Cowboys from Hell: how Pantera got glued into an old Western saloon
Old cowboys at the card table, a bartender with a moustache, and four Texans from 1990 wrecking the place. The saloon is real. The band were never in it.
Take a slow look around the room. Patterned wallpaper, oil lamps, a wall clock, a stag's head over the bar, a roulette wheel in the corner and a sign pointing to the dining room. A bartender with a fine moustache stands behind the counter and a few old men sit at a table in their hats.
And then there are the other four. Vinnie Paul grinning with a fistful of cash, Dimebag Darrell on the floor screaming over his guitar, Rex Brown leaning on the bar with a bottle, and Phil Anselmo flying through the air with no shirt on. Nobody else in the saloon seems to have noticed.
A real saloon, a fake visit
That is because Pantera were never there. The background is a genuinely old photograph of the Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado. Sources do not agree on how old, and Vinnie Paul himself remembered it as nineteenth century, but either way the regulars at that table were long gone by 1990.
There was no Photoshop to put the band in. Their photos were cut out and glued onto the old picture. Vinnie later admitted that if you look closely around the headstock of Dime's guitar, you can see where the glue job is not perfect. Phil, according to his own account, jumped off a bar stool around ten times before they got his leap right.
Glam out, groove in
Cowboys from Hell came out on 24 July 1990 on Atco. It was Pantera's fifth album but their first for a major label, after four records on independent labels and a past in glam metal they were happy to leave behind. Atco's Mark Ross had seen them live after bad weather left him stuck in Texas, and he started the process of signing them right away.
The album was recorded at Pantego Sound in Texas. Producer Max Norman was booked, but he left just before the sessions to work with Lynch Mob, and Terry Date stepped in. It was the first of many records he made with the band. The line-up was the one everybody remembers: Anselmo, Darrell, Brown and Paul.
Heavier, tighter and meaner than anything they had done before, it was the sound of Pantera finding themselves. Fittingly, the cover shows them walking into a room where they do not belong and taking it over.
About the poster
This is the Cowboys from Hell sleeve printed as a large 75 × 55 cm (30 × 22 in) landscape poster, from 2020. It is an original magazine insert, never hung, with no staple holes, folded three times as issued. The sheet is double-sided, with Bathory "Hammerheart" on the back.
Browse all original Pantera posters.
Quick answers
Where was the Cowboys from Hell cover photo taken?
The background is an old photo of the Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado. The band's photos were cut out and glued onto it.
Who produced Cowboys from Hell?
Terry Date, who stepped in after Max Norman left just before recording. It was the first of many albums he made with Pantera.
When was Cowboys from Hell released?
On 24 July 1990, on Atco Records. It was Pantera's major label debut.
How big is the poster?
75 × 55 cm (about 30 × 22 inches), landscape. It is a separate insert, so it has no staple holes, and it is folded three times as issued.
What is on the other side?
Bathory "Hammerheart". The sheet is double-sided, so you choose which side goes on the wall.