Live Review: Pantera at the OVO Arena, Wembley (25/02/2025)

Its finally time. Pantera are here, in London, at the OVO Arena, Wembley on the last date of their mammoth European Tour.

A band I grew up with, loved , still love and have never seen live. In fact it almost became like fate that I would never get to see them. I had tickets for a show that got cancelled due to 9/11. If I remember correctly, it was a one day festival called Tattoo The Planet, or Tattoo The Earth, or something like that. Then the band split, but you always hope they could reform and then Dimebag was murdered and the remaining members appeared to blame and hate each other. Then Vinnie died and I resigned myself to the fact that I would never see them. Now its 2025 and I am heading off to Wembley to see Pantera.

Now, I am not oblivious to the fact that this is not exactly Pantera. It’s more like Pantera 50% proof but it’s the best I can have and I am all for it. With the two surviving members in Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo in their positions, and friends of the band and lost brothers filling in with Zakk Wylde in Dimebag Darrell’s spot and Charlie Benante in Vinnie’s seat, it may be a bit of a tribute, but only a bit. I know this is the closest I am ever going to get to the real thing and plan to revel in it.

These are a genuine bucket list band for me. A big show band from superstars in our scene. It’s a genuine big show and it feels like it. I’m excited, giddy almost, and as much as I am more a fan these days of smaller shows and underground bands, I am enjoying this feeling.

The OVO Arena is a decent venue from a sound and layout perspective so there wont be any issues there. Getting to Wembley is a lot easier these days for us too, thanks to the Elizabeth Line though with it being a Tuesday night, we expect, and received difficulties getting home later at night. Where the Wembley Arena does absolutely suck though is in it’s poorly stocked and poorly manned bars. A multitude of tiny bars that all sell Madri or Coors, then a single bar that sells IPAs and the like. That bar has mad queues because no-one wants Coors. Before the first band have even finished playing, that bar is closed as they have run out. Seriously, this place needs to modernise their drinks selections.

But enough about that, let’s get to the exciting stuff starting with King Parrot. The Australian grindcore band are playing to a good sized crowd and bring good energy to the stage. Their sound is a little muddy, and there is a bit of a feeling of the stage and arena being a bit too big and cavernous for their sound but they settle. They grow into the show and by the end of it, I’m finding myself enjoying them. Its just an odd thing, and entirely not their fault, but everyone here is waiting for Pantera and I do find it hard to fully focus on the support acts while anticipation is bubbling internally.

Credit to King Parrot though. They work the stage, bring energy and do their job well, warming the crowd up for the next support act hitting is with such nicely titled tracks like Shit on the Liver and Fuck You And The Horse You Rode In On.

Power Trip are up next and are a band I do like. It seems fitting for them to be on the bill, both from a style and genre perspective but also from having shared tragedies with the sad passing of their frontman, Riley Gale, in August 2020. The band got back to live performances in 2023 with Seth Gilmore on vocal duties and he slots into the band nicely. Power Trip deliver one heck of a performance, really going hard with tons of groove and intensity as well as an abundance of energy. Again, the focus is still internally on Pantera so I do find myself distracted at times, while also fully enjoying them. A lot of songs get aired from their Nightmare Logic album, including that title track.

There are some nice touches with tributes to Riley Gale paid as well as plenty more meaty headbanger tracks like Manifest Decimation, Soul Sacrifice and Hornet’s Nest. They were very impressive and clearly still have a lot to offer the metal world, should they decide to start recording again.

The lights go up, we grab drinks and position as a huge Pantera flag drops down and covers the stage. It’s time. 20 plus years of waiting and it’s finally time. The lights go down as we get a bit of Regular People (Conceit) played out over tape, followed by In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) by David Lynch. A nice touch that goes back to them using it as an intro in the famous Moscow Monsters of Rock show with Metallica back in 1991. Excitement is palpable as the curtain is still up then, in spectacular fashion, it drops, the lights and backdrop go crazy and Pantera are there, on stage playing A New Level.

