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Trivia / Pantera

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  • Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: An old joke on metal message boards was that if Phil Anselmo announces a new project, someone would usually reply "Can't wait for the first and final album!"
  • Creator Backlash:
    • The band doesn't take too kindly to their 80s Hair Metal phase, though some of their fans find it enjoyable enough. The one thing the band has kept from those days is calling Dimebag "Diamond Darrel" once in a while.
    • Phil thinks making Power Metal was a mistake because he'd been in the band about five minutes at that point and hadn't really had time to gel with the other three.
    • The first four albums (though they do have their fans), for both the fans and the band themselves. For some fans, anyways, it falls under Fanon Discontinuity. 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."
    • Interestingly, Anselmo seems to have lightened up on Power Metal a bit - when asked about how he'd feel about a hypothetical reissue, he said he wouldn't be opposed, calling it "a pretty solid metal record all around in the vein of Judas Priest" and praising Dimebag's "brutal" guitar work on certain songs.
    • Phil has, as of 2015, expressed some discomfort with Pantera's use of the Confederate flag in merchandising and images, mentioning they used it partially due to their "love for bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd" and that they had never meant to use it to promote hatred or racism. Which didn't stop him from doing a nazi salute while shouting "White power" at the end of a Pantera tribute concert in 2016, something he later apologized for but still got his band Down banned from a festival in Netherlands.
  • Creator Breakdown: The Great Southern Trendkill was recorded during a time of tension within the band. Philip Anselmo had started distancing himself from his bandmates due to, as he stated in this interview, the shame he felt towards his heroin addiction. 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" sound. There are also no less than 3 songs about drug abuse.
  • Creative Differences: The core of what broke them up. By the end, Phil and the Abbotts loathed each other with a passion, and while Rex tried to stay out of it while also keeping the peace, he had accepted that it was a sinking ship. While the story on how it went differs (Phil maintained that they mutually agreed to go on hiatus to do their own things and hopefully patch things up in the process, while Vinnie maintained that Phil ditched them for his own projects and expected them to wait indefinitely), the fact of the matter is that when the Abbotts broke the band up in 2003, they had not been a functioning unit for years before that point.
  • Dye Hard: Kind of; Darrell's long goatee that he usually dyed crimson.
  • Fatal Method Acting: Dimebag's last show with Damageplan. See the entry on the Music tab for details.
  • Hostility on the Set: Phil's fall into heroin addiction created a rift between him and the Abbotts. The Great Southern Trendkill was recorded in two separate studios-Phil recorded the vocals in New Orleans, while the rest of the band recorded in Arlington, Texas. They managed to put their feelings aside long enough to record in a single studio again for Reinventing The Steel three years later, but it didn't take long for tensions to flare back up and the band would ultimate dissolve in 2003 after a two-year-hiatus.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Good luck trying to get the remaining members to officially re-release the Hair Metal-era albums.
  • Reclusive Artist: Surprisingly enough, Phil. He resides in the middle of a Louisiana swamp with no neighbors other than the animals he takes care of, admitting that he prefers the quiet and solitude of such an area. He also chooses not to have a Facebook account or even a telephone, strictly using email for communication with other people.
  • Referenced by...: There's a reason the monster plant boss in Terraria is called Plantera, and has its own unique rock theme. The achievement you get for defeating it is even called "The Great Southern Plantkill".
  • Short-Lived, Big Impact: If you discount the band's 1980s material then Pantera was only around for slightly more than a decade. However, many modern metal bands (Machine Head, Devil Driver, Lamb of God, Five Finger Death Punch, and countless others) cite Pantera as being a major influence on their music.
  • What Could Have Been: Despite the amount of Old Shame from the first three albums, Vinnie Paul and first singer Glaze had actually talked to each other about a possible one-off reunion show with the old lineup where they'd play that material in early 2004. The death of Dimebag negated any chances of that.
    • Also, the time when Dimebag was actually invited to join Megadeth just before they recorded their classic album Rust In Peace. He told Dave Mustaine he'd be happy to join, but that Dave would have to hire Vinnie as well. When Dave replied that he'd already hired drummer Nick Menza, Dimebag thanked him for the opportunity and turned him down.
    • Phil almost quit the band after Power Metal to formally join Exhorder. Per Vinnie LaBella, Phil was frustrated with the rest of the band after its release, as it was nowhere near as heavy as the music he wanted to make and he was having trouble getting them to take that extra step. Sid Montz referred Vinnie to Phil, who in turn offered to come out and audition. While Vinnie offered him the role on the spot, Phil insisted on flying out from Texas to audition regardless, and after one session, Vinnie gave him the job. Just as Phil had arrived back home, Kyle Thomas called Vinnie to let him know that he had heard that Phil had been jamming with him, and that he wanted to rejoin. After mulling it over, Vinnie accepted, and called Phil to give him the bad news. Phil, for his part, wasn't even mad - he was disappointed, but as a fan of Exhorder, he was happy to see Kyle back.

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