Vulgar Display Of Power

I was a teenage dirtbag. Not in the parlance of our current time, where a celebrity like Reese Witherspoon will post awkward photos from her teenage years where she had braces, then type “cringe” as a caption and #teenagedirtbag. I was a teenage dirtbag in the traditional sense: a weird, cigarette smoking metal head; a total societal misfit. To prove my dirtbag credentials: The first concert I went to of my own accord was a split bill of White Zombie and Pantera in 1996 at the Brendan Byrne Arena in NJ. (Now I’m not saying metal heads are dirtbags, but at that time, if you were 15 and listening to Pantera, chances are you weren’t one of “the cool kids”. ) A little known (at the time) band called Deftones opened the show. Being the hipster that I am, I had already known about them and owned Adrenaline. I must’ve been one of maybe 100 people in the arena who were excited to see them. It was rough going for them. Pantera fans were not interested in buying what the Deftones had to sell and made their disapproval known throughout the set. Still, Chino and company managed to coax a few mosh pits out of the crowd and it was going about as successfully as it could, given their mostly unknown status… Until Chino decided to go crowd surfing. Towards the end of their set, he jumped from the stage and into the crowd. He finished out the song, getting tossed around atop the crowd, occasionally screaming his lyrics into the mic. The song ended and he returned to stage, missing a shoe. “Who stole my fucking shoe?” He says. “Bunch of thieves in here tonight.” He argued with the crowd a little bit, gave them the finger and moved on to the next song. A minute or so later, about 50 feet from the stage, dead center, a sneaker flies through the air, hurtling towards Chino and hits him right upside the head, mid-song. The NY Giants or Jets should have drafted whoever threw that shoe to be their quarterback in ‘96. My man dropped a dime right on Chino’s head in a dark arena. It was an amazing toss and you could hear laughter and cheering throughout the crowd. Deftones finished up and White Zombie took the stage shortly after. Their show was a psychedelic horror trip with crazy video, pyrotechnics and lights. Highly entertaining. The crowd was weirdly subdued, but I guess tormenting the Deftones for 40 minutes drained them a little. Now, for the “relevant” part of this story: Pantera. I was never a huge Pantera fan. I liked Vulgar Display of Power back then, but that was about it: Cowboys from Hell was always cheesy to me and Far Beyond Driven had a few decent tracks, but was grating on the ears after a while. My friend who got the tickets was a fan, though, and at 15 you’re going to go to whatever concerts you can. They were touring “The Great Southern Trendkill” that year, which was a concept record about…the South rising again to kill all false metal (?). I’m projecting a little, but Pantera always kind of had a Lynyrd Skynyrd gone metal vibe to me. However, as we all know, that title actually belongs to Jackyl. A few weeks prior to this show, Phil Anselmo nearly died from a heroin overdose. Technically, he was dead for a few minutes, but was resuscitated. I know this because he made a point of telling the audience about it in between songs and then announced his invincibility, saying “Nothing can kill me!” That was the lesson he took away. Not “maybe I should stop doing heroin” or “man, I’m lucky to be alive”. Nope…”I’m invincible”. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Pantera fans loved it that night, though, and maybe it was all for show…faux bravado for a rabid fanbase. Whatever it was, I felt dumber just having been in the room. I know I took the scenic route to get here and this might be my longest “review” to date, so I’ll touch on Vulgar Display of Power quickly then see myself out. It’s one of the most aptly named albums ever. It’s heavy, aggressive, blunt and lacking sophistication. Is that a bad thing? I don’t know. Pantera isn’t for me at age 40. Phil Anselmo certainly isn’t, either - his antics have only gotten worse over the years. Dimebag was an amazing player and his death was beyond tragic, but that’s where my appreciation of this band starts and ends. This is probably the best Pantera album and it is genre defining, so I think its inclusion here is warranted, but it’s hard for me to reconcile the music with Phil Anselmo’s persona. After all, he’s the one that’s screaming at you for 40 minutes.

Essential album in the evolution of Thrash metal as it grew out of its 80's infancy and continued to spread in the 90's. Anselmo's vocal style over groovy grind riffs are also clear inspiration for Nu-Metal bands that sprang up in the late 90's/early 00's. It's a shame Dimebag was murdered by a whacko, and Phil Anselmo has turned into a real piece of human garbage since the band's dissolution. Big stain on the reputation of a hugely influential band.

Bit much for Mothering Sunday.

