Tag: rex brown

Will Pantera’s Pre-‘Cowboys From Hell’ Albums Ever Get Properly Reissued? Original Singer Weighs In

source: Blabbermouth October 1, 2020

Will Pantera’s Pre-‘Cowboys From Hell’ Albums Ever Get Properly Reissued? Original Singer Weighs In

Former Pantera singer Terrence Lee “Terry” Glaze says that he hopes the band’s early albums can receive a proper release one day.

Glaze was the frontman of Pantera during the band’s early’-’80s “party metal” phase and sang on the group’s first three LPs: “Metal Magic“ (1983), “Projects In The Jungle“ (1984) and “I Am the Night“ (1985). After leaving Pantera, Glaze formed the band Lord Tracy.

Glaze discussed possibility of Pantera’s early albums being re-released during an appearance on the debut episode of “Drag The Waters: The Pantera Podcast“.

Asked if he thinks the Pantera records he sang on will ever be properly reissued, Terry said (hear audio below): “It would be amazing to share that music with the rest of the world. I think everybody would really be interested in listening — especially listening to Darrell’s [‘Dimebag’ Abbott] guitar playing. With with the loss of Darrell and Vince [Paul Abbott, drums], I guess it would come down to their father [Jerry Abbott] and Rex [Brown, bass]. I don’t have possession of the master tapes, and with Vince gone… It’d be a great thing for the fans — I’d love to be part of that — but as of right now, I haven’t spoken to Jerry Abbott or Rex about it.”

Glaze went on to suggest a possible new Pantera box set featuring the three albums he performed on plus 1988’s “Power Metal“, which marked the recording debut of his replacement, Philip Anselmo. “Put all four together in a box,” he said. “The rhythm section and the guitars — bass, drums and the guitars — are consistent through the whole project. And you could see the growth through them. It’d be really cool. I would love to help out in that in any way I could. But we’ll see. Hopefully someday.”

During the same chat, Glaze was asked if he left Pantera on good terms or if he was done dealing with the Abbott brothers. He responded: “A lot of times, when you hear those things, where they’ll say ‘musical differences,’ I don’t remember any musical differences. The two hours of the day that we were on stage was the best — but you hear that from a lot of touring bands. It was the other 22 hours of the day that was tough to get on. Ultimately, there were four guys in the band, plus their father was the manager, and three of the five had the same last name. And they never split their vote, so you didn’t really have any say. And so that ultimately started to wear, and ultimately, I just chose to go in a different direction. But I loved the music and I loved playing all of them, especially Darrell.”

Back in February 2018, Glaze said that the last time he saw Vinnie was when he attended Darrell’s funeral in December 2004, just days after the Pantera guitarist was killed while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot onstage by Nathan Gale. He was 38 years old.

In April 2010, Glaze rejoined Brown on stage in at the debut gig from Rex’s then-project Arms of the Sun in Dallas, Texas. They performed a couple of early Pantera songs — “Come-On Eyes” from 1985’s “I Am The Night” and “All Over Tonite” from 1984’s “Projects In The Jungle”.

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/41234603?utm_medium=widget&utm_term=episode_title&utm_source=user%3A8464783

Dimebag’s Week on Metal Graveyard: How Pantera Invented 90s Metal with ‘Cowboys From Hell’

source: Metal Hammer  July 24 2020

How Pantera invented 90s metal with Cowboys From Hell

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Just when the world thought metal was on its last legs, four brawlers from Texas arrived with an album that nobody saw coming…

For most metal fans, the Pantera story began with the release of Cowboys From Hell, but in fact the band had been active for a full decade prior to that album’s completion. Formed in Arlington, Texas, in 1981 by teenage brothers Vinnie Paul and ‘Diamond’ Darrell Abbott (later to be known as Dimebag), the band began life as a covers band, performing naïve but impassioned versions of their favourite songs by Van Halen, Judas Priest and Def Leppard, just as the glam and hair metal explosion was in full effect.

Fronted by original singer Terry Glaze, Pantera dedicated themselves to playing live and honing their craft from the very beginning and soon earned a strong enough reputation to begin releasing albums. Their first three full-length efforts – Metal Magic, Projects In The Jungle and I Am The Night – were spirited but unremarkable affairs, but it was with the departure of Terry and the recruitment of Louisiana-born vocalist Philip Anselmo that the true Pantera began to emerge.

