As plugged on the sleeve of the new album, Great Southern Trendkill

This caused hits to this page to more than quadruple over the first week of the album's release! The most hit page at this site by a long shot! Thanks to all at Concrete for the pleasant surprise :-)

Pantera are from Texas, hence their other monicker, "The Cowboys From Hell". They've recorded four albums with the current four-piece line-up, but you'll probably only hear about the last three. The band started off many moons ago as a pretty tacky rock group, verging on glam. There were records before these four, but it's hard to find information on them. Power Metal was recorded in a studio owned by the father of drummer Vinnie Paul and his brother Dimebag Darrell (previously Diamond Darrell).
All the editing and mixing was done by the band, as was the marketing. They managed to shift 35,000 copies. An impressive feat which landed them a contract with ATCO/EastWest.
Pantera's music is fast and heavy. They've changed dramatically since their Power metal days, though if you look closely, the change isn't that sudden. They are one of the most ass-kicking bands I have ever seen live, even if I do disagree with their incessant pro-drug attitude. Their home videos are cool, their security manager is cool, they are cool. And their music is wonderful!

The band are:
Lead Vocals: Phil Anselmo (Alternative picture thanks to Scott Caliva)
Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals: Dimebag Darrell
Bass/Backing Vocals: Rex Brown (plus a new, alternative picture)
Drums: Vinnie Paul
Security Chief: Val

Incidentally, for all of you who jumped straight here rather than via my home page, the other ugly sod in most of the piccies is me!

Current News

No Video Date - New Album The FBD video still has no official release date. To kind of make up for it, the band are releasing a live album entitled Official Live. It's out on July 29th and has two new studio tracks plus all the live stuff
When Beyond Driven? Latest estimates are that the Far Beyond Video title will hit stores sometime around Spring. Fingers crossed!
Pantera TAB! Rob Doyle was kind enough to mail me this tab ages ago. Sorry it's taken so long to get it onto the page. There are two songsworth: Planet Caravan and The Art Of Shredding.
No Video - No Ninn! Contrary to the information I had previously renowned porn director Michael Ninn will not be working on the next Pantera video. because there isn't one! No plans are around for another 'video for a song' as yet.
Another Dime Solo! Where are they all coming from? Anyway, search out an album called Spacewalk - A Tribute To Ace Frehley. Dimes does a cover of Fractured Mirror on it.
Dimebag Collector's Track! Want a real collector's item? Well, Dime's done a track entitled Caged In A Rage for the soundtrack of the latest Jackie Chan film, Supercop. Dime does vocals and guitars and a friend of his does drums. Not available elsewhere!
Pantera Delay European Tour! AAAAHHH!!! After the Japanese and Australasian dates, Pantera will return to the US in November. This will push back European and UK (I am not a fucking European) dates to the start of next year. ARSE!
Phil Facing Charges In a bid to win the award for 'Most Insensitive Bastards On The Face Of The Planet', Texas police are considering arresting and charging Phil Anselmo with possession of a controlled substance after his OD a little while back. I mean, come on - I think he's learned his lesson, right?
Pantera Far East and Down Under Tour dates for Japan, Oz and NZ now available..
News On Overdose Story Posted to the mailing list recently, here's the transcript of the relevant MTV article:
Pantera singer Phil Anselmo died of a heroin overdose last Saturday, but then, according to him, came back from the dead, and has kept right on touring. This latest rock O.D. incident, coming one day after the heroin-overdose death of Smashing Pumpkins tour keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, took place after a Pantera concert in Dallas, at the Starplex Ampitheatre. After repeated calls to his label and management from MTV News, Anselmo himself released a statement in which he said, "I injected a lethal dose of heroin into my arm, and died for four to five minutes. There was no lights, no beautiful music, just nothing. And then, after 20 minutes (from what I heard later), my friends slapped me and poured water over my head, all basically trying to revive me. The paramedics finally arrived and all I remember is waking up in the back of an ambulance. From that point all I knew all I wanted was to be back on the tour bus going to the next gig. Instead I was going to the hospital where I was released very shortly." Anselmo was taken to Baylor Medical Center, and released shortly thereafter. "You see, I am not a heroin addict," he emphasizes in his statement, "but I am (was) an intravenous drug abuser. The lesson learned here is that every nightmare ever heard about O.D.-ing and/or heroin is terribly true." The moral of the story, in Anselmo's words, "I will not die so easily. I'm here to piss off the music press for a long time to come." Pantera's tour with White Zombie plays Compton Terrace in Chandler, Arizona on Thursday.
Phil's Heroin Overdose MTV are saying that Phil almost died last Saturday night (13th July) as a result of o/d-ing on heroin. This happened after the performance in Dallas with White Zombie. No confirmation from the band or management yet, but I'll let you know when I do.
More 'pilfered' songs Related in a way to the news further down about Pantera tracks being used in Doom: Mike (no idea where he's from!) tells me that a couple of Slayertracks are also used in the game around Level 6.
Why did the power keep going at the Newcastle, England gig in '95? Well, the band's tour manager, Guy Sykes, kindly posted this answer to the Pantera Digest:
Mad Mosher wanted to know about the power at the Newastle gig...
The power problems stemmed from a faulty transformer that kept tripping the fuses from the house power supply. We tried in vain to get it working again but could not. We spent the following couple of days trying to sort it out and finally traced to a bad ground in one of the guitar racks... Sorry about that one... We will see you in November....
Guy Sykes
Tour Manager