Hate this album and this band

Pantera got the name of their album right at least. More about that in the conclusion of my review... I kinda appreciated the first two tracks, and honestly I can see why those two highlights were impressive for a lot of metal fans. When it comes to those sorts of dry guitar riffs, I'm much more of a Helmet fan myself, but the fact that I'm making this comparison here shows that I tried *very hard* to keep an open mind. And I can dig bands in the overall metal tag once in a while (Converge, Mastodon, Korn, Deftones--the latter also produced by Terry Date, by the way). So maybe it was time for me to properly reassess Pantera, decades after their heyday... But then, after those first two good cuts, came "Walk". Which, inexplicably, is Pantera's most played song on Spotify... 🤨 Er... What? Can someone explain to me how a so-called "groove-metal" band can have such a half-assed, lethargic rhythm section, one that's actually so devoid of said... *groove*? Worse, I feel like I have become dumber now that I have gone through Phil Anselmo's inept vocals and lyrics: "RE!!! SPECT!!!! ARE YOU TALKING TO ME???!!!" Er... I don't know... MAY!!! BE!!! PHIL!!!! The mere fact that "Walk" is Pantera's most popular song on a major streaming service shows that Pantera fans and I have nothing in common. What follows this (inexplicably popular) low point can be decent sometimes. There's the sort of Tool rip-off that "This Love" is (minus the interesting time patterns) ; or the nicely upfront and aggressive "Rise". But those decent cuts are mixed with stuff that's often as obnoxious as "Walk" is. See "Fucking Hostile", or, most especially, "Hollow", with its cheesy hair-metal-ballad lengthy intro. That song about a comatose friend ironically manages to be as brain-dead as its subject matter. I don't know if the lyrics of this song refer to real events, so I should probably err on the side of caution here. Yet I would be lying if I said I thought the *music* on it was any good. But there's worse, and that is the incredibly awkward "No Good (Attack The Radical)", right at the center of the tracklisting, and making this album lose a whole point all by itself. I'm not even attempting to describe how ridiculously bad the music is here (see what I wrote about "Walk"). The *real* problem is that Anselmo is unable to articulate any cohesive point about race relations in the US, a subject he wants to tackle here without having anything to say that's interesting or relevant on the matter. After all, no one *asked* him to sing about such a heavy topic in the first place. And reading those lyrics, what I mostly understand is that Anselmo actually had very muddled thoughts on this subject. Which may or may not explain how he sometimes had, well... *moments* on stage that still seem quite suspicious to me. Add the man's dumb public stances about rap music, which were equally suspicious, and you have quite an ugly picture here. Oh, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell was a George Bush enthusiast, I hear... No wonder a lot of listeners, reviewers and even fans felt some Lynyrd Skynyrd overtones in Pantera's music. Those were mostly conveyed through Anselmo's drawl, and I guess that's another aspect that worked in favor of the band, because it gave them a "distinct" identity. But let's face it, such identity didn't age very well, did it? Aaaaah, the South...It's a "different culture", if you take my meaning... About Anselmo and his problematic stances and words--onstage and elsewehere--go online to find out about all that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily saying that Anselmo is a full-blown racist. What I'm merely suggesting here is that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, as they say. See also the debacle of his relations with the Abbott brothers towards the end of the band's career. That guy never learned to shut his mouth for his own good, that's for sure. Both brothers are dead today, may they rest in peace. One was awfully murdered onstage by a lunatic with a legally purchased gun--another sad layer of irony about the right-wing ideas that Pantera is often associated with. And what's also pretty disturbing about this situation is that Anselmo can now cynically use the Pantera brand to tour with the band's bass player and two other musicians--something that Dimebag Darrell and his brother were dead-set against when they were still alive. So does Anselmo have any shred of decency left in his bones? It's up to you to decide on this. All of this happened decades after *Vulgar Display Of Power* came out, I'll grant you that. But as I have pointed out earlier, what an apt name for this record! And dare I say, one that was also extremely prophetic, foretelling many sad events to come. Sorry, but I can't have any benevolent feelings about this band. There are too many things in their music and history that sound pretty bad. Or just sad. So next, please. Number of albums left to review: 555 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 216 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 104 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 129 (including this one - with a 1/5 grade for the purposes of this list, which means a 6/10 grade for more general purposes: 5 + 1)

One of the reviews for this album called it “punishing.” Throw in “tedious” and you got my summary.

Music for when you must commit felony assault.

Remembering the cringe of when I set my flip-phone’s ringtone to “FUCKING HOSTILE” in Middle School.

Awful. And the cynical ballad track at the end made it even worse.

