Pantera

Pantera reinvented heavy metal for the 1990s, stripping away the genre's glam excess to forge a sound of unprecedented heaviness and groove. Dimebag Darrell Abbott's guitar playing was the engine of this transformation: his tone — a scooped, razor-sharp attack achieved through a Dean ML, Randall solid-state amplifiers, and a signature MXR wah — could shift from churning, syncopated groove riffs to blazing, blues-inflected solos of staggering fluidity. Cowboys from Hell marked the transition from their glam origins; Vulgar Display of Power perfected the formula with songs like Walk and Mouth for War that became metal's new sonic standard; Far Beyond Driven debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, an almost unheard-of achievement for extreme music. Phil Anselmo's vocals ranged from a hardcore bark to a melodic clean tone, while Vinnie Paul's drumming provided a groove foundation that influenced every heavy band that followed. Dimebag's murder onstage in 2004 was one of the most tragic events in music history, but his influence on metal guitar technique and tone is permanent and pervasive.