The recent news of Pantera's surviving members, Philip Anselmo and Rex Brown, joining forces with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde for a 2023 Pantera celebration tour has been everywhere over the past few days. While many are wondering how the two will fare in place of the late, great Abbott brothers, some already have an idea of what to expect thanks to a 2014 collaboration in which Wylde stood in to shred with Anselmo and Brown at a BLS show in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The clip above opens with Black Label's road crew rushing in to rearrange some onstage setlists before Anselmo and Brown enter simultaneously from opposite sides of the stage. They waste no time before high-fiving and launching into Pantera's 1994 classic "I'm Broken" in front of the imposing wall of amp stacks.
Smoke, lasers and an intricate light show play up the atmosphere, and crowd-surfers and headbangers alike rejoice as Wylde squeals through the late Dimebag's leads, Anselmo working the full breadth of the stage and patting the shredder's back several times just ahead of the mid-song solo.
"Come on, you fucks!" Anselmo roars as the song's pummeling final breakdown kicks in. The lights come up while the smoke machines send streams shooting upward, and the scene ends with everyone onstage sharing a hearty and extended hug, ending the show with an arm-in-arm bow.
A taste of things to come? If so, it's a good one.
