PANTERA GOES WYLDE

Celebrated Texas metallers PANTERA are back for a gangbuster world tour - with Black Label Society's ZAKK WYLDE filling in for the late 'n' legendary DIMEBAG DARRELL Is it a reunion or a tribute? Who cares! If you ask Zakk, it's simply a celebration of the music, spirit and legacy of his fallen brother. Behold the fiery return of the Cowboys from Hell!

- JON WIEDERHORN

ON DECEMBER 18, 2022, about two weeks after playing their first-ever show together since 2001, Pantera are getting ready to tear up the Knotfest Carnival stage at the Anhembi Sambadrome in São Paulo, Brazil. Minutes before showtime, the ravenous crowd cheers along to Jackass-style video snippets of Pantera smashing things, blowing up shit, playing practical jokes and performing mind-blowing shows in the Nineties. A projection of a silhouette of the late Dimebag Darrell - wearing a Dean guitar, fist raised in triumph - and his late brother Vinnie Paul - holding up a drumstick - fill the screens as the band takes the stage to the weird and ethereal Peter Ivers song "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" from David Lynch's Eraser-head. The moment the nation has waited more than 27 years for has arrived.

“This is called ‘A New Level,’” shouts vocalist Phil Anselmo, and immediately Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde, Cattle Decapitation bassist Derek Engemann (who’s temporarily filling in for Covid-stricken Pantera co-founder Rex Brown) and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante blast into the chugging opening rhythm of the song as the crowd chants to the beat. Then, Wylde, armed with an orange-andblack bullseye-decorated Wylde Audio Warhammer, doubles the speed of the riff and sparks start to fly — literally and figuratively.