For the Smiths

The Smiths

The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...

 song "Cemetry Gates", see the album The Queen Is Dead

The Queen Is Dead

The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band The Smiths. It was released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records and released in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records. The album reached #2 on the UK Albums Chart, maintaining...

"Cemetery Gates" is a song by heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Pantera

Pantera

Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. Formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell in 1981, bassist Rex Brown would join in late 1981 with vocalist Terry Glaze. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera had Terry replaced in 1987 with Phil Anselmo as...

. The song is the fifth track from Cowboys from Hell

Cowboys from Hell

Cowboys from Hell is Pantera's fifth album and their first Atco Records album, recorded at The Dallas Sound Lab in Irving, TX and released on July 24, 1990. This was their first commercially successful album, exposing the band's groove metal style to mainstream audiences...

, the band's fifth album and second with lead singer Phil Anselmo

Phil Anselmo

Philip Hansen "Phil" Anselmo is an American musician who is best known as the lead singer for the heavy metal band Pantera. He is currently the frontman for the Louisiana-based metal act Down. He is also the owner of Housecore Records....

 (though the band considers it their first "true" album, officially ignoring their earlier independent releases as it was their first album with the groove metal

Groove metal

Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. It was often used to describe Pantera and Exhorder.- Characteristics and origins :Pantera's Cowboys from Hell album from 1990 was described as "groundbreaking" and "blueprint-defining" for the groove metal genre...

 genre). "Cemetery Gates" showcases Anselmo's vocal ability and range, concluding with screaming

Screaming (music)

Screaming is a vocal technique that is most popular in subgenres of heavy metal, punk and hard rock, including metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, groove metal, black metal, and grindcore...

 high notes answered by Dimebag Darrell

Dimebag Darrell

Darrell Lance Abbott , also known as Diamond Darrell and Dimebag Darrell, was an American guitarist. He was best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. Abbott also contributed to the album Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaboration between Pantera and David Allan Coe...

 on guitar in a trade off. The song is also Pantera's longest song ever recorded, clocking in at 7:03.

Theme

The lyrics lament the death of a female relative or friend and the prospect of dying or committing suicide and rejoining her in the afterlife.

Phil Anselmo has credited numerous inspirations for the song. He stated in an interview in 1991 that the song was written about his good friends that had committed suicide. He also stated in a Ustream.tv live Q&A that "there was a friend who had died in NOLA and it had a real heavy impact within my group of friends. When I wrote the lyrics I did not want them to be too personal, because that can be cheesy. I also had to make sure that the lyrics would not take away from the song, because that was one of our best songs."

Release and reception

"Cemetery Gates" was the second single released by the band off their Cowboys from Hell

Cowboys from Hell

Cowboys from Hell is Pantera's fifth album and their first Atco Records album, recorded at The Dallas Sound Lab in Irving, TX and released on July 24, 1990. This was their first commercially successful album, exposing the band's groove metal style to mainstream audiences...

album. It received a large amount of air-play by rock stations, and has become one of Pantera's most popular songs. Guitar World

Guitar World

Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...

magazine readers voted the song's solo

Guitar solo

In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...

 the 35th greatest of all-time, which was Dimebag's 2nd highest ranking solo (after "Floods

Floods (song)

"Floods" is a song by heavy metal band Pantera from their 1996 album The Great Southern Trendkill. It is the longest song on the album, and the second longest song the band has ever recorded, after "Cemetery Gates".-Guitar solo:...

").The song was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards in 1998.

Alternative Versions

A shorter version of "Cemetery Gates", without its acoustic

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 beginning, was released into a music video. A shortened, five minute and forty-seven second version without the conclusion was included on the soundtrack of the 1995 film Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight. Pantera's live album, Official Live: 101 Proof

Official Live: 101 Proof

-Credits:*Phil Anselmo – vocals*Dimebag Darrell – guitar*Rex Brown – bass guitar*Vinnie Paul – drums-Chart positions:...

, includes a six and a half minute rendition of the song.

Covers

After Dimebag's death, the song was performed by Dream Theater

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...

 as a tribute during Gigantour

Gigantour

Gigantour is the name of a sporadically organised traveling heavy metal music festival organized by Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. The tour was founded in 2005 with dates across North America, and the 2006 and 2007 line-ups also traveled to Australia...

. The band was joined on stage by Russell Allen

Russell Allen

Russell Allen is the singer of the American progressive metal band Symphony X.-Biography:Before working with a rock band, he was a jouster at a Medieval Times Dinner Theater. He was introduced to the band Symphony X by former singer Rod Tyler...

 of Symphony X

Symphony X

Symphony X is an American progressive metal band from Middletown, New Jersey.Founded in 1994 by guitarist Michael Romeo, their albums The Divine Wings of Tragedy and V: The New Mythology Suite have given the band considerable attention within the progressive metal community...

 for the first verse, Burton C. Bell

Burton C. Bell

Burton Christopher Bell is an American musician. Bell is best known as the frontman of the metal band Fear Factory where he is the only consistent member. His singing style mixes clean vocals with death growls.-Fear Factory:...

 of Fear Factory

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

 for the second verse and Dave Mustaine

Dave Mustaine

David Scott "Dave" Mustaine is the founder, main songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. Prior to Megadeth, Mustaine was the first lead guitarist and a co-songwriter of the heavy metal band Metallica until he was fired from the band in 1983. In 2009, he...

 of Megadeth

Megadeth

Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...

 for the ending solo. The song was also covered by Between the Buried and Me

Between the Buried and Me

Between the Buried and Me is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. They have released a total of five studio albums, as well as a cover album, an EP and a live DVD/CD...

 on their album The Anatomy Of

The Anatomy Of

The Anatomy Of is the first cover album by the American progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me. It is the second release to include Dan Briggs, Blake Richardson, and Dustie Waring.-Track listing:-Reception:*Allmusic [ link]*Lambgoat...

. Another cover version by Evile

Evile

Evile is a thrash metal band from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Their debut album, Enter the Grave, was produced by Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark and was released worldwide in 2007 by Earache Records to critical acclaim by fans and critics...

 appears in the Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and in several other countries by different publishers. Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music...

 Tribute to Dimebag Darell

Getcha Pull: A Tribute to Dimebag Darrell

Getcha Pull: A Tribute To Dimebag Darrell is a Metal Hammer covermount CD released in their January 2010 issue, featuring 13 Pantera songs covered by various bands as a tribute to Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.-Track listing:#"Suicide Note Pt...

 album and a re-issue of their Infected Nations

Infected Nations

-Band members:* Matt Drake - Lead vocals, rhythm guitar* Ol Drake - Lead guitar,* Mike Alexander - Bass guitar* Ben Carter - Drums...

 album. A cover of the song was also released as a single, as well as downloadable content for Rock Revolution

Rock Revolution

Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. It was first revealed on May 15, 2008, and released on October 15, 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360...

.