Pantera continues to face concert cancelations on their world reunion/tribute tour this year.
According to ThePRP, the band’s show in Vienna, Austria that was slated for May 31 has been canceled by its promoters. They said in a statement, “Pantera concert on the 31st May 2023 at the Vienna Gasometer will be canceled. All tickets can be returned where they were purchased. Thank you for your understanding.”
A reason for canceling the Pantera show was now given. However, the cancelation follows news this week of the band being pulled from two prominent rock festivals in Germany. On Tuesday (January 24), Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park both announced Pantera will not be performing at either festival. They have since been replaced on both bills by the Foo Fighters.
In a joint statement shared by both of the festival’s social media channels, they said, in part, “In the last few weeks, we have had many intensive conversations with artists, our partners and you, the festival fans, we have continued to deal with the criticism together and decided to remove the band from the program.”
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Some outlets speculate Pantera was dropped from these German festivals because of a 2016 incident involving singer Phil Anselmo. The incident occurred at Dimebash, a concert honoring late Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Video surfaced from the event showing Anselmo giving a Nazi salute and yelling “White power.”
Anselmo has since apologized in a video statement and spoken about the incident multiple times including an October 2016 interview with Decibel and a November 2016 interview with Clrvynt.
In addition to festival performances, the reunited Pantera is taking part in select dates with Metallica in 2023. The band recently announced their own tour with Lamb of God. The band’s reunited/tribute lineup features Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown and Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante in place of the late guitarist and drummer “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott. A full list of tour dates can be found at Pantera.com.
