PANTERA is the sound of a  steel capped boot kicking in the theeth
 of reality again and again. A power packaged metal massacre, the eight-legged
hate machine grinding out songs of body and blood, joy and pain, life and death,
the legacy of life as inscribed onto the left arm of the main man Phil anselmo.
Pantera, you can hear them coming a mile off, but who are these men on a mission,
these assasins of hope, ok, lets check out which asylum these maniacs escaped from.
 
Vocalist Phil Anselmo was born in New Orleans on the 30th Of June, 1968 and shares
his birthdate with the legendary destroyer Mike Tyson. Always the loner, always the
rebel, Phil channeled his teenage hate into his first band Samhain, a New Orleans
band who specialised in covers of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest classics. Not to be
confused with the Glenn Danzig group of the same name, Samhain soon fell foul to a
line up breakdown due to musical differences. It came to a head when Phil wanted to
go in a more hardcore direction, whilst the rest opted for the more classic metal vein.
Over in Texas the original Pantera line up were experiencing the same problems. Original
singer Terry Lee wanted to go up the commercial alley whilst the rest of the band
wanted life in the hardcore lane. Both Panteras and Samhains paths had crossed on the
club circuit before and it didn't take long before the word got out that Phil wanted
a piece of the same action as the Pantera instrumental unit, so phone numbers were
exchanged, auditions arranged, jams played and within the same week Phil packed his
bags and moved to Texas to join Pantera as their new singer. And whata band he had
joined. Starting from the rear with superhuman powerhouse keeper of the beat, drummer
Vinnie Paul was born in Texas on the 11th of March, 1964 and went headfirst into the
world of music as his father  was a professional musician who worked at the local
recording studios. It was in his mid-teens that his father decided that if the school
wanted young Vinnie to learn an instrument he could stuff the designated tuba and start
to teach himself the drums. Fatherly advice he has never looked back on. His younger
brother, known to all and sundry as guitar hero Diamon Darrell, entered the world on
the 20th of August, 1966 and with a musical background within easy reach it wouldn't
be long before he joined his brother. Taught the guitar by his father it wasn't long
before the teen-age Darrell realised that school was out for ever because by the early
eighties the fledgling Pantera were already up and running playing the clubs on a
regular basis.

The bass face that holds this crew together is our mainman Rex, yeah just Rex, or
Rex Rocker if you knew him in the old days. Born in Grahm, Texas on the 27th of July,
1964. Rex first met up with the two brothers when they all jammed together in the local
high school jazz band and it wasn't long after that Rex left his first group, Neck and
the Brewheads, and claimed his place as the bassist of the newly formed Pantera.
A leyend was born way back in texas in the early eighties. In the nineties they are
crushing all the opposition and have reached a position where they can not be  stopped.
Pantera are your worst nightmares confirmed. 
		
You can run, but you can't hide
They are in your face