As the first group to land an extreme metal album at No. 1 on the BIllboard 200, Pantera became overnight torchbearers of the genre, paving the way for a long and successful reign that shows no signs of slowing . In 2013, Pantera frontman, Phil Anselmo, and bassist, Rex Brown, reunited and joined Anthrax on stage at the Revolver Golden God Awards show. Performing "This Love" from their 1992 album "Vulgar Display of Power," Anselmo's voice reminded fans of the unbridled brutality the band was capable of in its heyday. The energy Pantera crammed into their live act cannot be measured by any earthly means. The shredding licks of Dimebag Darrel, backed by Vinnie Paul's solid, world-shattering drums rounded out a power-packed concert that was everything American metal should be. The band treated ticket holders to speed metal of a truly high caliber, as entire arenas seemed to erupt in torrents of high-speed thrashing to a Texas-bred cacophony that was anything but ordinary.
When Anselmo joined the band in 1987, and the band released their breakthrough album 1990's "Cowboys From Hell," little remained of their glam and hair metal origins, and replacing those was an entirely fresh, raw presence that had no equal. After releasing "Vulgar Display of Power" in 1992, Pantera toured with tremendous success. The shocking assassination of Dimebag Darrell in 2004 sadly put an end to any hopes of a reunion, but the memory lives on in singles like "Mouth for War" and "Walk," both from "Vulgar Display of Power." Vulgar's follow-up, "Far Beyond Driven," topped its predecessor with even more raw thunder. Pantera will be remembered as a band that ushered in the new thrash, for nothing was ever the same after they arrived. As they may very well be the fathers of modern metal, they were truly greater than the sum of their parts.
