Pantera - Television Tropes & Idioms

Influences:

Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Exodus, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Megadeth, Metallica, Motörhead, Saxon, Slayer, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, Venom, ZZ Top,

Related Acts:

Rebel Meets Rebel (Dime, Rex, and Vinnie)
Damageplan (Dime and Vinnie)
Down (Phil and Rex)
Hellyeah (Vinnie)
Superjoint Ritual (Phil)
Arson Anthem (Phil)
Necrophagia (Phil)
Kill Devil Hill (Rex)

Pantera was one of the most popular and influential Heavy Metal bands of The Nineties *]], from Texas. Starting as a Hair Metal band, they changed their style after replacing original singer Terry Glaze with Phil Anselmo in 1988. They disbanded in 2003, and any hope of reunion was dashed after the murder of guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott in December 2004.

Discography:

Note that up to "Cowboys From Hell" are considered, in general consensus, Canon Discontinuity (even by the band).

1983: Metal Magic
1984: Projects In The Jungle
1985: I Am The Night
1988: Power Metal

Albums after the change in style:

1990: Cowboys From Hell
1992: Vulgar Display of Power
1994: Far Beyond Driven
1996: The Great Southern Trendkill
1997: Official Live: 101 Proof [Live Album]
2000: Reinventing The Steel

Band members: (All former)

Phil Anselmo: Vocals
"Diamond" before 1990, "Dimebag" after 1990, Darrell Abbott: Guitars
Rex Brown: Bass
Vincent "Vinnie" Paul Abbott: Drums
Terrence Lee before 1990, "Terry" Glaze after 1990: Vocals

Pantera has examples of the following tropes:

