Song · Pantera
“Cowboys from Hell” by Pantera
From the album Cowboys From Hell (1990)
“Cowboys from Hell” by Pantera appears on 22 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1990 and 2025. It was first released in 1990 on the album Cowboys From Hell. Its best result is #1 on the KEGL The Eagle's Top 97 Songs of 1997. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #26 hard rock song of 1997, #57 hard rock song of all time and #30 of the '90s.
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"Cowboys from Hell" is the title track and opening blast of Pantera's 1990 major-label debut on Atlantic, and it was the band's first single; an earlier take had already turned up on their 1989 demo. The riff arrived at a Fort Worth house party that year, when a late-running Dimebag Darrell dragged Phil Anselmo out to his car to hear it. Anselmo knew on the spot he was hearing an anthem.
Vinnie Paul called it the first song they wrote for the record and the point where the full Pantera sound clicked: a song about a gang of Texans landing somewhere they didn't belong. Terry Date produced it with the band, and it's all groove, Dimebag's riff strutting and snapping while Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul nail it to the floor and Anselmo barks over the top. Revolver later counted it among metal's greatest album openers.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 1 | 97.1 The Eagle Dallas-Fort Worth, TX | KEGL The Eagle's Top 97 Songs of 1997 | 97 |
All-time and decade countdowns
Also listed as: Cowboys From Hell.
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