Now, there isn’t much I can really say with a review like this. We all know the band, there were very few surprises and I am glad, because this felt like something that needed to be both a celebration of Pantera’s history, and a tribute to the fallen brothers. I felt it was almost cathartic for me too. Like seeing them at last was correcting a long overdue error or issue or something. So it was next to impossible for me to have anything but an amazing time here, and I did. Of course they played hit after hit, starting hard by following A New Level with Mouth For War and Strength Beyond Strength.

The band sound good. Rex is killing it on bass and while Phil certainly can’t hit these songs as hard as he did in the past, I think he sounds fine and more importantly, is gurning hard! Zakk Wylde gets pretty close to the original solos and sounds on lead guitar and the drums have power. It all sounds great but a lot of that could also be down to the buzz and the feeling inside me, and around me in our friend circles and the crowd in general. This all feels nicely like a celebration and the venue is full of people who are enthusiastic and into it.

Credit to the venue for again having strong sounds and Pantera sonically fill the pretty much sold out venue from wall to wall with their grooving heavy metal hits.

Becoming gets a rousing roar of appreciation from the crowd followed by I’m Broken and Suicide Note Part II. You see, how can this show not be killer when the songs are so banging and you are hearing them live for the first time? Phil also engages with the crowd quite a bit though nearer the back, his Southern drawl is not always very easy to make out. Who cares!” He spoke, so we cheer even if he could have been saying anything (no, he wasn’t saying that thing if that’s where your head went). While musically, this was all just great fun, the set list was also littered with touching tributes to Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell.

The lights would go down, the screens on each side of the stage would show images and clips from the brothers and the band over the ages and it felt powerful and emotional.

It was a classy way to deal with making sure they were appreciated and part of the show. As a fan, I felt it was handled very well and regularly enough that there were no fears of this all being about Phil,or Rex or anything like that. It felt like a little piece of Vinnie and Dime were hear and part of what we were seeing which just made everything feel right. Those emotional tributes aside, 5 Minutes Alone, This Love and Floods go down a treat. Floods again being used to form a tribute to the brothers but everything just sounds big and powerful and real.

Credit also to the stage set up which looks like it should. A big band with a big performance bringing a big light show and super impressive back drop screen that kept changing through different 3 dimensional images and cameras. I loved the 3D looking Cowboys From Hell logo, and the Far Beyond Driven skull. It added to the feeling of being somewhere watching something significant.

As we approach the end of the main set, the band play Walk. A song I am so over hearing on record, but hearing it for the first time live, in this environment meant I I loved it. The stage filled out with members of King Parrot, Power Trip and randomly Jason Mamoa to make it feel even more special a rendition. The main portion of the set ended with some more touching tributes, the song I was praying for in the Domination/Hollow mix up and a huge closer in Cowboys From Hell. If it had all ended there, I would have been a happy man but we did get a two track encore after a load of rapturous applause and cheering with the band hitting us with Revolution Is My Name first, then a heavy as hell closer to remember them by in Fucking Hostile.

The band take pictures with the crowd, the lights come on and I leave to head into the night feeling like the weight of the world has come off of my shoulders.

I had an amazing time and am truly grateful to have finally experienced this. I spent a lot of time thinking about how you possibly review something that is so based on feeling and of course, nostalgia. Normally we review bands and judge performance, musicality, showmanship, feeling and ability right? Here though, none of that really mattered. We know the songs, know Phil can’t really kill it on vocals like the past but who cares, of course the performance was huge so the only thing I can do is judge this on one simple thing alone and that is how it made me feel.

To that end, helped by the years of waiting, this was one of the greatest shows of my life. Thank you Pantera. Thank you Phil, Rex, Vinnie and Dime. You have been a huge part of my life and this night felt like a part of me found peace and contentment at last.