Back in 1984, Pantera were still deep in their glam-metal days. Philip Anselmo had yet to join the band, and singer Terry Glaze — a David Lee Roth-style belter — was fronting the group. But Pantera’s prodigious young shredder Diamond Darrell (he wouldn’t become known as Dimebag until years later) would occasionally take on lead mic duties. Case in point, a 1984 performance in Lawton, Oklahoma, during which the Texan upstarts covered Metallica‘s “Seek & Destroy” with their 17-year-old guitarist on impressively solid vocals. Watch above.
Metallica, as well as their “Big 4” thrash peers Slayer, would have a huge influence on Pantera’s evolution from hair-metal wailers to power-groove demolition crew. And Darrell would eventually go on to befriend his heroes in the band.
Pantera’s guitarist was a “gigantic” Metallica fan, James Hetfield recently recalled in an interview with SiriusXM’s Jose Mangin — and the feeling was mutual.
“Well, what a blessing to have been in his life and him in my life,” the Metallica frontman said. “Yeah, some of those early days … just traveling down there to the Dallas area and meeting with those guys and just hanging out.
“Dimebag introduced me to the solid state amp. I remember he had this freaking amazing crunch going on. It’s like, ‘What is that?’ You know? So yeah, [we] inspired each other. He inspired me as well. No doubt.”