Out & About

Pantera Pays Brutally Heavy Tribute to Legacy of Band’s Founding Brothers

BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. -- Heavy metal's heyday came stomping back with a vengeance last Friday night, when a celebration of the legacy of Pantera punched generations of eager fans square in the face at The Pavilion at Star Lake.

Marking the first night of the band's first headlining tour in 22 years, the highly anticipated Pittsburgh-area show was truly a special occasion.

The buzz-generating lineup of Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown paired with guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) and drummer Charlie Benante (Anthrax, S.O.D.) had already played a number of big festival dates in the U.S., Europe, Japan, South America and Mexico since December.

But heading out on the road to headline the first Pantera tour since 2001 was ripping open a new chapter for a band that clawed its way to mass popularity in the 1990s because of -- or despite -- how brutally heavy their songs were.

A considerable amount of debate about this reunion tour swirled among die-hard fans, particularly in light of the fact that the band's founding members – guitar legend "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott both died years ago. Tragically, "Dime" was shot to death by a crazed fan in December 2004 while performing on stage at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus with his band, Damageplan, which also featured his brother on drums. The shooting left three other people at the nightclub and the gunman dead, but Vinnie Abbott was able to escape the attack. He continued to perform with the band Hellyeah until heart disease led to his untimely death in 2018.

It had been widely reported that the former Pantera band members were not even on speaking terms at the time tragedies struck, making reunion proposals after 2004 unlikely and after 2018 impossible.

But the new-era Pantera has been appropriately packaged as a true tribute to the legacy of the Abbott brothers and the music they helped create. It is also a gift to the many fans that have gotten goosebumps from the raw power that Pantera is able to harness like no other band.

Pantera fans who were along for the wild ride back in the '90s came out in full force along with legions of newcomers from a younger generation who have discovered the band's classic catalogue.

T-shirts for this current tour carry the slogan, "For the Brothers, For the Fans, For Legacy," and the power-packed show served as a fitting salute to all three prongs of that triumvirate.

The band kicked off last Friday's show with "A New Level," from its crushing 1992 album "Vulgar Display of Power." They followed through with "Mouth for War" from the same release, and then launched into "Strength Beyond Strength" from the 1994 album "Far Beyond Driven."

Pantera emerged to notoriety during a time when heavy metal was at a crossroads. Bands like Metallica had paved the way for the next wave of metal. Some took a left turn into what became known as "nu metal" (with the likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot) while others leaned more into the grunge scene that came out of Seattle in the early '90s.

It was Pantera that tapped into a way to make the heaviest metal even heavier. They were pioneers in using power grooves to make churning guitar riffs and galloping drums take metal to the next level --and the band members knew it. As did their fans.

Listening to the barrage of brutal cuts that came one after the other at the top of the set during the Star Lake show, I thought to myself, "wow – they're busting out ALL of their most nasty, griding, heaviest and most awesome songs right off the bat!" Then it dawned on me that this was Pantera … and the truth is pretty much ALL of their songs are nasty, grinding, brutally heavy and awesome.

Icing on the cake was added to "Becoming" and "I'm Broken," as the bone-crushing outro sections in "Throes of Rejection" and "By Demons Be Driven" were added to the end of those cuts, respectively.

Favorites like "5 Minutes Alone," "This Love" and "Domination / Hollow" kept the circle pit on the law swirling. Video tributes to the Abbott brothers also played on the big screen throughout the show, with songs "Regular People" and "Cemetery Gates" playing on the soundtracks.

"Every note that we hit is for the brothers," Anselmo announced between songs.

Benante came out front to play congas on the spacey and moody Black Sabbath cover of "Planet Caravan." It was one of the only mellow points of the night, aside from the moment that the crowd joined for a singalong of "Happy Birthday" to bassist Brown, who celebrated his 59th the day before the show.

Crowd favorite "Walk" brought opening band SNAFU out to help lead the crowd in another singalong of the infections chorus "re-spect, walk!" The set closed with the title track from the band's breakthrough 1990 album, "Cowboys from Hell."

The encore brought the first performance of the song "Slaughtered" since the reunion, and to close the night, the band cranked out "Revolution Is My Name" from 2000's "Reinventing the Steel."

Kudos goes out to the production crew. The sound during the show was absolutely crystal clear -- which is not always the case for heavy metal concerts. The lights and fiery effects added to the spectacle that was nothing short of perfection and loads of fun for everyone.

Hopefully the Pantera legacy will continue beyond this tour.