Pantera — Music Videos

Weight built from a groove

Pantera’s classic recordings joined the attack of heavy metal to a particularly strong sense of rhythmic placement. Singer Phil Anselmo, guitarist Dimebag Darrell, bassist Rex Brown and drummer Vinnie Paul created a sound in which short guitar figures could carry enormous weight. The music often leaves carefully judged gaps between notes, letting the bass, drums and guitar move as a single unit before a lead passage opens the texture.

The early-1990s recordings

Cowboys from Hell, released in 1990, combines a quick, insistent guitar figure with a more expansive vocal approach. Walk, from 1992, works with a slower and more compact rhythmic idea. Their differences help explain why the band became associated with groove metal: force is created through the shape and timing of a repeated pattern as much as through tempo. Both songs make the interaction of the four players immediately audible.

The guitar within the band

Dimebag Darrell’s sound is distinctive, but the riffs gain much of their impact from Brown and Paul’s coordinated support. Listen for the moment when an accent lands slightly against expectation, then for the way the next phrase restores the pulse. Pantera offer a direct route into heavy music that combines individual instrumental personality with an unusually physical ensemble rhythm.