A Brief Word on the Death of Pantera
5/14/03 - PHILIP ANSELMO: Done With PANTERA, Sticking With SUPERJOINT RITUAL - May 14, 2003
Vocalist Phil Anselmo says that he is done with PANTERA and he intends to focus all his time and energy on SUPERJOINT RITUAL. "There was a lot of business with Warner Bros. and this and that DOWN and PANTERA and this and that, and etc. etc." Anselmo was quoted as saying by MetalIndex.com. "Whatever. Pretty much what I'm doing here is I'm sticking with SUPERJOINT, and I'm not doing fuckin' anything else. This is where I'm most comfortable and this is the type of music that I wanna do, you know?"
Anselmo says that he is proud of what PANTERA achieved and is also proud that they pulled the plug rather than faded away. "If you think about it, PANTERA never went away until we personally said, 'Fuck it'."
Asked if he sees patching up differences and rejoining DOWN or PANTERA, Anselmo said, "Never say never... [but] not right now."
5/21/03 - Philip Anselmo tells Mtv that Pantera is over. Full story here.
"I think each and every one of us needs to get some other pieces of music out of their systems," he said. "And I think that some of us need to take some time for ourselves to get on with life again instead of reliving the past over and over and over."-Anselmo
My first Pantera show was at Nassau Coliseum, supporting "Far Beyond Driven." They played most of the album, and some stuff from "Vulgar Display of Power." It remains one of the heaviest shows I've ever seen and it blew me away. Since then I've seen them about 8 times. I also saw Down three times, and I just saw Superjoint Ritual for the second time.I saw Pantera most recently at Ozzfest 2000, then the tour with Soulfly in 2001 . I guess you could say I'm a fan.
The last Pantera album, "Reinventing the Steel", was a great album. It was also the worst Pantera album. With a trio of masterpieces preceding it (Vulgar Display, Driven, and Trendkill) this album had a lot to live up to. I like the album, but it just doesn't have the visceral impact that the others had. Nothing lasts forever.
I would much rather remember Pantera kicking ass and taking names than wait for them to slowly burn out. They have an impressive discography that defines pure heavy metal, and legions of loyal fans.
There could be a positive side effect of this: the people who stick with Superjoint Ritual will be only the hard-core metal fans. Some of us have noticed that in recent years, with the surge in popularity of hard rock, an increase in the amount of assholes at the shows. If you go to a Pantera concert and you stand in the middle of the floor, should you get pissed when a mosh pit forms around you? If you think you should, dial your cell phone and get your mom to pick you up. You know these people, they only know "Cowboys From Hell" and "Walk," and they wear "Limp Bizkit" t-shirts with backwards baseball caps. The good news is, these people follow trends, so they will only be Pantera fans until it's not cool anymore. Then, maybe, Pantera can sneak back into the clubs and bars.
