What the hell is this? Seriously, have you stopped to think about what kind of a song “Cemetery Gates” is in the context of Pantera or even metal in general? It’s a weird fucking song, yet not a headbanger bats an eyelash about it. I also can’t stop thinking about the relationship between this song and “Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths (it turns out, Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo is a huge fan)
Essentially, “Cemetery Gates” starts off as a power ballad. It has the same kind of theme, structure, harmony, vibe, and rhythm expected of the style, performed by a rock band in a 4/4 rhythm. But when the main distorted riff kicks in, the track becomes something else: a half-sludge/half-traditional metal mutt that later takes a speedier route versed in the lexicon of thrash, before tumbling back into ballad territory.
On the vocal front, Anselmo does everything a good metal frontman does with a song like this: he croons emotionally, does his standard tough-guy power singing, and even throws in some harmonies in the chorus. And just when you think you’ve figured out what they’re up to, the last sequence of the song enters, which is when we bear witness to a guitar vs. voice duel. Anselmo does some Rob Halford-worthy falsettos, each answered by Dime’s guitar, egging each other to see who can go higher. (Spoiler alert: Darrell’s guitar reaches dog-whistle status before Anselmo.)
After the release of Cowboys From Hell, the album on which “Cemetery Gates” can be found, Pantera became one of the biggest and most influential bands in metal. While “Cemetery Gates” wasn’t influential like their other more well-known, identity-forming material, one can only hope that such an anomaly will at least inspire somebody out there to take a similar left-turn into writing a weird-ass metal ballad.