“Three albums into it, we wanted to get heavier, but the singer we had at the time didn’t want us to go in that direction,” Vinnie Paul told Metal Hammer in 2010. “Terry always wanted to do more of a David Lee Roth, poppy-type thing, but we were falling in love with Metallica and Slayer and stuff like that, so when we brought Phil [Anselmo] on board we went a little more towards that stuff. After we finished the next album, Power Metal, we realised that we weren’t wearing the clothes we wanted to wear and that we wanted to strip it all down. The groove thing was the most important element in everything and that’s what really set us apart from the thrash metal bands and the plain old rock’n’roll bands. Our crowds were becoming more intense too.”

As the 80s drew to a close, metal was beginning to run out of commercial steam, which in turn led to dwindling creative returns, as the grunge scene in Seattle began to draw media attention away from traditional heavy music. However, despite their clear and proud adherence to old-school metal values established in an earlier age, Pantera defied the odds and secured themselves a major label record deal.

Stranded in Texas due to freak weather conditions, Atco Records man Mark Ross saw the band perform and was so impressed by the power and intensity of their live show that he immediately set the wheels in motion to add them to the label’s roster. Having already been turned down by countless American record labels, Pantera were understandably thrilled to be receiving some long- overdue recognition for all their hard work, and put the resulting energy and excitement into the creation of some truly devastating new material.

“We had really honed our skills,” said Vinnie. “We were a machine and we played really, really tight together and we had a lot of confidence. We felt like a freight train that couldn’t be stopped. We put out our first record when I was 17 and Dime was 15. As we kept growing we kept getting better and kept pushing each other to another level. When we started writing songs for Cowboys From Hell, we felt like the magic was there. We’d been turned down by every record company in the States, so we were angry and that all came out in the music! We saw what our new songs were doing to people, to our crowd. It was driving people crazy. They couldn’t wait to hear us play Cowboys From Hell or anything off that record, even before we recorded it, so we knew we were onto something special…”

Ready to make an immediate impact, Pantera were eager to improve on the demo versions of future classics like Psycho Holiday, Domination and Cowboys From Hell itself and produce an album that would ensure their translocation from relative obscurity to international renown. With that in mind, as a new decade approached, the band headed to Pantego Sound Studio in Arlington, Texas, which was owned by Vinnie and Darrell’s father, to commence work on their fifth album with renowned producer Max Norman, who had previously sprinkled magic over albums by Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth and Savatage among many others. Lined up to facilitate Pantera’s every sonic whim, Max seemed the perfect choice, but unfortunately the collaboration fell apart before it had even begun.

“Two days before we started recording, Max got a bigger and better offer from [hair metal outfit] Lynch Mob,” explained Vinnie. “So he bailed on us and went and did a record with them instead, and so we were stuck without a producer. Our A&R guy said, ‘How about this guy Terry Date?’ He’d done the Soundgarden record (1989’s Louder Than Love), which we were all really blown away with, and he’d just done the new Overkill record, so we said, ‘OK, let’s bring him down!’ He was a little shy and reserved at first, but after we got to know each other and he could see how hungry the band was, he really went the extra mile to help us to get what we were looking for out of the sound.”

With Terry installed as co-producer, Cowboys From Hell began to take shape, and the sheer ferocity of Pantera’s ever-evolving sound began to become apparent. Two decades later, the likes of that brutally catchy title track, the epic and haunting Cemetery Gates and the lurching riff-riot of Clash With Reality still sound ridiculously exciting. Back in 1990, the impact of this fearless and ferocious update of classic heavy metal was huge as people were blown away by the immense power and originality of songs like the crushing Primal Concrete Sledge.

“That song was an accident, basically!” said Vinnie Paul. “We’d recorded the 10 or 11 songs we wanted to put on the record. I was taking my drum set down when I came up with that pattern between the toms and the hi-hat, with the kick drums running underneath it. Dime heard it and he came running round the corner saying, ‘What the fuck is that?’ I said, ‘It’s just a new beat I came up with’ and he said, ‘Don’t take the drums down! I got a riff, dude! That’s too fucking badass! We can’t let that one go…’ Then Terry came round the corner and said, ‘Guys, we don’t have time for this! I have to go to Connecticut in three days to mix the record!’ but Dime said, ‘No, man, we have to do this!’ That’s why the song is only two minutes long, because we didn’t have time to work on it. It’s a short, powerhouse tune and it gave the album a lot more muscle and a lot more heaviness.”

