Pantera -

Texan thrash metallers whose influence in the world of extreme music is hard to overstate. From dodgy cock-rock beginnings the group moved into their now familiar territory of crunching riffs, howling vocals and massive energy upon the arrival of new frontman Phil Anselmo in the late 1980s. A string of massively successful and progressively heavier albums then saw Pantera ascend to the top of the metal tree, by managing to appeal to mainstream metal audiences without ever compromising their extreme values.