10 Best Replacement Singers Of All Time
2. Phil Anselmo - Pantera
If Pantera had stayed the course that they were on at the very beginning of their career, chances are we wouldn't be talking about them in such glowing terms these days. For a C-tier glam band, there wasn't really much to write home about with Metal Magic aside from 'Diamond' Darrell's lead guitar licks. No...these guys needed to get a little more gutteral, and all it took was a native out of New Orleans to see it through.
Ditching original singer Terry Glaze, Phil Anselmo was the real lynchpin for Pantera going on to legendary status, with a voice that was as ferocious as any other metal singer could hope to be. Whereas most metal bands had gotten used to intense vocal performances from the likes of Tom Araya and James Hetfield, Anselmo's growl felt truly vicious, almost as if he could beat the hell out of you through your own headphone speakers.
Aside from just the singer change, the influence Anselmo brought with him led to Pantera leading a much heavier style of music, going from the glam-adjacent sound of Power Metal to one of the most impressive runs of metallic thunder on albums like Far Beyond Driven. While Pantera may have been going strong throughout the '80s, the ideal version of this band doesn't exist until Anselmo steps behind the mic.