Unleashed in July 1990 as grunge and alternative rock started to supplant metal as the music industry’s bit of rough, Cowboys From Hell was one of very few major-label metal records released that year. Seemingly carrying the torch for the entire scene, as even well-established thrash metal acts like Metallica and Megadeth began to simplify and soften their sounds, Pantera were instantly embraced by disenfranchised metalheads who could hardly fail to relate to the album’s cover shot which portrayed the four members of the band rocking out in an austere 19th-century saloon; diehard outsiders gatecrashing the most unlikely of social occasions.

“At that time, every metal band in the United States came from either LA or New York and Seattle had just come on the scene too, but we were this band from this hillbilly country state that made people think of ZZ Top and country music,” said Vinnie Paul. “We were out of place. Cowboys From Hell started off as a t-shirt design that we had, and we loved the title and everyone loved the shirt so much that we decided to write the song. We wanted the same vibe on the album cover, so here we are, this heavy metal band in this old saloon from 1846 with these old cowboys around the bar, and we’re totally out of place. When we did the photoshoot, it was before they had Photoshop and all that, so they had to cut the photos out and actually glue them onto that old picture, and if you look real closely at it you can see where they fucked up Dime’s headstock and had to cheat! If you look with a magnifying glass, you’ll see it! It’s pretty funny. Somehow it turned out great, though!”

Refusing to take their collective foot off the accelerator, Pantera tore into a gruelling touring schedule like men possessed, spreading the word about their state-of-the-art sound far and wide and proudly capitalising on the fact that, as a new decade dawned, virtually no one else was playing metal with such verve and passion. Having fulfilled their potential in the studio, the band were doggedly proving to their major label paymasters that the investment had been worthwhile. What no one realised as Cowboys From Hell picked up momentum and started to sell, was how huge Pantera would soon become.

“I don’t know if we knew that we were going to be really successful,” mused Vinnie Paul. “But we knew that at least we had an opportunity, our shot. We knew that if we wanted to get to where we wanted to be, we had to have that big major label machine behind the band, so we held out for the deal. Then one day we got a phone call from the label in LA and we were told that we’d sold over 100,000 units. It was a special time, no doubt about it. I don’t think any of us thought we’d made it just because we had a record deal. We knew we had to work really hard for it.”

With very few exceptions, metal bands had a torrid time during the early 90s, but thanks to Cowboys From Hell and the men who made it, the genre was able to keep moving forward, inspired by Pantera’s groove-driven, mutant thrash attack and their odds-defying conquering of the mainstream.

“It’s funny, because when we put those records out you couldn’t hear those songs on the radio, but now I’ll go to a football game or a soccer game and they’ll play Cowboys From Hell, and you can hear Cemetery Gates on the radio like it’s a brand new song!” said Vinnie Paul. “They still sound fresh and they sound good to this day. It took the four individuals in the band to make that record. Our crew at the time were real important too, and always believed in us and even worked for nothing. Terry Date was a big part of it too, and that’s why we kept him around for so many years. It was a special time and it took all those people to make it happen.”

Published in Metal Hammer #211

Dimebag’s Week on Metal Graveyard: A Wild Photo History With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown

source: Rolling Stone

Pantera: A Wild Photo History With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown

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Pictures to feature in ‘A Vulgar Display of Pantera’ book by photographer Joe Giron

See photos from throughout the history of Pantera with commentary by Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown.

Joe Giron

“These photos have brought back so many memories,” former Pantera bassist Rex Brown says, looking at pictures taken from the upcoming coffee-table book A Vulgar Display of Pantera. “It’s like half your life right there.”

The book, which comes out September 13th and features a foreword by Brown, contains 400 pages of photos by a person Brown calls the “fifth member of the band,” Joe Giron. It chronicles each step of the group’s history, from its origins as a Texas club band in the mid-Eighties – when singer Terry Glaze was their frontman and guitarist Dimebag Darrell went by Diamond Darrell – to their final tour in 2001 when they were supporting Reinventing the Steel. It presents arresting photos from several turning points in the band’s career – including their tours with Skid Row and White Zombie and their performance in Russia just after the fall of communism – and shows their playful side both on and offstage.

The photo above was taken in 1990 on the Santa Monica Pier around the time the group put out its major-label debut, Cowboys From Hell. “We were serious about the music and at other times we were a bunch of cutups,” Brown says in reaction to the shot.

