DONINGTON GETS HOSTILE

Perhaps more than any other year in that decade, it was 1994 that most assertively put the notion that metal was a spent force to the sword. In a year that saw the likes of Korn, Marilyn Manson, Machine Head, In Flames and Cradle Of Filth announce themselves on the world stage, one bunch of lairy Texans landed one of metal’s all-time great hammer-blows to the mainstream, as Pantera made history when seventh album Far Beyond Driven crashed into the Billboard 200 at Number One. Less than three months later, the four-piece would take to the stage at Donington at that year’s Monsters Of Rock festival, obliterating the main stage and consolidating their position as one of that era’s single most important bands. It was a moment in time that signified not just a sea change in the land of heavy, but metal’s most impactful statement of the 90s. “We’re heavy metal and we’re not ashamed to say it,” stated drummer Vinnie Paul earlier that day. “It’s in our roots. It’s cool to claim you’re something else right now, but heavy metal is what we do.”