Pantera is an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. It was originally founded in 1981 by the Abbott brothers, guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul and dissolved in 2003. If initially, the group has some characteristics related to glam metal, his music is primarily heavy metal. However, in 1990, the band took a radical turn towards groove metal, a new style derived from thrash metal.
Journalist Jason Birchmeier of the AllMusic website defines Pantera as one of the "best metal bands of the 1990s". They occupy the 20> place of the VH1 rankings of the "100 largest hard rock bands>" , and are in the 5> place of the "10 best heavy metal bands of all time". Due to protracted group conflicts, Pantera broke up in 2003. The following year, former band guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on stage at a concert with his new band. Damageplan.
Pantera was formed in 1981 by drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, his brother, guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott (nicknamed "Diamond Darrell" until the release of Far Beyond Driven ), then joined by bassist Tommy Bradford and singer Donnie Hart>. At that time, they are still in high school. They start playing in various Texan clubs by doing covers of Kiss and Van Halen. The band adopts a glam metal sound and appears on stage with an extravagant look. In 1982, Hart left the group, Glaze then takes care of singing. Rex Brown (nicknamed "Rex Rocker" ) replaces Bradford on bass. Pantera becomes a band known in the underground world, so they go to play all over Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The band starts playing the first part of various heavy metal bands like Stryper, Dokken and Quiet Riot, who in turn help Pantera as a result of the release of Metal Magic . Metal Magic is released on the independent label of the same name in 1983 produced by the Abbott brothers and their father, Jerry Abbott (nicknamed " The Eldn "), and recorded at Pantego Studios>. The following year comes Pantera's second album, Projects in the Jungle , which is still released by Metal Magic Records and still produced by Jerry Abbott. The songs adopt a less melodic style than the one on "Metal Magic" . The other change is that Terry Glaze changes his nickname to "Terrence Lee" . In addition, a clip is made for the main song of the album: All Over Tonight .
For the third consecutive year, Pantera records a new album called I Am the Night , released in 1985. This album offers a much more powerful sound than the previous ones, but it still remains in the glam metal spirit. Due to poor distribution, is a difficult album to find. Nearly 25,000 copies of the album are sold. A new video clip is made for the song Hot and Heavy .