“There is myself and one Dimebag Darrell with the tip of my mohawk and his hair entwined as one,” says Phil Anselmo looking at the same photo. “At that age we were probably thinking, ‘I hope this is the last picture, because it is absolutely Beer:30.’”

Pantera broke up a couple of years after their final tour and brothers Darrell and Vinnie Paul went on to form Damageplan. Darrell was killed onstage during a concert with the latter group in 2004. Now, Anselmo is fronting a number of bands including Down and Scour. Brown is working on a solo album – which he likens musically to Foghat, Tom Waits and Tom Petty – that will feature a number of guests including members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. And Paul is playing drums with Hellyeah.

Here, Anselmo and Brown look back on Pantera’s history.

Pantera With Original Singer Terry Glaze (1985)

Joe Giron

Rex Brown: Look how skinny Dime is. We weren’t a glam band. We had to put on that kind of stuff to play the clubs.

Philip Anselmo: My first reaction is, “My God, look at these beautiful women.” It’s a picture of Pantera with their old lead singer Terrence Glaze, who himself was a very talented man in his own way and his own style. He has an excellent voice.

Brown: Back in those days in Texas, you really couldn’t play anywhere unless you had some following and you had to fit in with the trends that were going on. In the Eighties Texas club days, it was all about cover songs. I was probably 19 or 20 when this photo was taken. I think Dime was 17.

Anselmo: This is what I was walking into when I joined. This was the band I was stepping into, and yep, I had to play by the rules, too, because I needed to belong early.

Brown: The look is just a sign of the times. When I got in the band, I was like, man, I’m not wearing things like that. Then finally jumped into a pair of camouflage pants and a bullet belt and it was, “No you got to wear this.” No, I don’t, but I did anyway.

Pantera Welcome Phil Anselmo to the Band (1987)

Joe Giron

Anselmo: Sweet Jesus. Let me say once again, my first gut reaction is, “Who are these beautiful women?” My second gut reaction would be, “Yup.”

Brown: That’s probably one of the first pictures we have with Philip in the band. We still had the fucking stupid looking hair. I mean, look at Vinnie on the right. What the hell? All of us had those stupid shades on. It’s almost Steel Panther–ish.

Anselmo: Dimebag is pouring a beer in his mouth, wearing a jean jacket that has stuff I wrote on his jacket. I was so desperate to get these fellows on the right path that I bespoiled his denim jacket, for which I was berated at first but then lauded later, by scribbling in black ink, “Kreator, Slayer, and Celtic Frost.” He did get mad at me, I will say that, but he forgave me. But he’s pouring beer into my hands as I am posing like Bon Jovi in a black leather jacket, with bullet belts wrapped around my hips and no tattoo across my stomach. What a debacle that is. And then there’s Rex looking like Rex, and then there’s Vince looking like Roseanne Barr with a beard with black gloves on.

Brown: That was taken in Dime’s mother’s living room. He put some black tarp behind it and put some lights up and we took some pictures. That’s just the way we were. We didn’t like fancy joints or anything like that. We just tried to get the raw emotion.

Fishing, Pantera-Style (1988)

Joe Giron

Brown: This is a boat Vinnie had in Arlington, Texas, where we lived and we’d go fishing with a case of beer and have some fun. Good ole boys. We used to catch 10-pound large-mouth bass. It was insane. I don’t know how he got this boat, but I remember that it sunk. He didn’t put the plug in. Anyways, Joe [Giron] is even scared to get on the boat. Anyway, it was just some old dive boat with a terrible motor on the back. We watched it sink. As it sank, I said, “Vinnie, did you put the plug in?” He goes, “No,” as the plug starts bobbing to the top. Apparently not.

Cowboys From Hell Unwind (1989)

Joe Giron

Anselmo: I’m sure we’re absolutely joking around completely. I am very tanned. Dimebag has rolled his eyes back in his head showing the whites of his eyes. Vince is wearing a Prong shirt; he always loved Prong. And Rex is in a King’s X hat; we’ve known the King’s X guys for a very long time. This picture was taken probably in the midst of or towards the end of the touring cycle for Cowboys From Hell.

