Review by Dave Kasiorek. Photos by Sean Benedict
Pantera returned to the Pavilion at Starlake on the opening night of their 2025 US Summer tour, it was a brutally hot day with thousands of fans ready for heavy metal brutality.
Opening the ticket was Snafu, a thrashing, heavy death metal band from Detroit who methodically pumped out head banging riffs and moments to warm up the early crowd. The special guest of the tour, Amon Amarth was next and what an absolute banger of an opener it was. The last I saw Amon Amarth was at Mr. Smalls attic with about 40 people in attendance and it was amazing to see where they are today. The stage was screamed viking metal with a giant viking helm (that doubled as a screen), blow up statues on each side of the stage, performers in armor battling it out with sword and shield and many crowd interaction opportunities like sitting down in your seats and rowing like a viking! The theatrics was one aspect but it was great to see Amon Amarth mature so much musically since I last saw them. There was a keg full of interesting riffs to digest that had me thinking Judas Priest or Kreator at times. There could not have been a better opening act to set the stage for the mighty Pantera.
At sundown it was time to unleash the beast that is Pantera. In full honor of the late Dimebag and Vinnie (brothers in life and metal) Phil, Rex, Charlie and Zakk came to do just that. Being it was the opening night of the show there were some surprises and rarities that had the crowd going insane. The set kicked off with “Hellbound” a song that hasn’t been played since 2001, with its twisting time signatures and heavy riffage followed by the big 4 of in your face classics “5 Minutes Alone”, Strength Beyond Strength”, “A New Level”, and “Mouth for War”. Next up was “Goddamn Electric” which saw Phil strap on a guitar and shred with Zakk mid song. Following the unexpected madness was a song that was never played live before in the history of Pantera, with the 1996 slugger “10’s” as video of Dimebag and Vinnie played on the big screen reminding us why we were all there. To celebrate the music that those guys blessed the heavy metal world with. It was back to the big hitters on the next trio of tracks as “Becoming”, “I’m Broken” and “This Love” got the crowd singing loudly with the epic choruses that Pantera is known for. From there on out it just got even more brutal. Starting off with another song that hasn’t been played since 2001, “I’ll Cast a Shadow”, following hit after hit, “Cowboys From Hell”, “Walk” (which had so many chanting along that I think you could hear us downtown), the bass thumping of “Domination/Hollow” and the show closure of epic proportions “Fucking Hostile”
What an epic show it was kicking off the tour right here in the burgh. So many fans of all ages came to head bang including a 6 year old girl that was pointed out by Phil to prove that metal is for everyone no matter how big, small, young, old, or tall. If you have a chance to catch this tour over the summer in another city it’s a must see. The brutality never let up from beginning to end. What a night!
