In 1990, Pantera released their fifth album, Cowboys from Hell, which ushered in a new wave of hard-driven hard rock, later labeled as "groove metal." While bands like Exhorder had already dabbled in similar sounds, it was Pantera—whether for better or worse—who became the poster band of this movement, influencing countless mishmash genres all the way to 2024. Having experimented with grooves to a minor extent on their previous album, Power Metal, Pantera fully embraced this direction on Cowboys from Hell, incorporating riffs that differ from their glam-leaning past and could be described as hard rock or Southern rock. At the same time, they borrowed break riffs from thrash metal and repurposed them as main riffs, adding what… More