Pantera‘s upcoming concert at the Gasometer festival in Vienna, Austria, has been canceled, the show’s promoters Mind Over Matter and Barracuda Music announced.
The news comes after the metal outfit — now consisting of longtime members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown alongside Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Anthrax‘s Charlie Benante in place of the late Abbott brothers, “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, respectively — was dropped from the lineups of Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals earlier this week.
Statements from Rock am Ring and Rock im Park read, “In the last few weeks, we have had many intensive conversations with artists, our partners and you, the festival fans, we have continued to deal with the criticism together and decided to remove [Pantera] from the program.”
According to German news site DW.com, said criticism stems from when Anselmo yelled “white power” while giving the Nazi salute during a performance at the 2016 Dimebag tribute concert, Dimebash. Anselmo’s made multiple public apologies following the incident, while his band Down was dropped from several European festivals that year.
Pantera, which reformed at the end of 2022, is set to play Japan in March, followed by a European tour kicking off in May. They’re also scheduled to launch a U.S. headlining tour in July, in between playing several U.S. festivals and opening for Metallica.
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