10 Greatest Drummers In Hard Rock

At the start of the '90s, it was a dark time to be a metalhead. While the hair metal scene was starting to wear out its welcome way too quickly, the thrash legends were also toning down their sound, with Metallica doing ballads a la Nothing Else Matters. Though grunge was looming on the horizon, Pantera were one of the few bands willing to fly the metal flag.

Whenever discussing Pantera's work, it normally comes down to Dimebag Darrell, whose riffs were some of the most infectious things ever conceived by a metal musician. However, his brother Vinnie Paul was willing to give his brother a run for his money. While you can't really call anything Vinnie played as too technical per se, the way he would lock in on a groove was the tightest it had ever been, with songs like I'm Broken having the ability to rip your ears right off your skull.

On the other hand, Vinnie also managed to make that same kind of intensity swing, with you still nodding your head even if you weren't in the pit. By taking the blues shuffle of someone like ZZ Top and putting it with the intensity of Slayer, Vinnie Paul was truly a connoisseur of heavy music who always made sure that you could headbang along to every single song he played.