Angrish: Anselmo sounds like he's losing his mind in "Good Friend and a Bottle of Pills". By the final section he's launched into an Atomic Cluster F-Bomb, nothing resembling coherence left.
Anti-Love Song: "This Love"
Badass Beard: Everyone in the band, but especially Dimebag and Phil.
Badass Longhair: Everyone in the band, except Phil, and post-1997, even him.
Bald of Awesome: Phil Anselmo, for most of The Nineties. As of 1997, he was a Badass Longhair again.
The Band Minus the Face: Dimebag, Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul released an album called Rebel Meets Rebel, with vocals and lyrics provided by country singer David Allan Coe.
Breakup Song: "This Love".
Careful With That Axe: Fucking... fucking... fucking... FUCKING HOSTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so loud, there's a feedback whistle on the mic after he's done.
Cluster F-Bomb: All their songs contain at the very least one f-bomb.
- If they don't have it in studio, it'll be tacked in live. Check the Official Live version of "Walk".
Cover Version: "Electric Funeral", "Hole In The Sky" and "Planet Caravan", all of these by Black Sabbath, and "Cat Scratch Fever" by Ted Nugent.
- The Pantera home videos also feature clips of them performing "Grinder" by Judas Priest, "Cold Gin" by Kiss, and "Raining Blood" by Slayer.
Creator Breakdown: The Great Southern Trendkill was recorded during a time of tension within Pantera. Philip Anselmo had started distancing himself from his bandmates and was using heroin to deal with his chronic back pain. When recording the album Anselmo recorded his vocal tracks at a studio (owned by Trent Reznor) in New Orleans while the rest of the band recorded their parts in Dallas. These tensions can be heard on the album; which uses overdubs to give some songs a "demonic" sounds. There are also no less than 3 songs about drug abuse.
Darker and Edgier: The change on the style of the band. Initially they were a Hair Metal band that was heavily influenced by bands like Van Halen, KISS, and Judas Priest. But in 1986 Metallica released the album Master of Puppets and Slayer released Reign in Blood; these groundbreaking thrash metal albums inspired Dimebag, Vinnie, and Rex to move the band in a darker and heavier direction. Original lead singer Terry Glaze did not agree with the change in style and left Pantera. Phil Anselmo was hired as Glaze's replacement, and the rest is history.
Dead Artists Are Better: Though he was extremely well-respected in the metal community, nobody in the general media acknowledged Dimebag as an awesome guitarist until his death.
Dye Hard: Kind of; Darrell's long goatee that he usually dyed crimson.
Epic Riff: "Walk", "A New Level," even the Material Girl respects it.
Epic Rocking: "Cemetery Gates," "This Love," "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks," "Suicide Note," "Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)," "Floods," "It Makes Them Disappear."
Fan Boy: Dimebag was such a huge KISS fan that he got a picture of Ace Frehley tattooed on his chest. When he finally got to meet his idol during a photo shoot for Guitar World magazine Dimebag asked Ace to autograph the tattoo. Immediately after the photo shoot was over, Dime went to the nearest tattoo shop and had them make the autograph permanent.
- He was even buried in a Kiss Kasket that was donated by Gene Simmons.
Fatal Method Acting: Dimebag's last show with Damageplan. See the entry on this page for details.
Four Temperament Ensemble: Phil is choleric, Dimebag Darrell was sanguine, Rex is melancholic, Vinnie is phlegmatic.
Greatest Hits Album:
- Reinventing Hell. (2003)
- The Word Salad Titled Far Beyond The Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits (2003) has one new song "Immortally Insane" and one new cover "The Badge". These were not new songs; Immortally Insane was on the Heavy Metal 2000 soundtrack and The Badge was on the import of Far Beyond Driven and was also on The Crow soundtrack.
- In 2010 the album 1990-2000: A Decade of Domination was released. This greatest hits album actually features less tracks than previous greatest hits album. The reason for this is so that the album could be sold at Wal-Mart, which refuses to sell music albums with the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label, so the album omits some of Pantera's more profanity-laden songs.
Heavy Meta: "Goddamn Electric."
Hot Blooded: The change from Hair Metal to Heavy Metal (or Groove Metal, if you want to go techical) which started with their fourth album, Power Metal.
Last Note Nightmare: "Suicide Note Part 1" and "Suicide Note Part 2." Part 1 has a 12-string acoustic guitar, lack of drums, and Anselmo mildly contemplating suicide via slashing of the wrists... Which leads into Part 2, the trademarked Pantera sound, and Anselmo screeching about suicide.
Loony Fan: Nathan Gale, Dimebag's murderer.
Manly Tears: In the wake of Dimebag's death, Phil Anselmo posted a video online in which he pays his respects to his former bandmate. About halfway through the video he breaks down and starts crying.
Metal Scream: "Cowboys From Hell," "Fucking Hostile", "The Great Southern Trendkill"
Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness - Usually at 7-8. Sometimes crosses into 9. Even "Cemetery Gates" and "Hollow" would be as high as a 6. "Planet Caravan" is one of the very, very few songs that dips as low as 2 (granted, it was already like this with Black Sabbath). According to the album sleeve, the members of Pantera were already anticipating negative remarks from hardcore metal listeners for that song.
The Nineties: Their Growing the Beard period.
Old Shame: The first four albums mentioned above, for both the fans and the band themselves. For some fans, anyways, it falls under Dis Continuity. Anselmo's first album, Power Metal, was later dismissed by him as "immature":
"I sang on over half the record and I'd only been in the band a month. It should never have been released."
The Prankster: The guys in Pantera were constantly pulling pranks on each other, and also on the bands that they toured with. Several of these practical jokes were caught on film and included on the Pantera Home Videos.
The Quiet One: Rex.
Rated M for Manly
Sex, Drugs, & Rock and Roll: As anyone who has seen the Pantera home videos will tell you, these guys loved to get drunk and party. And their female fans were not shy about exposing their assets on camera.
- Pantera's former manager, Terry Date, has mentioned in interviews that if you hung out with Dimebag, you would be drinking with him. If he offered you a shot and you refused, he'd take it as an insult and make you do two shots as punishment.
Song Style Shift: "Cemetery Gates" starts out with an acoustic guitar, then shifts into an aggressive heavy metal tune. "This Love" goes along the same line, except without acoustic parts - it starts low-key, then the chorus gets aggressive.
Stage Names:
- "Dimebag Darrell," formerly "Diamond Darrell," for Darrell Abbott.
- Rex Brown was also formerly known as "Rex Rocker."
Stop and Go: "Cemetery Gates."
The Stoner: Every member of the band used drugs to some extent, although Phil definitely took it the farthest; becoming addicted to heroin and even briefly dying of an overdose (before being revived by paramedics)
Surprisingly Gentle Song: Their cover of "Planet Caravan" by Black Sabbath.
Take That, Critics!: "War Nerve" from The Great Southern Trendkill directly attacks the media and music critics.
Testosterone Poisoning
This! Is! SPARTA!: "RE! SPECT! WALK!"
Trope Codifier / Trope Maker: Arguably of Groove Metal. Whether they or Exhorder are the Trope Maker is a hotly-debated topic in the metal community, and it's very wise to leave that question at that.
Word Salad Title: Far Beyond The Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits.