The markit aneight Youtube channel has uploaded multi-camera video of PANTHER‘s entire August 2 concert at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey. Check it out below.
The band’s setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:
01. A New Level
02. Mouth For War
03. Strength Beyond Strength
04. Becoming
05. I’m Broken
06. Suicide Note Pt. II
07. 5 Minutes Alone
08. This Love
09. Fucking Hostile
10. Planet Caravan (BLACK SABBATH cover)
eleven. Walking
12. Domination / Hollow
13. Cowboys From Hell
Encore:
14. Slaughtered
fifteen. Revolution Is My Name
The reformed PANTHER kicked off his US headlining tour with LAMB OF GOD on July 28 at The Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.
PANTHER‘s setlist for the summer 2023 tour included two songs which weren’t performed when the band launched its comeback last year: “Slaughtered”desde PANTHER‘s 1994 album “Far Beyond Driven”, widely considered the heaviest metal record to ever reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; and “Revolution Is My Name” desde PANTHER‘s final studio album, 2000’s “Reinventing The Steel”.
PANTHER‘s 2023 lineup includes two surviving members from the band’s classic formation, Philip Anselmo (vowels) and Rex Brown (bass),along with guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY) and drummer Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX).
Anselm and Brownalong with Wylde and Benante, are headlining a number of major festivals across South America, Asia, North America and Europe and staging some of their own headline concerts. They are also supporting METALLICA on a massive North American stadium tour in 2023 and 2024.
According to Billboardthe lineup has been given a green light by the estates of the band’s founders, drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbottas well as Brownwho in 2021 said Wylde wouldn’t tour with PANTHER if a reunion were to happen. It’s unclear what changed his mind about him.
Anselm and Brown spoke about PANTHER‘s return to the stage during a recent appearance on the seventeenth episode of “The Metallica Report”the recently launched podcast offering weekly insider updates on all things METALLICA. Philip said: “It’s empowering. It is incredibly beautiful, and you feel so much love when you’re up there. And if you take it in, it’s a great feeling, man. These days, man, that’s where me and Rexyou know, we get to dig the shows more.”
He continued: “When we were younger, we were at war and when we were on stage; we were just angry and at war, man. Now it’s — the songs are there. I can concentrate on singing the fricking songs, number one. Geez, that’s a relief for me, man. I don’t have to break my fricking body in part anymore.”
Anselm and Brown also talked about Charlie and Zakk being part of the PANTHER team. Philip said: “Them two dudes, so enthusiastic. And they got their damn thing and they got their own damn legacy, both of them, without us. It’s an honor to play with them. They’re the nicest frickin guys in the world, man. I’m just so… [Laughs] Zakk, he’s a crack-up, man. He’s a sweetheart. And fricking Charliewe’ve known Charlie since ’87, man. It’s a long time.”
Rex chimed in: “The way [Charlie] plays Vinny‘s parts is uncanny. I don’t think there’s any drummer out there that could play the way that Vinny did. I would close my eyes, because I was trying to get tight, and sometimes if I close my eyes, I can hear a little better; I think I can. And there’d be a tear of joy just coming down, because that was so close to what Vinny and I used to play. So you have the foundation.”
Philip attended, saying: “The low end sounds so PANTHER, man. It’s freaking me out.”
When the interviewer suggested that PANTHER in 2023 you have Vinnie Paul and Dimebag‘s “spirit inside it”, Philip said: “Only thing I can say is, man, I know for a damn fact Vince and Tell me would want us to do this, hands down. They would want the PANTHER brand or the legacy to go on. And I don’t know what you believe in, but sometimes, you know, you would like to think that them old fellas are looking down on us, giving us the thumbs-up.”
Up until its passing in June 2018, Vinny remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmwhom the drummer indirectly blamed for Dimebag‘s death.
Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTHER. When PANTHER broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTHER were stealing his thoughts.
