'Vulgar Display Of Power'

Pantera had a lot going for it. It wouldn't be until 1994 or so when Far Beyond Driven hit that the band would really overtake the high school crowd and be found in every CD collection, car and truck of teenagers everywhere no matter their actual taste in music.

By high school, I had friends that were major metal dudes listening to everything going as heavy and loud as Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Danzig and Cannibal Corpse. They loved Pantera.

By Vulgar Display of Power in 1992 and Far Beyond Driven, they'd gone damn near mainstream. I remember girls I would have never dreamed having something in common with having that album, blaring it from their car speakers leaving the parking lot. Guys that wouldn't know Dave Mustaine if he punched them in the asshole were suddenly well aware of Dimebag or Diamond Darrell Abbott.

Pantera were very marketable. Their music really wasn't. I should say it was very marketable, but it always needed a "hit" and metal people are wont to necessarily seek radio singles and are even less likely to create them quite like Lennon and McCartney. That's why Pantera eventually become an afterthought.

Still, experts call what Pantera does "groove metal" although I don't think it sounds too entirely different from other sorts of metal or even hard rock. Abbott's blistering solos turned him into a mainstay in every guitar magazine and many were calling Phil Anselmo one of the bet metal singers ever. It had groove so it sold. For a while.

There were other factors. Not unlike an American Idol contestant from Texas, they had an audience willing to accept and love them. Entrap the hearts and minds of teenagers in rural Texas and you can sell some records.

Also, they did an image change. In the 1980s, Pantera were not unlike many glam bands. At some point, they dumped the teased air, leopard-print vests and heroin chic for bulbous faces, dirty jeans, beards, long stringy hair and trucker's caps.

They projected everyman to everyman and it worked. It doesn't help that the songs were good and that they evoked a certain amount of connection with the audience. A lot of things went write for Pantera. Except for ... well, you know.