It was a terrific night of Metal as titans Pantera along with Lamb of God and Child Bite took over Darien Lake PAC this past Wednesday night. All the talk was about the recent reunited Pantera without founding members Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul who both have passed on. Taking their spots were Zakk Wylde on guitar and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante on drums. Their first show was last year at the Hell and Heaven festival in Mexico on December 2, 2022. This year they are slotted to do an extensive run of dates that included major European festivals, opening up for Metallica and headlining their own shows too. The last time that Pantera played the WNY area was on Sept 2, 1999 opening up for Ozzy Osbourne.
First up was a band called Child Bite. In my opinion, the band can be considered more hardcore punk than metal. They hail from Detroit, Michigan. They have opened up for Phil Anselmo’s other bands Down and Superjoint Ritual. It would only make sense for them to be the openers here as well. I can see why Anselmo hand pick them as bands energy was off the hook. They only had a 30 minute set but the band made the most out of it bashing through tracks like “Glazed in a Skeletal Maze” and “Blow off the Omens.” A cool band to check out if hardcore punk is your thing.
Trash veterans Lamb of God were up next. The band is on tour supporting ‘Omens,’ which came out last fall. You will be hard pressed to find a more intense performer than vocalist Randy Blythe. I was expecting a full hair of dreadlocks but that wasn’t the case. He recently shaved his head but that didn’t stop him from making every inch of that stage his own. Before the band played their 5th song “Ruin,” Blythe asked is the audience was ready to completely fuck this place up? The crowd intensity did rise and more and more as crowd surfers and moshing took place. Surprisingly, the band only did two new tracks “Ditch” and “Omens.” Towards the end of the set, Blythe asked for every woman, man and child to take a bow as he thanked them for coming. I believe the audience felt the same way about Lamb of God and their performance too!
Closing out the set was Pantera. The band took the stage at 9:15pm sharp and kicked into “A New Level” off of the bands biggest album ‘A Vulgar Display of Power.’ An appropriate opener as it’s a new outfit trying to deliver the same message. A message of we are going to kick your ass! One of my favorite Pantera tracks is “Mouth for War,” and surprisingly that tune was up next. It should be noted that Wylde always wears a leather or jean jacket vest. For this occasion, his leather vest included big patches of both Vinnie Paul Dimebag Darrell that were easily identifiable to the members in the audience. It was should be noted that Benante’s kit had a double bass drum with each of the brothers faces on those too. Anselmo stated that this next song was very intense and the crowd’s reaction went up tenfold as the band pounded out “Suicide Note Part II.” Bassist Rex Brown (who ironically got the loudest ovation when introductions were made), kicked off the heavy “5 minutes alone.” This track really focused on the groove of Brown and Benante. Anselmo said when Pantera first started to make traction, this was one of the songs that put the band on the map as the band went into “Fucking Hostile.” A touching moment came when the band exited the stage and they just ran a track of music to “Cemetery Gates” while showing videos of just both Dimebag and Vinnie.” Benante came to the front of a stage to play a very small kit for the Black Sabbath cover “Planet Caravan.” For what can be considered the band’s most well know song in “Walk, the openers Child Bite came on stage to sing the chorus with them.” They closed the set with “Revolution is my Name.”
Ok, for many out there saying this isn’t exactly Pantera, I get that. This is paying respect to the brothers the best way that both Anselmo and Brown know how to do. That is by asking both of the fallen brothers best friends (Wylde and Bennate) to represent them in doing so. It was terrific celebration of the music. You won’t be disappointed if you go. Believe me! It was well worth it!!
Pantera setlist:
A New Level
Mouth for War
Strength Beyond Strength
Becoming
I’m Broken
Suicide Note Part II
5 Minutes Alone
This Love
Fucking Hostile
Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath cover)
Walk
Domination/Hollow
Cowboys From Hell
Encore:
Slaughtered
Revolution is my Name
We would like to thank Ron Perks from Livenation for the credentials to review the show.
