10 Hard Rock Bands That Completely Changed Their Sound

Of all the music to come out of the 90's, Pantera may have been the heaviest act out of the bunch. With the stomping groove of their riffs and the tortured screams of Phil Anselmo, this was the music that was a gift for metalheads across the world who weren't quite satisfied with the grunge movement.

There's a lot of words that could describe Pantera's sound, but you'd be shocked to find out that glam rock used to be their calling card. Long before Anselmo entered the fold, brothers Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell originally started Pantera as a glam rock outfit, with original vocalist Terry Glaze bringing a brightness to their sound. Many people like to think of the band's slamfest Cowboys From Hell as their debut, but the band's glam metal period had already made 4 albums years before the 90's even began.

Once the thrash sounds of Slayer and Metallica became a part of their sound, the band hired Anselmo and proceeded to carve out a legacy that has been sewn into the very fabric of metal music. The band may have started on the neon-colored side of metal, but they tinkered with their sound for years before arriving on something much darker than their roots.