Phil Anselmo: a brief biography of the former vocalist Pantera

American vocalist and musician Phil Anselmo is best known for his participation in the Pantera group. His manner of performance has become proprietary and fundamental for the whole genre.

early years

Phil Anselmo was born in New Orleans, in the south of the USA, in 1968. His parents had French and Italian roots. Since childhood, the child has become addicted to heavy music. When Phil grew older, he began to perform in local clubs. The hobby took a very long time, which badly affected the school performance. By the twelfth grade, Anselmo had ceased to appear in the classroom at all. As a result, he dropped out and did not even get a secondary education.

Most of all Phil Anselmo loved heavy metal. In the 80's, this genre was just experiencing the heyday. Such music enjoyed insane popularity in the American underground. In addition, Anselmo was influenced by punk rock. In the future, he mixes these two genres in his work. Phil's favorite vocalist was Rob Halford.

Hit in Pantera

Anselmo already in his youth became a popular figure in the Louisiana underground. The leap in his career occurred at a time when the vocalist was in the band Pantera in 1986. Prior to this, this team played hard rock and then popular glam metal. Three members of the Pantera group wanted to make their music sound heavier. Former vocalist Terrence Lee because of his style did not fit into the new band framework.

Then in the "Panther" and was eighteen-year-old Phil Anselmo. He was quite a boy, but his vocal performance was amazing. In 1988, the fourth album of the group Power Metal was released. This record was the debut for Anselmo. He sang high, in many ways imitating Halford. The album was commercially successful. Pantera finally left the local clubs and became a significant team.

International success

Pantera became a cult band in 1990, after releasing the album Cowboys from Hell. For its time it was a unique and innovative record. The style and genre in many ways influenced by Phil Anselmo. Quotations from his interview of the 90's suggest that he was happy to perform at Pantera.

• "I tried to take heavy metal ... to mix it and cut it in half to create something new." I really tried to give the extreme music a different form. "
• "It seems to me that I have already done everything in music that I wanted."

Anselmo's data fit perfectly for a bold experiment. His high manner of singing reached the peak of mastery at that time. The new style, created by Pantera, soon received its own name - groove-metal. According to the sound, it was most like the popular thrash in the 80's. But in addition, the team's game included the techniques characteristic of hardcore punk and sludge. In these experiments in the work reflected the youthful hobbies of Anselmo. Soon his name began to be mentioned in the same line with the titans of the metal scene.

Commercial success made the group popular all over the world. The team performed not only in America - now musicians have become welcome guests in Europe. The real apotheosis of Anselmo's tour activity can be considered his trip to the Soviet Union in 1991. Then the Tushino airfield hosted the festival "Monsters of Rock", which became, as it turned out, a legendary event. On the "Panther" and other foreign "heavy" groups came to gaze hundreds of thousands of people. Those who wanted to stay were within a few kilometers. For the Soviet informal youth, the concert with the participation of Pantera was not only a welcome, but also a unique event - the first of its kind.

The disintegration of Pantera

The 90s confirmed the success of Anselmo and his group. All subsequent albums of the group were sold in millions of copies and received platinum and gold status in various countries. The musicians had the most ambiguous biography. Phil Anselmo used drugs. In 1996, after one of the concerts, he had an overdose of heroin. Because of this, the vocalist's heart stopped for a few seconds. The doctors managed to pump Phil out. The band even continued the tour, but the atmosphere has since heated up considerably.

In 2003, due to disagreements between the participants, Pantera disintegrated. Since then, Anselmo has continued to perform with numerous outside groups as a guest guest. Of his several attempts to create a new team, Down stands out most. As part of this project, Phil performed slaj metal. This style was somewhat different from the Pantera concept. Curiously, the first Down records were released anonymously. Anselmo wanted to plunge again into the underground of his youth.

Nowadays

For many years Anselmo played in small groups. Finally, in 2013, he first released his own solo album, Walk Through Exits Only. Critics and fans greeted the novelty warmly. On the record, the former vocalist Pantera played not traditional groove metal, but more extreme music with an accelerated tempo and a heavy guitar sound.

In 2016, a public scandal broke out: many admirers of Pantera's work were outraged by the news that Phil Anselmo was a racist. The cause of the indignation was an unpleasant scene at one of the American concerts, when a well-known vocalist insulted blacks and used a Nazi gesture. A few days after the incident, Anselmo apologized to the fans, explaining his antics by being drunk.