Think About This: Pantera

We people think about Pantera the think about the Groove Metal band that released some of the greatest Metal albums. Vulgar Display of Power and Cowboys from Hell have to be there two most popular albums. But what some casual fans of this band may not know is that Pantera started off as a Glam Metal band. And released four album under this genre:

Metal Magic (1983)
Projects in the Jungle (1984)
I Am the Night (1985)
Power Metal (1988) (More Heavy Metal than Glam)

Three of these albums (Metal Magic, Project in the Jungle, and I Am the Night) had a completly different singer. A singer named Terry Glaze, who departed from Pantera and formed Lord Tracy. And before Terry there they had another singer, Donnie Hart. This singer was not featured on any of Pantera releases.

A lot of Metal fans probably already knew most, if not all of these facts. But I would like you to think about something. Pantera as a Glam Metal band were pretty okay. All of the reviews that I see about these albums are pretty average. Check out of there songs Metal Magicbelow.

The lead singer, Terry, is a pretty good singer. There is a little spend to this song. But you can tell they were going for the Glam Metal look and feel. And in order for them to keep making album there had to been some kind of demand for them. There had to be a die hard Glam Metal Pantera fan that hated their change to a way more aggressive song.

There had to been a fan that love, if not really enjoyed the first three albums. Then once they heard Power Metal they got PISSED OFF. Because Power Metal was the band’s move to the sound we know them today. And I am pretty sure after releasing Vulgar they did not play any of the Glam Metal song because they would not mix well (I could be wrong on that one). If their favorite song was Metal Magic; and they did not see Pantera before 1990, then they would never see their favorite song live. That would suck.

Could this change be compared to Metallica change from Thrash to Hard Rock? But instead of going from Great to widely hated; they went from Okay to widely loved.