ZAKK WYLDE Explains What Truly Set PANTERA Apart – And How They Became A Metal Benchmark

Zakk Wylde believes that what truly made Pantera an enduring force in metal wasn’t just the band’s heaviness – it was the quality of the songwriting. And when he steps on stage with the current Pantera lineup, he treats every performance as a gift to his late friends, Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul.

When Cowboys from Hell landed on July 24, 1990, it arrived at a time when metal was at a crossroads. The early ’90s saw traditional metal bands being sidelined by the mainstream as grunge took hold, and a new wave of metal musicians was only just beginning to emerge. In the words of Dream Theater‘s Mike Portnoy, “Pantera was the band that kept metal alive in the ’90s.”

But for Zakk Wylde, it wasn’t just the aggression of tracks like “Walk” and “Mouth for War” that secured the band’s legacy. Speaking recently with Billy Corgan on the Magnificent Others podcast, Wylde said (via Ultimate Guitar): “Well, what I always say, what separated Sabbath from everything… It’s not because it’s heavy. It’s because it’s great songs. So, far as I’m concerned, I always say Pantera, in their genre of extreme metal, they are the gold standard of where everything… Just like how Sabbath and Zeppelin, The Stones, The Beatles are the gold standard. So if it’s a southern rock band, just The Allman BrothersBand and Lynyrd Skynyrd are the gold standard of that style of music. So, with extreme metal, they’re all measured by what Pantera set.”

When it comes to performing that material live today, Wylde explained that he imagines it as a kind of tribute show – one he hopes the Abbott brothers would have enjoyed.

“I just always look at it like if Dime and Vinnie were at the soundboard, and we go, ‘We got you guys an early Christmas present.’ And they were, like, ‘All right, man.’ ‘Cause the guys were always about having a good time, everyone partying, and just barbecuing and whatever. And then go, ‘Check this out. We got a little something for you.'”

He continued: “And all of a sudden the guys are just sitting out at the front of the house or whatever, and then all of a sudden the curtain drops [and we start off with] ‘A New Level’. And the kabuki comes down, and it’s me, Charlie, Phil, and Rex. And Zakk and Charlie wanted to get you an early birthday present or whatever, and they’d be going, ‘I can’t believe these jackasses are playing…'”

“I’m just saying — if it was Dime doing it, Dime and Vinnie doing it up there, with me and Charlie [in the audience], [and them] playing Ozzy or Anthrax songs, or Black Label, whatever. Me and Charlie would be crying laughing.”

For Wylde, the emotional connection to the performances remains personal: “I just always picture them every night, I just picture them [getting a kick out of it], especially when Rita‘s [Haney, Dimebag‘s longtime girlfriend] over there on the side of the stage and everything like that. Especially those two guys, because they just loved life so much.”