After "Cowboys From Hell," Pantera did their best to hide the record of their three earlier self-produced hair metal albums, on which they pranced around in lipstick, hairspray, latex and (frequently) women's clothing including underwear. Most people in Dallas thought they were completely retarded for this behavior. After hearing some Exhorder, and Prong, and Metallica, new frontman Phil Anselmo -- who admits he is bisexual and uses heroin regularly -- updated the Pantera sound to be rougher and, in keeping with that image, they had to ditch the hairnets and facial cream. However, you can still hear overtones of their forgotten past in their later music. Knowing that these pictures and sounds would ruin Pantera's carefully crafted "toughguy" image, their record company has bought up any copies of these records they could find and sued anyone caught selling them.
