I had previously done a video about Pantera’s first three albums, sometimes referred to as
their glam years when Terry glaze was fronting the band. But after three records with Glaze,
the band wanted to go in a heavier direction being influenced by the likes of Metallica,
Motorhead and Slayer. They would end up parting ways with Glaze and hooking up with Phil Anselmo
who proved to be the missing piece for Pantera to reshape metal in the next decade..
Today let’s explore how Phil Anselmo joined the band and his first album with group power Metal.
After three glam influenced albums Pantera had built up a solid base of followers in and around
the Arlington and Dallas/Fort Worth Area, despite the fact their sets relied heavily on cover
tunes. Despite a strong local following the band struggled to get any kind of record label
attention with bassist Rex Brown claiming the band had been and i quote “turned down by major
labels 28 different times.” However, there was one record label who did show some interest in the
band and that was Gold Mountain Records who had a distribution deal with MCA. They had considered
signing the band when Glaze was fronting the group, but with him leaving the band and the
change to a more aggressive sound dashed any hopes of them nabbing a deal with Gold Mountain.
It would be the likes of motorhead, slayer and metallica that gave the abbot brothers some
idea of where they wanted to take the band’s sound.. By this point the band had already
recorded a majority of their fourth record power metal even having ex-frontman terry glaze lay
down some vocals, but those would be quickly scrapped from the album once Anselmo joined.
Prior to Anselmo auditioning the band did try out several frontmen including a David Coverdale
lookalike and even brought back original vocalist Donny Hart, but it just wasn’t a good fit.
Funny enough Hart was still in the band when Anselmo joined the group,
but we’ll talk more about what happened between both frontmen later in the video.
Anselmo who hailed from New Orleans and was in a band prior to Pantera called Razor White. Anselmo
knew Pantera since they played the same circuit of texas and louisiana clubs He would reveal to
the phoenix new times. "So when I first joined PANTERA, it came about because we were playing
the same circuit. I mean, New Orleans is only an hour from Dallas by airplane, so we were playing
the same places really. We had always heard about PANTERA because they were supposed to be
'the band' that was going to be the next big band. And we all knew about Dimebag being a great guitar
player. Word got out that their lead singer of many years, Terry Glaze, left the band, and they
needed a singer. My name came up and they got in touch with me, and I went and tried out one night.
We jammed. It was a brief but awesome experience. Four days later, I'm back in New Orleans. Dimebag
called me up and said, 'What do you think?' I asked, 'About what?' He said they had a gig in
Shreveport and asked if I wanted to come jam. And I flew to Dallas, and the rest is history.
In a separate interview Anselmo would recall the specifics of their musical
discussion revealing his audition consisted of of Iron Maiden and judas Priest covers.
Anselmo would admit to listening to the live record Judas Priest Unleashed In the East.
In addition to jamming on covers the members played Anslemo their demos for Power Metal
with the frontman recalling ‘Wow you’re heading in the right direction.'” That’s not to say
Anselmo didn’t have his own set of influences he brought to the band with Brown recalling
“Phil started turning us on to all kinds of different stuff that we hadn’t listened to before,
because he turned out to be the biggest f***** metal head of all time,” “He knew every f****
band there was to know.” That music would include the likes of venom, soundgarden and Mercyful Fate.
While bassist Rex Brown was still a fan of hair metal he knew Anselmo had a lot of promise and
was the missing piece the band was looking for recalling in his autobiography Official Truth
101 Proof “From the first time the guy walked in the door, we could just tell he had this aura,”
“There was testosterone just f---ing flying. When he came in the fold, we rehearsed in Dime’s mom’s
front living room with amps on 12 and there it was. I had a bottle of tequila and we smoked
a joint and played every Judas Priest song we knew. There’s a lot of Priest on Power Metal.
That was the one thing that Darrell and Phil immediately had in common.”
Released in the spring of 1988, Power Metal would be produced by Dime and Vinnie’s father Jerry’s
who also produced the group’s three previous records and managed the band. It would be the
abbot’s father who enlisted Keel guitarist Marc Ferrari on the track“Proud To Be Loud”
hoping it would get them a major label deal. Like Goldmountain records who passed on the band,
the elder Abott was perplexed at the band’s change in sound. Not only that,
but Pantera also became a more volatile band with Brown recalling in the book louder than hell
Phil was a scrappy dude..His temper was out of control. He’d fight anybody
at the drop of a goddamn hat. He made sure that when he walked into a room
people would know it. And that’s where we come back to Donny Hart and Phil Anselmo.
When Anselmo joined the band the other members of Pantera hadn’t told Hart yet
and it eventually came to a head one night at a bar in Dallas where the members of Pantera
plus Hart were hanging out at. It would result in Anselmo punching out Hart in the bathroom.
Even though the album represented an important stepping stone to where pantera was headed in the
near future, the band’s problems of the past still haunted them. They still couldn’t get a
record deal Derek Shulman was the president and ceo of atco records, pantera’s label in
the 90’s. He had checked out the band in the mid 80’s when Terry Glaze was still fronting the group
but he gave the band another look when Anselmo joined telling jon widerhorn in the book louder
than hell “I had listened to their self produced album, Power Metal with their new singer philip
anselmo when i was at polygram and although it was a well-crafted, heavier album with fantastic
playing, it still did not have that unique quality they would ultimately acquire. It was not at that
time particularly distinctive from the artists that I was involved with like bon jovi, cinderella
and kingdom come. The other problem from the past was that the band still had their glam look
and even used their old glam names on the album credits. It would be Anselmo who gave the band
an ultimatum telling widerhor in the same book “we were down in houston, texas in 88 and i had f*****
had it with our look. I was dead serious I was not going to do another show in spandex. We had
a huge argument - a knock down drag out f**** huge fight that spilled into fort worth….it was ugly
at first but it proved that the brotherhood was there. I could jump onstage in the same clothes
i wore all day and sing the f***** songs. That bred confidence and a new fire in our bellies.
As for Schulman he would have a change in heart over the band once Pantera’s
attorney showed him a tape of the band performing live with Schulamn recalling
“watching Phil together with Darrell onstage on this tape was mesmerizing.”
How do the members feel about the record today? Well Anselmo would tell Revolver "To say I'm proud
of it, no, I'm not," "But to say that we as a band were still trying discover who the fuck we were
and what we could do, that's very evident. I did the best I could,
and I think the songs were heavier overall, more attacking."