PANTERA – Working On New Album, To Include “Pre-Existing Material” By The Abbott Brothers

PANTERA replacement guitarist Zakk Wylde has gone on the record to state he is open to making new music with Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown and Charlie Benante, provided that it was not released under the name PANTERA. That being said, bassist Rex Brown has now confirmed that a new album by the band is definitely coming and word going around insiders is that unreleased material recorded back in 2004 by Dimebag and Vinnie Paul will be included in the project, although it’s not yet totally clear whether their parts will be re-recorded by their replacements.

TMD was the first to report years ago that Dimebag and Vinnie Paul the late founding members of PANTERA had worked on some demo songs that were almost completed but needed vocals and as the story goes, this unreleased material was “going back to the old school Pantera sound” according to Dimebag Darrell.

Fans have called for these final songs cut by the Abbotts to be completed with Anselmo and Brown and released as the final Pantera album.

“Yeah, of course,” Wylde said. “I mean, how could you call it PANTERA unless it was just pre-existing material and we were gonna record it — stuff that was in demo state or whatever, and it is songs that the guys wrote. But as far as new songs, it would have to be — you’d call it something else.”

It is well known that Pantera did not have any songs that were left off albums throughout their career, so there has never been a demo cut that was not ultimately included on one of their albums. So that means the only possible demo tracks in existence by the Abbotts are these 5 to 8 incomplete songs the brothers recorded in 2004 at Dime’s home studio called Chasin’ Jason in Dalworthington Gardens, Texas.

Initially producer/engineer Sterling Winfield said that TMD lied when the site released an article that claimed these unfinished tracks do exist, but TMD has since confirmed with a personal friend of Winfield’s that Mr. Winfield has the Abbott tracks secretly “archived”.

In a new interview with Andrew Haug, Brown was asked if he is open to writing new Pantera songs, and he responded with:

“Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I could tell you more but I’m not going to.”