1981–1986: Formation and early glam years

The band was originally named Gemini, then Eternity, before finally settling on Pantera after it was recommended to Vinnie while he was in drumline by his friend Don Sowers in high school. The name was inspired by the car De Tomaso Pantera. The band initially consisted of Vinnie Paul Abbott on drums with Darrell Abbott and Terry Glaze on guitar; the lineup was completed with two more members, lead vocalist Donnie Hart and bassist Tommy D. Bradford. In 1982, Hart left the band and Glaze took over on lead vocals. Later that year, Bradford also departed and was replaced by Rex Brown (then known as Rex Rocker) on bass. As Darrell rapidly improved, Glaze stuck to playing rhythm guitar, leaving Darrell as the sole lead guitarist. Glaze later gave up playing rhythm guitar altogether other than the occasional live performance, leaving Darrell handling both lead and rhythm duties.

Pantera became an underground favorite, though its regional tours in this era never took them beyond Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The band began supporting fellow heavy metal/glam metal acts such as Stryper, Dokken, and Quiet Riot. Pantera released its first studio album, Metal Magic, in 1983, on the band's record label of the same name and produced by the Abbott brothers' father, Jerry Abbott, at Pantego Studios. Pantera's sound at this stage is often likened to that of bands such as Kiss, Def Leppard, and Van Halen. Darrell's solos and guitar playing have also been noted, Darrell having only been 16 at time of recording.

1986–1989: Anselmo's introduction and Power Metal

Pantera began a search for Glaze's replacement and initially auditioned Matt L'Amour, a David Coverdale lookalike. He sang a number of shows with the band in Los Angeles during the winter of 1986, but it became somewhat apparent that L'Amour could not hit the high notes of which Glaze was capable. Together with his lack of stage presence, this meant that Pantera could only play cover songs, leading to L'Amour's departure. Pantera next auditioned El Paso native Rick Mythiasin, later to sing for Steel Prophet and Agent Steel; however, cultural and image differences – Mythiasin failed to adapt to the Southern culture of the other members – meant his tenure was even shorter than that of L'Amour. A former schoolmate of the Abbott brothers, David Peacock of the band Forced Entry (who had supported Warlock), joined the band as lead vocalist in the spring of 1986, but despite Pantera doing most of the work for their fourth album during the summer with Peacock, Rex and the Abbotts found Peacock's voice to be unsuited to the musical direction Pantera wished for. By the end of the year, Pantera even revisited original frontman Donny Hart. However, Hart himself knew that he was not the right frontman Pantera were seeking and Jerry Abbott was going to fire him.

1989–1991: Cowboys from Hell and mainstream breakthrough

The Abbott brothers refocused their attention on Pantera. In 1989, they were given their first shot at commercial success. That year was also when the band formed their relationship with Walter O'Brien at Concrete Management (the management arm of Concrete Marketing), who remained their manager until they disbanded in 2003.

After being turned down "28 times by every major label on the face of the Earth", Atco Records representatives Mark Ross and Stevenson Eugenio were asked by their boss Derek Shulman, who was interested in signing Pantera, to see the band perform in Texas. Ross was so impressed by the band's performance that he called his boss that night, suggesting that the band should be signed to the label. Atco Records accepted, and at the conclusion of 1989, the band recorded its major label debut at Pantego Studios and hired Terry Date to produce it, in large part because of his work with Soundgarden, Metal Church, and Overkill, the latter of whose latest album at the time The Years of Decay was one of the sources of inspiration behind Pantera's transition away from glam/traditional heavy metal to thrash/groove metal, as well as Diamond Darrell's guitar tone on the album.