What's with the shouting? No.

My favorite Pantera album, and easily one of my favorite albums as a teenager. Pantera solidified my love for metal music, this is like listening to history for me.

Stone cold classic

id never listened to entire metal albums before but this was super good. hollow was my favorite track i could listen to this any day

Powerful album that takes me back to my "rebellious" youth. Listening to this album that my friend burned for me with "P-VDOP" written in sharpie in my Discman. Those were the days. Plus, these boys were local to me (DFW, TX area) and are legends here. 5 stars for sure.

What a fun listen. I mean, for fans of this stuff. It’s not my favorite Pantera album. That goes to Far Beyond Driven, but this one is a powerhouse in its own right. What a hard hitting, in your face, fuck you if you don’t like me collection of songs. One of the better ones on this list so far!!!

Fucking badass! Proper classic

Five stars. Duh. wtf.

first listen, nothing reached out and grabbed me -- TOO loud. Maybe next time. 2-3/5 (there were some pretty good rhythms that I heard, so I'll have to try it again. 3 for now)

Utter waste of time.

The worst

Woke up this morning, punched my alarm clock. Got in the bathroom, grabbed my toothpaste and I punched it. It splattered all over the mirror so I punched that too. Drove to work, punched in the time clock. Then I made some coffee and punched that too. It got all over my boss. He started yelling and I punched him. Got fired but didn't care. Came home, punched my wife. Kids got off of school, punched them too. Punched my dog, punched my dinner, punched my pillow. This album gets five punches out of five.

Listening to this album made me realise how good this is. And strangely how much it sometimes sounds like Alice In Chains. But you'll always recognise a Pantera song. Vinnie's drums are unique, Dimebags riffs are masterful and Anselmo's vocals give it just that needed edge. Was about to give it a 4* but re-listening to it again made me aware about how good this album was in its time. And that deserved that extra star, even if it drops off a bit near the end.

its pantera.

Heavy, powerful, awesome.

Very good!

my uncle used to play metal every day and I hated it but this album made me start to love metal and I'm gonna listen to a ton of metal now. super insane made me wanna riot.

Oui

Love this álbum, one of the best metal bands

Pantera played some of the best gigs I ever went to. As much as Anselmo is a total asshole, these guys rock so hard I can ignore that a while. Love the band, love the album, it makes me want to get up and get aggressive, or dance manically, or both. One of my favourite albums from my favourite time period for music.

Fuck yea.

Bangin

RE.........SPECT.......WALK!

My heart sank when this popped up, but it redeemed itself almost immediately; likely because it sounds more like grungified Southern Rock than anonymous thrash metal, suiting my more-wussy sensibilities. Vocalist is godawful, and the low points are the Metallica-ish "This Love" and "Hollow", but the general noise was fun. Kids love the cover image.

Still not getting over how metal is by far the silliest of genres, but they all take it /so/ seriously. This is not the worst, and has a couple promising moments early on - something closer to a hard rock rhythm - but goes downhill after that. 1.5 stars.

I don't get how this was "era-defining". There is nothing on this album that wasn't done by others before. In most parts, it's quite repetitive.

Vulgar Display of Power Went in with an open mind and started off quite enjoying it. I’m not a metal aficionado at all but there are some songs in the genre I like. I can sometimes see a world where I get into stuff like this, but then after 3 songs I don’t want to get into it and I want to go home please. This definitely started to drag by the middle and then get quite boring quite quickly after that. I was glad when it was over. Obviously It’s not for me, although I would assume for the genre it is good. A couple of things stood out. I liked the riff on Mouth for War, I liked Walk, that had a kind of groove and felt like a song. Hollow’s first part seemed like a superior version of a metal ballad with a decent tune, before evolving into more standard riffing. There is an earnestness to this type of music that gets quite tiring. If you are really into metal I would guess that you can see the subtleties and nuances in the music, but to me the lack of light and shade drives a sense of monotony and stasis that ends up being frustrating and ultimately very dull. Reluctant to to say 1, its obviously not for me, and I would never listen to it again, but if you are into metal it surely must be a very good album, so I’ll go: ⭐️⭐️

Vulgar display of something

HATE

oh no it’s metal oh my god are their vocal folds okay?? I’m literally on one volume right now they said SCRELTING I can’t with this it’s almost over I can make it

No.... just no

Yeah, I still don't like heavy metal.

I don't like screaming music, it gave me a headache.

