Pantera Legacy, is it worth the hype?
All in all, the short answer would be yes. By now, many videos of the Pantera Legacy shows have made their circulation around the world’s internet, but the only real way to properly experience it would be to come out to a show and see it for your own self with your own eyes and ears. And an experience it would be for sure. It will obviously never been the same without Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell, however, Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante do the show pure justice and with beautiful dedication to the late musicians.
This featured piece revolves around the experience of their Berlin, Germany show at Verti Music Hall on June 13th 2023 with the opening act being Elegant Weapons who are also sincerely worth talking about.
The historical Pantera could never be replaced, however, there have been years of chatter for Zakk Wylde to play on guitars while Vinnie Paul was still alive. Unfortunately, that never came to fruition, however, the Legacy performance is a great tribute to the late artists. Zakk remains as Zakk, while wearing a newly designed vest honoring Dime. He also plays with a new custom blue Wylde V guitar with lighting design on it, a famous guitar that Dimebag Darrell had performed with. While no one can replace Dime and his style, Zakk does it while remaining true to himself as he performs in his famous style.
Charlie Benante of Anthrax is on drums for the Pantera Legacy and he performs with full passion and dedication to Vinnie Paul in his performance. The drums were set up the same way Vinnie Paul had them but this time the drum heads displayed the faces of the late Abbott Brothers, a perfect tribute.
The crowd themselves roared throughout the night, crowd surfing and singing along, wearing shirts from all eras from the original Pantera, Black Label Society, Down, Anthrax, and anything in between that the Legacy artists have been a part of over the years. The fans sounded extra loud during the show when the big hits were played, “5 Minutes Alone”, “Fucking Hostile”, “Cowboys from Hell”, and “Walk” to name a few.
Opening for the show was Elegant Weapons, a supergroup featuring singer Ronnie Romero of Rainbow, guitarist Richie Faulkner from Judas Priest, drummer Christopher Williams from Accept, and bassist Dave Rimmer from Uriah Heep. The band was just recently formed last fall and have a new debut album, Home for the Halo, also their first single out. The music was performed as the opening set before Pantera Legacy. Their style can best be described as is in the style that the musicians are all from, a classic metal band. The performance itself was very lively, and if one looks carefully, fans can catch Zakk Wylde watching them every night, especially since Faulker plays a song using one of Wylde’s guitars.
Pantera Legacy have several more summer festival and small headliner shows coming up before heading back to the states for a national tour and dates opening for Metallica M72 World Tour.
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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ANNIE ATLASMAN