Brown: That was Cowboys at our home base club, the Basement in Dallas. We shot three videos in one day that day: “Psycho Holiday,” “Cemetery Gates” and “Cowboys From Hell.” The videos that were coming out in those days were real glitzy, glamorous shit, so we wanted to show what the band was all about: the fans and jumping offstage and shit like that. We all just kind of changed pants or whatever the fuck between songs. The pants in that picture … I think my friend turned me onto those pieces of shit and they were fucking comfortable as hell. This is the wrap picture for the day, and I was trying to get comfortable after shooting for, shit, 12, 13 hours of the day.

The Iron Curtain Falls (1991)

Joe Giron

Brown: This is literally two weeks after the coup happened. I don’t know why Vinnie is wearing shorts, because I remember it was cold as fuck that day. The rest of us have leather jackets and he’s sitting there with a Cowboys shirt and shorts.

Anselmo: We were in the middle recording Vulgar Display of Power, and we were asked to play in Russia when the U.S.S.R. dissolved. They decided to show how the government had changed by having this big rock event, which AC/DC headlined, Metallica played as co-headliner and the Black Crowes played. We opened the show, and this is a picture of us in our younger days standing with the Russian police force. Believe it or not, it was them who prompted the picture-taking. At first we were very intimidated by this group of people, because they were very violent towards their citizens whilst the show was going on. But I guess one of the head guys made eye contact with me and made this hand gesture like, “Take a picture.” And I was like, “Absolutely, sure.” So we drug everybody over there, and we took a picture with these nice fellows.

Brown: They wanted to get in a photo. It was new to them. These guys didn’t know what was ahead of them the day after, I guarantee it.

Joe Giron

Anselmo: This would be our first trip to Japan ever.

Brown: That’s at our favorite noodle shop in Roppongi. It was around the corner from the hotel. They were open 24 hours. All you could hear were slurps.

Anselmo: I recognize our main interpreter, the guy who took us around. His name might have been be Spike or something. Totally awesome guy. And then I see our bloated, disgusting … Oh, we’re still recording? Good. Our bloated, disgusting and reprehensible manager from back in the day, stuffing his face full of whatnot. There’s Rex with his mouth full of noodles, with a Coca-Cola nearby. Vince Paul is looking directly into the camera, whilst I’m obviously turned toward him, engaged in some type of back-and-forth banter, whilst wearing a shirt I have never seen me wear ever, to my knowledge. It’s a purple striped shirt, purple and black shirt. I don’t know where the hell I got that shirt. And I’m sitting next to some strange gentleman. All I can remember whilst looking at this picture is this being our first trip to Japan, which was incredible and awesome. I just didn’t realize, nor did I remember that our absolutely grotesque manager was present at the time.

Pantera and Skid Row Get Kissed (1992)

Dimebag’s Week on Metal Graveyard: Childhood Home, Dimebag’s House And Final Resting Place

source: Blabbermouth May 24, 2020

Pantera Texas Video Tour: Childhood Home, Dimebag’s House And Final Resting Place

Scott On Tape recently uploaded a 32-minute travel video featuring visits to several important Pantera-related sites in the Dallas, Texas area, including the graves of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul Abbott, their childhood home, and Dimebag’s house, where his legendary studio was located. Check it out below.

Dimebag, one of the most beloved and respected musicians in hard rock, was shot onstage during a Damageplan concert on December 8, 2004 at the Alrosa Villa club in Columbus, Ohio by a 25-year-old ex-Marine named Nathan Gale. Gale murdered a total of four people and wounded three others before being killed himself by police officer James D. Niggemeyer, who arrived on the scene minutes after Gale began his rampage.

Dimebag and Vinnie formed Pantera in the mid-eighties in Texas. The band recorded four independent albums before their 1990 major label debut, “Cowboys From Hell”, introduced a heavier sound and made them a favorite with metal fans. 1994’s “Far Beyond Driven“ debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 without benefit of a commercial hit single.

The group splintered in 2002 following the departure of volatile lead singer Philip Anselmo. Dime and Vinnie, as they were known to their fans, regrouped with Damageplan, releasing the band’s debut album, “New Found Power“, in February of 2004. The group was touring in support of the record at the time of the shootings.

Dimebag’s death was a devastating blow to the close-knit hard rock and metal community. He was known to his fellow musicians for his hospitality, friendship and partying spirit, and was a legend among fans and peers for his powerful, innovative and unmistakable playing style.

Vinnie Paul died in June 2018 at the age of 54 in his sleep at his home in Las Vegas. The official cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. He was buried next to his brother and their mother, Carolyn, at Moore Memorial Gardens cemetery in Arlington, Texas.