1/10, not my thing

sexy bass! ESPECIALLY in “a new level”. it is a shame that the vocals are lacking because the instrumentation is so scrumptious. “walk” lacked any sort of vocal agility or capability which unfortunately ruined the song (even the insane lead solo couldn’t save it). “this love” feels SO MUCH like a cross between nirvana and nin. furthermore “rise” really felt similar to “march of the pigs” by nin. which i mess with. the tempo changes in “live in a hole” are really satisfying. really good overall (except for “walk”). still, i think everything else is so good that it negates how bad walk was. 5/5.

Ah, yet another album that's effectively a soundtrack of me going to the gym

A great, blood-pumping hour of metal. Obviously, the star of the show is Dimebag Darrell’s guitar playing, great riffs and solos are all over this album. Phil Anselmo’s voice is incredibly powerful in every song. 4/5

Makes you want to punch a newborn baby in the face. 4.5

It’s a great metal album, the band sounds so tight and the instrumental bits are fantastic

An outstanding thrash metal album. Dark, gritty and powerful. A couple of songs try to go in a different direction stylistically ("This Love," "Hollow") and it doesn't quite work. But still overall a riveting listen. Fave Songs: A New Level, Walk, Regular People (Conceit), Hollow, Mouth for War, Live in a Hole

Solid hard core metal album. Walk is a classic that hits hard. The album has a good mix of hardcore lyrics and plenty of flowing guitar riffs. Always enjoyed when in the mood. 8.1/10

I must admit that metal after the '90s is really not my bag though there are some acts that I like. My biggest problem with a lot of the metal past the 90s is the growling vocals as a mainstay as opposed to an accentuation in their vocal arsenal. I think Phil Manselmo actually has a decent rock voice as shown in "This Love" and "Hallow" both of which also accentuate his growl. But most of the rest of the song it's just the heavy growl all the way through which kind of wears on me as the album goes along. Musically I really like the the overall music bed and because I never really listened to Pantera in the past I never really knew how great of guitar Dimebag Darrell was. But overall i think the vocals make it to where I can't give this much more than a three (6.33) ★★★

Two things can be true. This album is absolutely must-listen before you die, and I also don't like it all that much Best Song: Walk Rating: 6/10 Stars: 3/5

Not my usual genre, but an ok listen.

This album is intense and in your face. Pantera barks at you. Pretty great record incorporating a lot of styles, excellent guitar work, excellent vocal work. Great band.

For so called groove metal, there's a distinct lack of groove

Pantera limited themselves to a couple of Lego bricks to build most of this album: walls of the same clipped distorted chords, Anselmo’s silly voice. A few other Legos are thrown in for colour - squealing notes, odd chords sustained for more than a half a second - but the palette is as limited as a hardcore punk band’s, and the blocky castles they make are unmemorable, monotonous and jail-like. Please can we have a baroque chateau tomorrow or a brutalist tower or minarets, it doesn’t have to be pretty, just enough to linger over.

Not a metal fan.

Why do they have to destroy interesting music with horrible vocals? The music is interesting enough to me but then you have some horrible vocals just take a massive dump over it. Screamy and annoying.

Fuck that racist ass Phil Anselmo. 0 out of 5

I don't get this kind of music at all. Just boring to me.

I listened to at least a minute each of these before skipping (which is more than most deserved). Only made it through three tracks all the way. Zero stars. Absolutely perfect fit for the first day after Trump was elected to his second term.

If you entered "metal" into a stock music service, you'd get something like this back, which one doesn't consider a compliment. "Hollow" and "This Love" have very brief passages of something that might be vaguely redeemable, but well you know where it ends up .... in "Fucking Hostile" territory. In other words, it's the very essence of awful.

Growing up in Texas these guys were a big deal. Toxic masculinity at its core. These guys are also right wing nut jobs. So Fuck them.

Could barely bring myself to listen to more than 2 songs of this. This is not and never will be me: for that, I apologise. I will never be able to give an objective review of musicianship within this genre due to my pure distain for it. Resting heart rate 103bpm. Praying the next album will be less panic attack inducing.

Not my thing at all. Gave it a fair chance and a full listen and it’s still not my thing. RIP to Laura’s heart rate.

Not a fan of this type of music

Nope!

Awful

1/5 metal? well sadly no!

No me gusta el metal :/

Hated it. Gave up after 2 songs

Had a terrible time getting this to play in Spotify, and finally got a couple individual songs to play on it. Hated both.

Just bangers.

