Pantera are beginning to tease their return to live performance

Ahead of their show at Mexico City’s Heaven & Hell Festival scheduled for Friday, December 2nd, Pantera have finally started teasing their long-awaited return to the stage. Aside from a short promo video posted by the band’s social media in August that confirmed the rumor at the time that Pantera was “reuniting,” remaining original members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown have been relatively quiet since the reunion was announced. It’s all a bit odd given that guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante have been open and talkative about the reunion in recent interviews, but that could also be because they’re highly positioned to replace brothers Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darell – the backbone of Pantera.

However, it looks like things are starting to change this week, as Pantera bassist Rex Brown has finally shed some light on the band’s upcoming shows. Brown took to Instagram to post a photo of himself with Wylde and Benante in what appears to be the band’s rehearsal space. The photo was captioned with the following statement:

“Get ready folks, this is going to be one hell of a ride… And then some!! This was the beginning of the ZW sessions that grew into Monster…5 days to Mexico City!! Turn….”

Soon after Brown’s post, the band’s official social media pages followed suit with another short teaser video that briefly shows the four members getting ready in what may be the same rehearsal space.

While the video doesn’t offer much in the way of what the band’s stage production will look like for these shows, it did show Zakk Wylde swinging one of his own guitars rather than one of Dime’s personal Washburn or Dean axes. It was originally rumored by former Dimebag guitar tech (who returns as Zakk Wylde’s tech) that Wylde would use some of Dime’s signature gear for the Pantera reunion shows. Of course, the band’s rehearsal gear may be different than the gear they use when they finally hit the stage, but neither the promotional video nor Brown’s Instagram post indicate that Wylde is using Dime’s gear.

While it seemed like a pretty minor nuance, fans seemed to notice and voiced their hopes in the comments to see Dimes’ gear make a return. Given that the reunion lineup has made clear intentions to honor the Abbott brothers at these shows, hopefully that means getting as close as possible to the actual sound and aesthetic that Dime and Vinny brought to Pantera.