugh, Dallas. $40 and up. Ticketmaster.com.
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