Brothers (Dimebag) Darrel Abbott and Vinnie Paul Abbott form PanterA along with
Rex Brown and Terence Lee. They release their 1st independent album Metal Magic
on Metal Magic Records. Did not sell very well.
PanterA releases their 2nd independent album; Projects in the Jungle,
which also sold rather poorly.
Terence Lee records his last album with PanterA, their 3rd independent album;
I am the Night, before being kicked the fuck out.
With Lee gone David Peacock joins the line-up for a short while,
but never records an album. Then in late '86 a young guy from
Louisiana (Phil Anselmo) joins PanterA as their new frontman.
PanterA releases their 4th independent album (1st with Phil); Power Metal.
It sells an astounding 30,000 copies. That along with endless touring
grants them a huge underground following.
PanterA loses the glam look and releases Cowboys From Hell on Atco/Eastwest Records.
Produced by Terry Date, this was their 1st major label debut. They toured with
Judas Preist and Dubbed themselves the best "Power Groove" band in the world.
PanterA releases the 1st of 3 home videos Cowboys From Hell The Videos.
Vulgar Display Of Power is released after only 2 short months of
writing and recording. Mouth For War was the 1st metal single to
debut at #1, beating Enter Sandman while the album topped the U.S.
charts for weeks on end.
Guitar World raves "Anselmo sings with the fury of a post office psyco"
and the Village Voice called PanterA "an angry, cantankerous, aggresive
band that channels all the free-floating rage of their environment into a
murderous mettalic growl."
They finish the year performing for a million people at the Monsters Of
Rock in Moscow.
PanterA releases their 2nd home video Vulgar Video.
PanterA releases Far Beyond Driven after just 6 weeks of writing and recording.
Enters Billboard at #1 (1st metal band to do that). They do their 1st headline
arena tour in the U.S. and Europe.
Phil, who had been somewhat active in the media, is accused by the U.K. press
of being a racist. They never returned to tour there since.
1996
PanterA goes against the grain and releases the heaviest album of 96-97,
The Great Southern Trendkill. They started touring in the summer with Eye
Hate God and White Zombie. In July, Phil died of a heroin overdose
for 5 minutes before coming back. He responded with a note basically saying
"I'm not going that easily" and continued the tour the next night (UNSCARRED).
1997
PanterA Headlines a smaller scale U.S. tour with Anthrax. Later they would tour
with their idols KISS in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and on to play Ozzfest '97.
In July '97 they released their 1st live album 101 Proof, which has 14 of their
heaviest songs and 2 new tracks. The 3rd installment of the home video collection
3: Watch It Go was released in Nov. and debuts at #1 on Billboard Music Video Chart.
1998
PanterA Joins Ozzfest once again, this time only in Europe.
Still killing trends a new album is suspected to be released in
april/may '99.