Awesome album Standout songs: A new level Fucking hostile Regular people

Goated album, zero skips, perfectly balanced in terms of energy and emotion. One of my favourite ever

Perfect headbanger.

Gear: SIMGOT EA1000 Fermat Artwork: 🤕💥🤛 Production (2012 Remaster): 🥩💩🎚️ Music: (╯’□’)╯︵ ┻━┻ Rating: 🤜🤜🤜🤜🤜/5

Fuck yeah. Just what I needed this morning after not sleeping well last night. A top 10 metal album for sure.

It’s indisputable that this is a stone cold classic, and I’m really happy to have been given the nudge to listen to it again. I had this on cassette as a kid, I think I bought it from a friend, back in the days of scraping together your pocket money and trying to get the most out of it as possible. Pantera really were some of the best ever to do it, RIP Dimebag & Vinnie Paul.

I didn't think I'd be giving this album five stars, because I'm not a fan of excruciatingly rough vocals. But, damn! the music is so good that I just can't help myself. The best tracks are definitely the ones with the sparcest vocals, but I can forgive the worst of the tortured screaming just to revel in the riffs.

It's not my favourite Pantera album, but I like it a lot. It's their most popular release to date, it's groovy and a very good listen. Also, Walk will forever be like an anthem.

I got in touch with Pantera thanks to a Spotify playlist called "The Book of Nasty Riffs", and Walk was one of the first songs on it. Since then, I learned to enjoy early 90s metal. Still not much of a fan tho, but you gotta surrender to an album like this. Both Vulgar Display and Cowboys From Hell are trully Metal Masterpieces. 5 Stars.

5 stars is not enough to describe the level of masterpiece this album is.

yeah!!!

9/10

An incredible band that has had it's legacy ruined by the racist "jokes" of it's frontman. Look, I'm not here to defend Pantera. There are plenty of dipshits on the internet doing that already, so I'm going to attempt to be brief here. The music is driving, intense and FULL. Dimebag Darrel's guitar sound is iconic. The drums are bombastic and crushing. The vocals are intense and emotional. This album is a fantastic departure from Guns and Roses, Pearl Jam and every other band that was popular in the early 90s. The lyrics are good, for the most part. At the time, I'm sure this "I don't see color" approach to race relations was considered progressive by some, but a bunch of good ol' boys from Texas singing about coming together while still sporting the rebel flag comes off as insipid and tone deaf today. All that being said, this is one of the most influential albums in the metal space. If you like hardcore at all, your favorite band owes something to this record.

Fuck yeah \m/ \m/

So aggressive, angry and heavy! This is a metal classic and a great follow-up to their previous album Cowboys from Hell. Phil Anselmo's raspy vocals are awesome accompanied by Dimebag Darrell's riffs. The lyrics are a bit cringy at times but with Pantera's attitude it doesn't matter much.

Classeek

I'm interested

INSANELY good dad metal

This is a great album, I love the heavy metal sound of pantera and every song was enjoyable.

Huge, groove-laden and heavy. An immense metal album.

When I first started getting into metal, I really didn't care much for Pantera. I liked Walk and that was about it. Over time I've grown an appreciation for them and it makes for great workout music. High energy guitar riffs and a vulgar display of power.

One of my favourite 90’s metal albums.

perfect album name, perfect album cover, promotes exactly how the album is; so aggressive and so in your face, hell yeaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I was in 7th grade. And this was the greatest thing on Earth. One indelible memory about this album: my buddy Cory and I were hanging out at his house after school. We happen to look out the window and noticed a pair of Mormon missionaries making their way up his street. Quickly we started Vulgar Display and cranked it up to full volume. The Mormon boys knocked for a while and finally we threw open the door right as Phil belts out "FUCKING HOSTILE!!" They both looked around nervously and asked if our parents were home. We thought we were so funny. We were.

One of the albums that saved metal in the 90s!! Not a bad song on here!! An all-time favorite!

I have never listened to Pantera much. I bought one of their albums (Far Beyond Driven) in high school, but my mom found it and was disturbed by the lyrics. She made me get rid of it before I could listen to it more than once. I got into Metallica after the above incident, and my mom didn't have the same issue with them for some reason. This is probably the first time I've listened to Pantera since then, and I really missed out on not listening to them during the years when a teenage boy would REALLY enjoy this style of music. If you like metal at all, you'll love this album. If you don't.. you won't.

Fav songs: Mouth for War; Walk; This Love; Regular People (Conceit) Super fun album IF you like metal. Otherwise at nearly 55 minutes, this would be a long, aural assault. RIP Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul.