90s At 9 'Cemetery Gates' Guitar Solo Was a First Take Wonder

“Cemetery Gates” is the fifth track on Pantera's fifth album

Cowboys from Hell

released in 1990 and the longest song in Pantera's library. This was Pantera's second album featuring Phil Anselmo as lead singer. 

The song is about the death of a female lover and the thought of committing suicide to join her in the afterlife. It is based on the real life loss of a friend of Anselmo's, but he didn't want it to be too personal because that's “cheesy.”

This power ballad not only showcases Anselmo's vocal range, but also highlights the skills of guitarist Dimebag Darrell. The guitar solo is ranked 35th in

Guitar World

's top 100 guitar solos of all time. 

Dimebag has a story to go along with that guitar solo: “I got home with a pretty good buzz on, picked up my axe, turned on the four-track, cranked it loud as hell with the loose buzz theory that anything and everything goes, and just played it, I played three solos back-to-back, didn't bother listening to them, crashed out not so happy. The next morning I woke up thinking I had a lot of work to do. I almost started from scratch but then I decided to slow down and listen. So I fired up the four-track, put my ears on and bam! Lo and behold, there it was! The first lead I played the night before was it for sure. Hey man, the second and third weren't bad, but the first had that first-take magic! I didn't touch it.”

Pantera “Cemetery Gates” 1990