The excitement surrounding the news of the Pantera reunion and celebration tour has been all anyone could talk about for a while. Many names have given their opinion on the subject, including Max Cavalera. In a recent chat with the Rock Interview Series, he explained that giving the band a new name would have been the ideal move to honor the Abbott brothers.
There are two camps in the Pantera reunion. One side is happy with the dedication guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante have shown through their performances, while the other side believes that the original Pantera died when the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell, passed away. So, any newcomers can’t ever fill their shoes.
For Cavalera, he understands the fans who want the Pantera they knew and loved. There are still two original members, but he also thinks a big part of the band’s identity is missing. The main problem the singer has is with the name of the band. In his eyes, the reunited band should’ve come up with a tribute name to honor the Abbott brothers since, without the original lineup, it’s not the same Pantera.
Max Cavalera’s words about the Pantera reunion without Paul and Darrell:
“There are two sides to that, right?! It’s so tough because [on] one hand, I understand that the fans want to see it, and you still have a big part of that band, but you are missing two key elements on the brothers that are irreplaceable, in my eyes. So it’s tough. It’s really tough.
The only thing that maybe… It’s a little bit strange that they call it Pantera. It should be called some kind of tribute to Pantera — I think. It would have been a bit more of a tribute to those songs and that era. Because I don’t think it’s really Pantera without the brothers.”
This is an ongoing debate in the metal community, and it presumably will continue for a while longer as there are two opposing arguments with legitimate points to back them up. Max Cavalera proposes a tribute name instead of Pantera to honor Vinnie and Dimebag. What might be the solution to end the debate and make most metalheads rest easy?
