Dimebag was a talented lead guitarist, but I thought as a band Pantera is/was overrated. Personally I think Phil Anselmo's whole "we are the kings of metal" type rants were fucking bullshit! Imo Pantera made a bunch of crappy hair metal albums, 1 decent thrash album (CFL),1 decent thrash/groove album (VDOP) and the rest was at best above average half thrash/groove metal. If people like them good for them, but I've never been a fan, other than liking a few songs on Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power. It's been said enough, but Exhorder is much better, and that's pretty much what 90's Pantera imo modeled a huge part of their sound from. That said, I'll say Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power (to a lesser extent) are good introductory albums to metal in general. I just think Pantera aren't as good as most people think they are.