A reunion of
Pantera
was probably not something on most heavy rock fans’ Bingo cards a few years back.
The Arlington, Texas-formed group had shut down in 2003 after 22 years. nine studio albums and five platinum-or-better releases. Guitarist Dimebag Darrell (nee Abbott) was slain onstage in 2004 in Columbus with his new band Damageplan, and his brother Vinnie Paul passed away in 2018 from coronary disease. That left half a band — frontman Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown — and seemingly little will to resurrect the group.
So it was a shock during the summer of 2022 when reports surfaced about a Anselmo and Brown putting together a new edition of the band to start touring the following year. And that they did; recruiting longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist and Black Label Society leader Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, Pantera actually returned in December 2022 at festivals in South America and Mexico, though Brown sat out several dates with Covid, replaced by Derek Engemann from Anselmo’s other bands.
Since then Pantera has been part of Metallica’s M72 concerts and has played in Europe. Most recently it was part of the Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne Back to the Beginning festival in England just before mounting its first North American tour in 14 years this month.
That tour comes to Northeast Ohio on Wednesday, July 23, for a show at Blossom Music Center.
“We’re changing up the set a lot on this one,” Benante promised via phone prior to the Back to the Beginning performance. “Some of the old faves may be there, they may not be there. A lot of people have seen us with (Metallica), so we want to give them something different.”
Benante adds that he’s “100 percent” enjoying the Pantera resurrection, describing it as “a gift, y’know, to go out and do these shows, and play these stadiums with these guys, and we’re just enjoying every moment of it.” And he bats away any criticism that, without the Abbott brothers, there should not be a Pantera anymore.
“We`ve been judged,” Benante, 62, acknowledges, “but for the most part the good outweighs some of the crap. I think that’s the best part ‘cause when we see these people, and we see them in the audience, and they’re just so happy they’re hearing these songs again.
“At the end of the day, when people say things like, ‘Not Pantera,’ we say, ‘Well, don’t you think we know that? The two original members are missing, you (expletive) idiots!’ And that’s not what this is about. This is about a whole celebration of their lives and the music they helped create. And Phil and Rex have been there a long time. It’s their band, too.”
Benante says being part of the band now has given he and Wylde insights into the Pantera sound that includes heavy rock staples such as “Cowboys From Hell,” “Cemetary Gates,” “Walk” and others. “I have to be a little more restrained than I am (with Anthrax),” the drummer explains. “In the beginning I was doing more than was there; there’s way more space in it than I thought. I was over-playing when I started to learn the songs, and then I’m like (Paul’s) not doing that. That’s not what’s going on here. I’m doing too much.’
“And then you really start to hone in on (Paul’s) style and how he approached things. Rex is a big one for pulling it back, too; ‘Let’s pull back a little bit, keep the groove,’ and that’s something that’s stayed in my head.”
The upshot is that Benante is, for the most part, staying true to Paul’s parts. “I`m playing exactly the way Vinnie played these songs. I’m not taking any liberties. I have the same configuration for the drum kit that he has, because if I had my (Anthrax) kit I may be tempted to go off a little bit and do this or that, and I just want to stay true to what the songs were and how (Pantera) played them.”
And while fan and peer reaction has been mostly positive about the resumption, Pantera was booted from two festivals in Germany and Austria in 2023 because Anselmo had performed a Nazi-style salute and shouted “white power” during a 2016 Dimebash tribute show in Hollywood After initially claiming he was joking about the white wine being served backstage, Anselmo subsequently issued an apology, saying that “anyone who knows me and my true nature knows that I don’t believe any of that.”
Benante does not feel the current quartet will record new music as Pantera but says a live album is possible. In the meantime, he’ll continue to do double-duty with both bands — and did that during Back to the Beginning, with a few hours in-between the Anthrax and Pantera sets.
“When this first got brought to our attention I was so excited about it,” says Benante, who also recently produced an EP, “The Violent Hour,” for his fiancé, former Butcher Babies vocalist Carla Harvey. “When I was growing up listening to Sabbath, there was no such thing as ‘That’s heavy.’ It was, ‘That’s Sabbath.’ It’s their type of music — the riffs, the sound, the imagery…it was all just them, just Sabbath. Their impact was just insane. I’m really proud and honored to be part of that.”
Pantera and Amon Amarth perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23 at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. 330-920-8040 or
livenation.com.