Damn right you'll see me in November! :-)
Great Southern Trendkill debuts at number 2! The new album entered the Australian charts at the next-to-top spot. It was only held off the number 1 position by George Michael. Well, good taste almost in Oz...
Why did Phil not record the vocals with the rest of the album? And also an answer to 'Why is Trent Reznor on the thanks list?' Phil lives in New Orleans, as does Trent Reznor. The rest of the band live in Texas. Rather than have Phil trail all the way over to Texas and stay in a hotel or whatever, he opted to record his vocals at Trent's home studio which is local. Purely for convenience sake. So now you know!
Updated mailing list address It's back! Check out the instructions further down the page...
A live album is being worked on. All the shows on the last tour, and all the ones on the White Zombie co-headliner have been/will be recorded. Around Christmas, Vinnie will sort through them and get editing. Don't expect a release before late 1997, though...
First Single from GST is/will be 'Drag The Waters'. Apparently this is out in the US, but I have heard nothing of a planned UK release. Yet. Hopefully.
It's here! Great Southern Trendkill was released on May6th/7th (depending on where you live). I've only heard one track (cash flow problems prevent me from buying it, sadly) but that track was excellent. They seem to have dropped the 'noise' and overall sound of FBD and gone slighty back to a Vulgar Display edge. Much better than the last album, in my opinion!
In addition to the Doom II article further down, Mike (sorry, no surname) emailed me to let me know that in Doom I (Episode 3, Map 1) 'Mouth For War' is used as background music. Other bands' work is also in there somewhere, including Alice in Chains.
More Trivia: This time courtesy of Andy Martone (via the Pantera Mailing List). The 'ATR' tattoo on Phil's neck stands for 'Attack The Radical'. So now you know...
Triva note: John Nelson emailed me to let you all know where the samples in the background of Pantera's version of 'The Badge' come from. They're towards the end of the film Taxi Driver. So now you know. Thanks, John!
Dimebag is working on the new home video. It should be out around the same time as the album, that being Spring 1996
For those who didn't already know, Dimebag plays on a couple of tracks on the new Anthrax album, Stomp 442. I ain't got this yet, but I hear it kicks the proverbial Gluteus Maximus!
Phil's taking a little time before recording of the new album to sing some nice little ditties on Anal Cunt's new album! Keep an eye out for that number on the Earache album sometime soon.
Pantera's management have been told (several times) that "This Love" is used as the background music on level 18 of Doom II. They'll be looking into it if they reckon they're being ripped off.
Far Beyond Driven has reached Platinum status in the U.S. Well done, guys!

Hear Phil Scream!

I got this lovely sample from usenet the other day, and converted it from a lovely 16-bit stereo WAV to a cacky 8-bit SUN AU so that it would work with UNIX browsers. Good job it's designed to be noisy anyway!

Discography

Albums

Metal Magic (1983)
Projects in the Jungle (1984)
I Am The Night (1985)
Power Metal (1988)
Cowboys From Hell (1990)
Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
Far Beyond Driven (1994)
Great Southern Trendkill (1996)

Singles

7" (45's)
5 Minutes Alone b/w The Badge (cover of a Poison Idea song) [limited edition of 5000. White vinyl with 5 button badges]

12"
Cowboys From Hell b/w Cowboys From Hell (live) [DJ promo only]
Walk b/w Cowboys From Hell (live) and Heresy (live)
5 Minutes Alone b/w Becoming [DJ promo only]

CD
Walk b/w various remixes of Walk
Mouth For War b/w Rise, Cowboys From Hell (live), Domination (live)
I'm Broken b/w Slaughtered, Domination (live) and Primal Concrete Sledge (live)
I'm Broken b/w Slaughtered, Cowboys From Hell (live) and Psycho Holiday (live)
Planet Caravan b/w The Badge, New Level (live) and Becoming (live)
Planet Caravan b/w The Badge, Domination (live) and Hollow (live)
Planet Caravan b/w Demon (Biomechanical mix), Heresy (live) and Cowboys From Hell (live) [European Tour Limited Edition]
Planet Caravan b/w Primal Concrete Sledge, Demon and Walk [US release]

Long-Play Videos

Cowboys From Hell - The Videos (1990)
Vulgar Video (1993)

Thanks to HANNA@VAX.LSE.AC.UK and Chris Allan for the help compiling parts of this list!

Also Worth Checking Out

Slater's Pantera Page - pics, news and stuff

Phil Anselmo Tribute run by 'Larson'

'Nother Pantera page

Bo Davidson's Pantera Page - lyrics, links and more info

The Great Souther Trendkillers page, including tablature

Pantera Links - courtesy of Nicholas Weber

New fan page as of 19th July '96 - check it out here.

The official page at Elektra

Concrete M who manage the band.

FanAsylum for gig dates and tickets

A handy link for some guitar tablature.

Vulgar Display of Pantera is hidden somewhere in this Netscape 2.0-enhanced jungle! Worth checking out for lyrics, tablature and samples.

Alfie's Page has loads of good stuff on it.

There's a Pantera Home Page that's worth a look, though the comic cover he's got ain't signed!

Fil's Pantera Page

Another Pantera Page with more nice stuff on it.

The Pantera Comic from Rock-It is available if you look hard enough. It's rather disappointing, though, and three out of three band members who expressed a preference (Vinnie didn't say anything) said it sucked!
A mailing list for Pantera fans is run by a nice chap in the States. To join it, send mail to:
majordomo@mouth4war.net
with the subject:
subscribe mouth4war
and the body of the message containing only:
subscribe mouth4war [your email address (no brackets)]
Enter your email address here if you would like to be mailed when the page is updated.
NOTE: This only partains to this page, the Pantera page. Other NetMinder forms can be found on other pages. You must use the one on the page you're interested in.

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