Pantera
Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.
Active4 formations9 studio albums
Formation chronology
Newest first
Formation 4 of 4
Dec 2, 2022 – Present
Members
- Phil AnselmoLead VocalsFrom Dec 2022
- Rex BrownBassFrom Dec 2022
- Zakk WyldeGuitarFrom Dec 2022
- Charlie BenanteDrumsFrom Dec 2022
Formation facts
- The 2022 return has been framed by the musicians and Abbott-family representatives as a celebration of Dime and Vinnie’s music, not a reunion of the original four. Charlie Benante said there cannot be a reunion without them. The Vinnie Paul Estate publicly supported Phil, Rex, Zakk Wylde, and Benante playing the songs.
- Charlie Benante changed his drum configuration away from his Anthrax kit so he could play Vinnie’s parts in Vinnie’s physical setup, studying tiny nuances in the parts and tone. He wanted it to sound like Pantera, not like him covering Pantera. After the first New Orleans rehearsal, he recalled Rex telling him that when Rex closed his eyes, it felt like Vinnie was up there — and Phil said something similar.
- Before the first 2022 show in Mexico, longtime associate Sterling Winfield gave Charlie Benante one of Dime’s old wristbands and a pair of Vinnie’s gloves. Benante has said he wears the wristband and keeps a glove with him every night so they are with him while he plays their music.
Formation 3 of 4
1987 – Aug 26, 2001
Members
- Phil AnselmoLead VocalsJan 1987 – Aug 2001
- Dimebag DarrellGuitarJan 1987 – Aug 2001
- Rex BrownBassJan 1987 – Aug 2001
- Vinnie PaulDrumsJan 1987 – Aug 2001
Formation facts
- Pantera were turned down by more than two dozen labels before Atco A&R man Mark Ross saw them. Hurricane Hugo in September 1989 diverted his travel and left him in Texas; his boss told him to catch the band at a local birthday gig. Vinnie recalled Ross disappearing mid-set — the band thought they had blown it — because Ross had gone to the car to call and say they should be signed.
- Before Pantera broke nationally, Dave Mustaine offered Dimebag a Megadeth guitar job. Dime’s condition was that Vinnie come too. Mustaine had just hired Nick Menza, so the brothers stayed put — an alternate timeline both men later said would have rewritten both bands. Dime never accepted a Megadeth seat on his own.
- In September 1991 Pantera interrupted Vulgar Display of Power to play Monsters of Rock at Tushino Airfield in Moscow, on a bill with Metallica and AC/DC. The scale of one of the first huge Western outdoor rock festivals in the collapsing Soviet Union stunned a band still finishing the record. Later retellings disagree wildly about the headcount; what stuck was the shock of the room.
- The Vulgar Display of Power fist-to-face cover looks like a real beating. For years a story circulated — helped along by band retellings — that the model was punched over and over for cash until the camera caught it. Photographer Brad Guice and model Sean Cross later described a staged studio shot: a professional fist pressed into the face, then shoved and blurred. Nobody was actually beaten for the picture.
- Far Beyond Driven debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1994, even though Pantera had made a still-brutal record instead of softening up. Coverage suddenly called them an overnight sensation after the musicians had already spent roughly a decade on the club circuit.
- The first Far Beyond Driven artwork was a drill-bit image built around a crude “metal up your ass” joke. Retail chains balked, and the familiar drill-through-a-skull cover replaced it. Vinnie later said he still preferred the original.
- Rex called their recording method “the microscope”: Vinnie’s drums first, then Dime’s guitar, then bass locked only to Dime, with analog tape cut when something was off — before Pro Tools. He said that scrutiny is how the guitar and bass attack locked so tightly.
- On The Great Southern Trendkill, Dime, Rex, and Vinnie tracked the music in Texas while Phil Anselmo recorded vocals separately in New Orleans, including at Trent Reznor’s Nothing Studios. One of Pantera’s most hostile-sounding records was assembled with the singer a state away, during an increasingly strained period.
