“The justice to the material is there. And they are killing it”: Wolfgang Van Halen on the hotly debated Pantera reunion

Pantera’s hotly talked-about reunion – which sees core members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown assisted by Zakk Wylde on guitar and Charlie Benante on drums – has been met with mixed opinions since it was announced last year.

While some praise the fact that some of the most iconic tunes in the heavy metal canon are being taken to the stage once more, others see a reunion without Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul as no reunion at all.

• READ MORE: “It was the only thing my dad actually sat down to teach me”: Wolfgang Van Halen talks learning drums before he picked up the guitar

However, one prominent figure in the rock community supportive of the newly reformed Pantera is Mammoth WVH leader and Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang Van Halen.

In a new interview with Meltdown on Detroit’s WRIF radio station, the multi-instrumentalist addresses the debate surrounding the issue, but makes his stance that the reunion is a good thing for the metal community abundantly clear.

“I know there’s a lot of arguing over that whole situation. And I think regardless of how you feel about it, they sound amazing. And at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters. The justice to the material is there. And they are killing it, man; it sounds so great,” he says [per Blabbermouth].

This year, both Pantera and Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH have lent support to Metallica’s ongoing M72 World Tour, so Wolfgang has had a chance to see Pantera do their old material justice up close.

Elsewhere, Zakk Wylde recently revealed that he felt Dimebag Darrell’s presence whilst organising the current Pantera reunion tour.

“It’s so crazy because when we started talking about doing this thing, there would be constant reminders about it wherever I went,” he said. “I told Barb [Wylde’s wife], ‘Dime is willing this thing to happen. He wants this to happen.’”

He continued, “I’d just get constant reminders of him all the time, whether it was a picture or something on my phone, or I’d be driving and I’d see a Pantera license plate or a ‘333’ somewhere – that was Dime’s lucky number. I was literally going, ‘He’s watching and he’s here with me.’”

And in another interview in July – as further evidence that Zakk Wylde was always the man for the guitar job in the reunion tour – he recalled consoling Dimebag Darrell when Pantera disbanded.

“They had worked so hard to get to where they did and then it all ended, and he basically had to start over again. He was like, ‘Zakk, what am I gonna do?’” he remembers.

To grab tickets to see Pantera on tour, head to their official website.