Exhorder is a band from NOLA a lot of people probably don't know about, I just found out they reformed earlier. They're an old thrash/groove band from back when pantera was doing glam. A lot of people think Pantera ripped their sound, so you should expect to hear that style.
exhorder and pantera released their groove metal albums at the same time, 1990. Exhorder is more thrash than pantera is, most would say, but theres a lot of controversy that pantera stole groove metal from exhorder... i dont buy that shit, it was way too soon to make a copy, and besides pantera is very different.On a side note, this is pretty sick, exhorder is some awesome groove/thrash metal.
Actually ;P Phil Anselmo was a big fan of Exhorder when he discovered them in 1988'ish. Exhorder had released 2 albums prior to cowboys from hell. Both demos, Get rude and Slaughter in the Vatican. Slaughter in the vatican was re-recorded and released as their label debut in '90.
The way I see it, Dimebag is what made Pantera so popular over Exhorder. Sure, pantera may have been influenced by Exhorder, but Dimebag was an amazing shredder before and after either way.