Pantera Singer In Massive Trouble For Racism

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Germany is known for a great many things. Some memorable, some forgettable. Pantera, the 1990’s rock band are in the headlines recently for something very bad. Pantera has been accused of being racist and as a result the band has been nixed from a German rock concert.

As per Blabbermouth, Pantera’s appearances at two rock festivals in Germany this spring have been canceled following an outcry over singer Philip Anselmo’s alleged racist remarks. Here’s the scoop. 

The reformed Pantera incarnation — featuring Pantera’s surviving members Anselmo and Rex Brown (bass) along with guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) and drummer Charlie Benante — was scheduled to appear at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, two simultaneous rock festivals, which will take place June 2-4 in Nürburgring and Nürnberg, respectively. However, after intensive discussions with artists, partners and fans, the festival promoters decided to remove Pantera from the bill.

“The band Pantera will not perform at Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring 2023 as announced,” said the Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park organizers on Monday evening (January 23) on Twitter in identical statements.

Most of the backlash stemmed over the fact that Anselmo made a Nazi-style salute when he performed at the January 2016 “Dimebash” event at the Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood in honor of late Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. He also appeared to say “white power” as he made the gesture, but later claimed he was joking about drinking white wine backstage and was reacting to the audience members up front who he says were taunting him.

There was additional criticism with regard to the fact that Rock Am Ring takes place in Nürnberg (known in its English form as Nuremberg),where Hitler supporters held a series of mass Nazi party rallies between 1933 and 1938.