- After Pantera’s Dallas hometown show on July 13, 1996, Phil Anselmo overdosed on heroin and went into cardiac arrest. He later said he had been gone four to five minutes before paramedics revived him. The tour continued. Manager Kim Zide-Davis later called heroin the turning point that meant nothing could stay the same.
- At Ozzfest in Dallas in 1999, Dime and Vinnie hauled a portable deck backstage and plugged Kerry King in after Slayer’s set. King recorded the Goddamn Electric outro in one take in a bathroom. Dime is audible at the end of the take yelling not to touch it.
- In 1999 Pantera wrote “Puck Off” for the Dallas Stars’ Stanley Cup run. After the Stars won, players partied at Vinnie Paul’s house, and the Cup ended up dented. Decades later even the people who were there still disagree over exactly how it happened.
- August 26, 2001, at Beast Feast in Yokohama Arena, was the last concert the Anselmo/Dimebag/Rex/Vinnie lineup ever played. It was not billed as a farewell. After September 11, remaining dates fell away, and the four never performed as Pantera again. The crowd that night did not know it was watching the classic quartet for the last time.
- On December 8, 2004, Dimebag Darrell was murdered onstage while performing with Damageplan at Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. Three other people were also killed: Jeffrey “Mayhem” Thompson, Erin Halk, and Nathan Bray. Others were wounded. Columbus police officer James Niggemeyer ended the attack. Vinnie Paul never performed Pantera with Phil Anselmo again.
Studio albums
- Reinventing the Steel (Mar 2000)
- The Great Southern Trendkill (May 1996)
- Far Beyond Driven (Mar 1994)
- Vulgar Display of Power (Feb 1992)
- Cowboys from Hell (Jul 1990)
- Power Metal (May 1988)
Formation 2 of 4
1982 – 1986
Members
- Terry GlazeLead VocalsJan 1982 – Dec 1986
- Dimebag DarrellGuitarJan 1982 – Dec 1986
- Rex BrownBassJan 1982 – Dec 1986
- Vinnie PaulDrumsJan 1982 – Dec 1986
Formation facts
- Before any major label, Jerry Abbott managed Pantera and produced the independent albums at Pantego Sound, crediting himself as “The Eld’n” — a nickname the kids hung on their father. The records came out on Metal Magic, the family’s own operation: studio, producer, manager, and label under one roof.
- Rex Brown recalled years on the Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana circuit when Pantera played six sets a night. Later they could draw roughly two thousand people for a single Texas show — his recollection, not a box-office audit — which finally gave them time in the Abbott studio to become, as he put it, total perfectionists.
- Terry Glaze has asked later fans to listen past his glam-era vocals. By Projects in the Jungle, he said, Darrell’s playing was already fully formed, and the rhythmic character of the Pantera the world later knew was already there.
Studio albums
- I Am the Night (Dec 1985)
- Projects in the Jungle (Jul 1984)
- Metal Magic (Jun 1983)
Formation 1 of 4
1981 – 1982
Members
- Donny HartLead VocalsJan 1981 – Dec 1982
- Terry GlazeGuitarJan 1981 – Dec 1982
- Dimebag DarrellGuitarJan 1981 – Dec 1982
- Tommy D. BradfordBassJan 1981 – Dec 1982
- Vinnie PaulDrumsJan 1981 – Dec 1982
Formation facts
- As a teenager, Darrell Abbott entered local guitar contests until he said he had won seven in a row, walking away with guitars and amps. When he tried to enter again, the organizers told him not to compete — they wanted him to judge the next one instead.
- Country musician and engineer Jerry Abbott ran Pantego Sound, and Darrell later said he pretty much grew up there. Jerry gave Darrell his first guitar lessons; by the time Pantera was starting, the brothers were still teenagers hanging around a working studio that became the band’s early workshop.