Tracklist front / back album covers
Side one
1. "Ride My Rocket" 4:55
2. "I'll Be Alright" 3:13
3. "Tell Me If You Want It" 3:44
4. "Latest Lover" 2:54
5. "Biggest Part of Me" 4:49
Total length: 39:37
Side two
6. "Metal Magic" 4:17
7. "Widowmaker" 3:03
8. "Nothin' On (But the Radio)" 3:30
9. "Sad Lover" 3:27
10. "Rock Out!" 5:45
Pantera Band Members / Musicians
Terry Glaze – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
Diamond Darrell – rhythm and lead guitars
Rex Rocker – bass
Vinnie Paul – drums
Jerry Abbott – producer, engineer, mixing
M.C. Rather – mastering
Recorded at Pantego Sound, Pantego, Texas
Metal Magic is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on June 10, 1983 by Metal Magic Records. Like the band's next three releases, it is musically oriented toward a glam/heavy metal sound influenced by Kiss and Van Halen, rather than the groove metal style they became famous for playing in the 1990s, starting with the release of Cowboys from Hell. The album was released on the band's own label (also called Metal Magic) and produced by Jerry Abbott (under the alias "The Eld'n"), a noted country music songwriter and producer, and father of Diamond Darrell and Vinnie Paul, who were 16 and 19 years old, respectively, at the time of release.
Pantera (/pænˈtɛrə/) was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed in 1981. The group's best-known lineup consisted of the Abbott brothers (drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell), along with vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown. In addition to their development and popularization of the groove metal subgenre, Pantera is credited (along with others, such as Testament, Sepultura, and Machine Head) for being part of the second wave of thrash metal scene from the late 1980s to early-to-mid 1990s. Pantera is regarded as one of the most successful and influential bands in heavy metal history, having sold around 20 million records worldwide and having received four Grammy nominations.
Having started as a glam metal band, Pantera released three albums in the mid-1980s with lead vocalist Terry Glaze (Metal Magic, Projects in the Jungle, and I Am the Night) with little success. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera hired Anselmo in 1987 and released Power Metal in 1988. They secured a record deal with major label Atco the following year. Their fifth album, 1990's Cowboys from Hell, popularized the groove metal genre, while its 1992 follow-up Vulgar Display of Power achieved an even heavier sound. Far Beyond Driven (1994) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Tensions began to surface among the band members when Anselmo became addicted to heroin in 1995; he almost died from an overdose in 1996. These tensions resulted in the recording sessions for The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) being held separately. The ongoing tension lasted for another seven years, during which only one studio album, Reinventing the Steel (2000), was recorded. Pantera went on hiatus in 2001 but lingering disputes led to the band breaking up in 2003. The Abbott brothers went on to form Damageplan while Anselmo continued to work on several side projects, including Down, which Brown joined as well.
On December 8, 2004, Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed on stage by a mentally unstable fan during a Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio. Vinnie Paul went on to form Hellyeah after his brother's death, and died of heart failure in 2018, leaving Brown and Anselmo as the only surviving members of the band's best-known lineup.
Pantera Band Members / Musicians
Dimebag Darrell – lead guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982), lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1982–2003, died 2004)
Vinnie Paul – drums, percussion (1981–2003, died 2018)
Terry Glaze – lead vocals (1982–1986), rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982)
Rex Brown – bass, backing vocals (1982–2003)
Phil Anselmo – lead vocals (1987–2003)
Donny Hart – lead vocals (1981–1982, 1986)[92]
Tommy Bradford – bass, backing vocals (1981–1982)
Rick Mythiasin – lead vocals (1986)
David Peacock – lead vocals (1986)
Matt L'Amour – lead vocals (1986)
Pantera Discography Full
1983 Metal Magic
1984 Projects in the Jungle
1985 I Am the Night
1988 Power Metal
1990 Cowboys from Hell
1992 Vulgar Display of Power
1994 Far Beyond Driven
1996 The Great Southern Trendkill
2000 Reinventing the Steel
Live albums
1997 Official Live: 101 Proof
2014 Far Beyond Bootleg: Live from Donington '94