1991–1995: Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven

Pantera's unique "groove" style came to fruition with their sixth studio album, titled Vulgar Display of Power, recorded in 1991 and released on February 25, 1992. On this album, the power metal falsetto vocals were replaced with a hardcore-influenced shouted delivery and heavier guitar sound, which firmly cemented the band's popularity among mainstream and underground fans alike. Two other singles from the album became two of Pantera's most notable ballads: "This Love", a haunting piece about lust and abuse, and "Hollow", somewhat reminiscent of "Cemetery Gates" from the previous album. The band would play the song "Domination" (from Cowboys from Hell) leading into the ending of "Hollow" (what is roughly the last 2:30 of the album version), forming a medley referred to as "Dom/Hollow", as can be heard on the band's 1997 live album Official Live: 101 Proof. Singles from Vulgar Display of Power also received significant airplay on radio as did the companion music videos on MTV. "Walk" became one of the band's more popular songs, and it appeared on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 35. The album itself entered the American charts at number 44. Pantera went on tour again, visiting Japan for the first time in July 1992 and later performing at the "Monsters of Rock" festival co-headlined by Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath in Italy. It was around this time that Darrell Abbott dropped the nickname "Diamond Darrell" and assumed "Dimebag Darrell", and Rex Brown dropped the pseudonym "Rex Rocker".

1995–1999: Band tensions and The Great Southern Trendkill

According to the Abbott brothers, Anselmo began behaving strangely and distanced himself from the band when they returned to the road in 1995. The rest of the band members first thought that fame had gotten to Anselmo, but Anselmo cited back pain from years of intense performances as the reason for his erratic behavior. Anselmo attempted to alleviate his pain through alcohol, but this, as he admitted, was affecting his performances and "putting some worry into the band." Doctors predicted that with surgery, Anselmo's back problem could be corrected, but with a long recovery time. Unwilling to spend so long away from the band, Anselmo refused, and began using heroin as a painkiller.

After stating at a Montreal concert that "rap music advocates the killing of white people", Anselmo denied accusations of racism and issued an apology, stating that he was drunk and that his remarks were a mistake. In 1995, the supergroup Down, one of Anselmo's many side projects, released their debut album, NOLA, but shortly afterwards the group members returned to their respective bands, leaving Down inactive for several years.

1999–2003: Side projects, Reinventing the Steel, and breakup

Around this time, Anselmo ventured into more side projects, such as playing guitars on Necrophagia's 1999 release Holocausto de la Morte, where he went as the alias "Anton Crowley", which combines the names of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and occultist Aleister Crowley. He also temporarily joined the black metal supergroup Eibon and contributed vocals to that band's only two songs. Another one of Anselmo's "Anton Crowley" projects was black metal band Viking Crown. The Abbott brothers and Rex Brown began their own country metal crossover project, Rebel Meets Rebel with David Allan Coe, around the same time.

The band wrote a song for the NHL's Dallas Stars during the team's 1999 Stanley Cup Championship run, "Puck Off"; in recent years, it has been used as the Stars' goal song at American Airlines Center. Throughout the season, members of the team befriended members of Pantera. During a Stanley Cup party hosted by Vinnie Paul, the Stanley Cup was damaged when Guy Carbonneau attempted to throw the cup from the balcony of Vinnie Paul's house into his pool. The Cup landed short on the concrete deck and had to be repaired by NHL commissioned silversmiths. Later on in 1999, Pantera contributed the Ted Nugent cover "Cat Scratch Fever" to the soundtrack of the film Detroit Rock City. It became the band's second appearance on the Mainstream Rock Chart, peaking at the top-40 position.

2003–2004: Damageplan and the murder of Dimebag Darrell

After Pantera's disbandment, Darrell and Vinnie formed a new band, Damageplan, with vocalist Pat Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla. Damageplan released their first and only studio album, New Found Power, on February 10, 2004. The album was a commercial success; over 44,000 copies were sold in its first week alone and within a year over 100,000 copies were sold, while the album's singles "Save Me" and "Pride" had appeared on the Mainstream Rock Chart. However, some fans felt that Damageplan's material did not measure up to that of Pantera.