Rocktober '90s Song #20: "Cemetery Gates" by Pantera (1990)

Alas, dear readers, we have reached the end of yet another successful Rocktober.  Next year, we'll be delving into the rock of the aughts.  And stay tuned on Monday, as we'll be beginning Toevember, a daily look at the most popular foot fetish websites.

But we still have one last '90s Rocktober song:  "Cemetery Gates" by Pantera.  In 1990, Pantera essentially invented the groove metal genre with their seminal album Cowboys From Hell.  One of the songs from that album is "Cemetery Gates," a seven-minute groove metal power ballad, to the extent there can be such a thing.

Did you know that there is technically a difference between a graveyard and a cemetery?  Indeed there is.  A graveyard is traditionally next to a church, and it is reserved for members of that church.  A cemetery is a free-standing plot of land that may or may not have a religious affiliation.  But the one thing that binds them is that they house dead people.  And that's what "Cemetery Gates" is about.  Inspired by a friend's suicide, Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo wrote lyrics about lamenting the death of a loved one and rejoining them in the afterlife, to the extent there can be such a thing.