Situated in the northern Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Georgia, the Ameris Bank Amphitheatre played host to four-time Grammy-nominated metal band Pantera on Tuesday night. Built in 2008, this 12,000 capacity venue became the latest destination stop on their 20-date summer tour, which included support from Lamb of God and King Parrot.
As the clock inched past the 7:00pm hour and with the afternoon storms past, Australian grindcore band King Parrot took to the stage in front of the early Atlanta crowd. Hailing from Melbourne and anchored by vocalist Matthew “Youngy” Young, the band immediately amped up the audience with their kick-you-in-the-face thrash sound, easily setting up the energetic tone for the rest of the evening.
In fact, in doing a little research on the band, I quickly learned of their connection to Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo — King Parrot recorded their second album, Dead Set, back in 2014 at Anselmo’s Louisiana studio. With songs like “Bozo” and “Shit on the Liver,” I can only imagine how insane the audience atmosphere would be at one of their shows in a dark, dingy, sweaty club on a Friday night Down Under. These guys were full-throttle from the get-go, and the fans ate it up in preparation for Lamb of God.
King Parrot
Matthew “Youngy” Young – lead vocals
Ari “Mr. White” White – guitar
Slatts Everyday – bass, backing vocals
Andrew “Squiz” Livingstone-Squires – guitar
Todd “Toddy” Hansen – drums
Shortly before 8:00pm and with darkness finally descending, the stage curtain dropped to Lamb of God blasting into “Memento Mori,” the lead track off their self-titled 2020 release. Having never experienced Lamb of God live before, my immediate response was “woah.” Their production was basically that of a co-headliner, replete with smoke, pyrotechnics, and enough strobe lights to give someone a seizure.
Formed in Richmond, Virginia, back in 1994, Lamb of God has released eleven albums, including their most recent, Omens, back in October of last year. From 2007 to 2016, they were nominated for five Grammy Awards, but similar to Pantera, sadly have never received a winning nod. Anchored by founding members John Campbell (bass) and Mark Morton (guitar), and along with Randy Blythe (vocals), Willie Adler (guitar) and Art Cruz (drums), Lamb of God delivered a blistering 10-song set to a packed house.
Throughout their performance, Blythe stalked the stage, encouraging audience participation while the crowd in the general admission pit directly in front of him released pent up energy. To close out their exhausting set, the band delivered fiery renditions of arguably two of their most popular tunes in “Laid to Rest” and “Redneck,” essentially setting the crowd up for what was to come with Pantera.
Lamb of God
Willie Adler – Rhythm guitar
Randy Blythe – Vocals
John Campbell – Bass
Art Cruz – Drums
Mark Morton – Lead guitar
Setlist:
1.) Memento Mori
2.) Walk With Me in Hell
3.) Resurrection Man
4.) Ditch
5.) Now You’ve Got Something to Die For
6.) Omens
7.) Ruin
8.) Contractor
9.) Laid to Rest
10.) Redneck
At precisely 9:15pm, the stage curtain lit up with the Pantera logo, which immediately drew cellphones out of pockets across the sold-out amphitheatre. With an explosion of noise marking the start of their set, the curtain dropped and revealed Pantera as they launched into “A New Level” from the band’s 1992 release, Vulgar Display of Power. As most fans are aware, Pantera’s new touring lineup features legacy members Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass), along with highly respected musicians Charlie Benante (Anthrax) and Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) performing in place of the late, great Abbott brothers, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (guitar) and Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott (drums).
I acknowledge that there are keyboard warriors out there complaining that this “isn’t Pantera” and they are basically a glorified tribute band now, but I (along with probably 10,000+ other people Tuesday night) can emphatically state that characterization is incorrect. The 55-year-old Anselmo sounds as good as ever behind the mic, reminiscent of days long past when I last experienced Pantera live back in 1991 on their Cowboys & Idiots co-headlining tour with Wrathchild America.
Pantera paid tribute to the Abbott brothers throughout the night with a variety of video montages (including one played over the introduction music to “Cemetery Gates”, which unfortunately they didn’t play), personal reflections by Anselmo, bass drum images, and Wylde even had his main guitar painted to match Dimebag’s signature lightning design. Poignantly, while thanking the audience for their support all these years, Anselmo offered up that “these aren’t our songs any longer, they are all of yours now.”
Dedicated Pantera fans were rewarded with a 13-song initial setlist, largely pulled from their ’90s catalog. While I witnessed plenty of fist pumping, chorus singing and mosh pit stomping throughout the night, the energy was notched up to another level as soon as Wylde hit those initial chords of Pantera’s most “commercially-known” tune, “Walk.” The band was also surprisingly joined on stage by locally-based Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds, as well as Blythe (LoG) and Slatts (King Parrot), to sing along, which was absolutely killer. Powering forward from there, the band closed out with “Ðomination/Hollow” and fan-favorite “Cowboys from Hell.”
Returning for a two-song encore, Pantera delivered lively performances of “Slaughtered” from Far Beyond Driven (1994), and put an exclamation point on the night with “Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit” from Reinventing the Steel (2000), which was the final album to feature the Abbott brothers before their deaths in 2004 (Dimebag) and 2018 (Vinnie Paul), respectively.
Pantera has a limited amount of 2023 shows remaining, including a few festivals, and are currently scheduled to wrap up the year at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, in support of Metallica on Friday, November 10th.
Pantera
Phil Anselmo – Lead vocals
Charlie Benante – Drums (touring)
Rex Brown – Bass
Zakk Wylde – Lead guitar (touring)
Setlist:
1.) A New Level
2.) Mouth for War
3.) Strength Beyond Strength
4.) Becoming
5.) I’m Broken
6.) Suicide Note Pt. II
7.) 5 Minutes Alone
8.) This Love
9.) Fucking Hostile
10.) Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath cover)
11.) Walk
12.) Domination / Hollow
13.) Cowboys From Hell
Encore
14.) Slaughtered
15.) Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit
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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.
