Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi recently gave his opinion of metal bands like Metallica and Pantera.
He told Guitar World, “It was nice to hear those thrash bands paying tribute to us. It’s great how they were able to push it forward into something new and turn it into their own thing. I was just coming up with things I liked. So it was brilliant to hear about other musicians liking what I’d done, taking the same kind of idea and improving on it, evolving it into their own sound. Like Metallica, for instance, who probably learned things from us as well as other people.
What they did with the metal sound, turning it into thrash, was fantastic. They’ve always been respectful toward us and they’re lovely guys. I love their attitude toward things, the way they write and everything. It reminds us a lot of how we were — everyone in one room rehearsing together and taking it seriously.”
Founding Exhorder guitarist Vinnie LaBella recently recalled Phil Anselmo’s brief inclusion into the band and revealed he even wanted to quit Pantera for it.
Vinnie LaBella talks about Phil Anselmo
In a recent interview with Pod Scum, he said:
“Phil was actually in Exhorder for about three hours,” the guitarist revealed. “And it was my f*cking fault because what happened was, I wanna say sometime in ’86 we got in a big fight in the band and stuff as usual… So that was the first [Exhorder] breakup. And Kyle [Thomas, Exhorder singer] and Chris [Nail, Exhorder drummer] and David Main, my first guitar player with me, left. So it was just me and Andy [Villafarra, Exhorder bassist]. I grabbed [guitarist] Jay Ceravolo, Sid Montz on drums. We were all trying to put it back together in the rehearsal space.”
“And Sid called me up, and he said, ‘Listen, man, I talked to Phil. Phil wants to come and try out for the band.’ He wasn’t [happy] with things that were going on in Texas, so he wanted to come home and come try it with us. I said, ‘Just tell him, ‘Come home.’ He’s got the job.’ So he flew in anyway and tried out and sh*t, did a couple of songs with us. I was, like, ‘Dude, you’re f*cking killer. Of course you got the job.’ We put him back on the plane back to Dallas, and I went home,” he continued.
Things didn’t go as per the plans. He said: “And when I walked back in the house, my phone was ringing, and it ended up being Kyle Thomas. And he’s, like, ‘Listen, man, I wanna come back to the band.’ I was, like, ‘I haven’t heard from you in a year. I just put Phillip on a plane and told him he’s got the job. He’s going home to quit Pantera.’ I said, ‘Let me call you back.’ I called up Jay. I was, like, ‘Jay, I’m in a pickle here.’ So he’s, like, ‘Look, man, what do you think the right thing is to do?’ [I said], ‘The right thing to do is to bring Kyle back and give him his gig back.’ Because he’s the one we built this house with. I wanted to be loyal, I wanted to do the right thing, and I loved Kyle. So he’s, like, ‘Do what’s on your heart to do.’”
The rocker ended up sending Anselmo back, but it seems that he might be regretting his decision now: “So I called Philip. He was disappointed, of course, but he was also happy that we were getting it back together in its original state. And then Chris ended up coming back, and we had the old gang back together. But now I kick myself in the ass and I go, ‘I can’t believe I passed on Phil Anselmo for this guy.’”
Kyle Thomas had previously noted the comparisons between Exhorder and Pantera in a November 2022 interview with Heavy Culture. During the interview, he said:
“Pantera were very good before even, before Philip Anselmo joined them. They were very good and well established at what they did, a very hard-working band. Now, Phil is from New Orleans, like we are. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers. We’ve been friends for a very long time. In fact, that platinum album on [my] wall back there was a gift from Phil. That’s for ‘Far Beyond Driven’ [album]. So, we’ve been friends for a long time.
“I think a lot of the controversy was media- and fan-driven more than anything,” Thomas explained. “For me, I was friends with Darrell as well. I’ve been friendly with Rex a long, long time. I’ve known these guys for years.”
The members of Pantera and Exhorder have often denied it in interviews but the similarities between the two bands were amplified by the widespread belief that the two bands had stolen each other’s style. This also created a rift between the two camps.
In 2013, Anselmo denied that Exhorder had a significant influence on Pantera’s sound: “It’s absolutely untrue,” he told Examiner.com.
“Exhorder was a killer band, don’t get me wrong. And for their time in the local scene in New Orleans in 1988, as far as skill level, they really upped the game for everyone. To this day, I’m still really good friends with their singer, who is now the singer for Trouble. Kyle and I come from the same school of heavy metal vocals — Rob Halford, Don Doty from Dark Angel, and Tom Araya — so there are similarities between us, but musically, I don’t hear it at all.”
Pantera are set for their 2025 tour. The tour starts on January 21st in Helsinki, Finland, and wraps up on February 25 before the band joins Metallica’s upcoming tour to support them.
