Sep 16 2022
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3
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.
👍
Apr 21 2021
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5
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.
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Mar 15 2021
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1
Bit much for Mothering Sunday.
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Feb 19 2021
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1
Hate this album and this band
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May 19 2023
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1
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)
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Mar 07 2024
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5
Music for when you must commit felony assault.
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May 09 2021
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1
Awful. And the cynical ballad track at the end made it even worse.
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Oct 16 2020
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5
Five stars. Duh. wtf.
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Feb 09 2021
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3
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)
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Mar 30 2021
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1
The worst
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Feb 17 2021
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1
What's with the shouting? No.
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Aug 17 2022
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1
One of the reviews for this album called it “punishing.” Throw in “tedious” and you got my summary.
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Jun 16 2021
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5
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
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Jun 16 2021
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5
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.
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Mar 14 2021
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1
1/10, not my thing
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Jan 22 2021
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1
I don't like screaming music, it gave me a headache.
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May 13 2021
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1
Yeah, I still don't like heavy metal.
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Feb 13 2021
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1
No.... just no
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May 15 2021
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1
HATE
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Sep 23 2023
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1
Vulgar display of something
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Jan 21 2024
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1
Utter waste of time.
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Apr 30 2021
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5
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.
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Dec 17 2020
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5
Bangin
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Feb 01 2021
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5
Fucking badass! Proper classic
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Feb 10 2021
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5
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!!!
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Mar 25 2021
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5
Fuck yea.
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Apr 12 2021
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5
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.
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May 15 2021
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5
Love this álbum, one of the best metal bands
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May 12 2021
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5
Oui
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Sep 22 2021
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5
Very good!
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Nov 24 2021
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5
Heavy, powerful, awesome.
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Dec 02 2021
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5
its pantera.
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Jan 14 2022
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5
Stone cold classic
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Feb 18 2022
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5
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.
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Nov 14 2022
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5
Remembering the cringe of when I set my flip-phone’s ringtone to “FUCKING HOSTILE” in Middle School.
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Oct 04 2021
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4
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
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Aug 17 2023
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4
RE.........SPECT.......WALK!
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Jul 28 2023
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3
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.
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Aug 04 2023
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3
Not my usual genre, but an ok listen.
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Feb 05 2023
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2
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.
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Jan 18 2024
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2
Not a metal fan.
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Jan 21 2024
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2
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:
⭐️⭐️
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Feb 26 2021
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1
Had a terrible time getting this to play in Spotify, and finally got a couple individual songs to play on it. Hated both.
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Feb 01 2021
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1
Hated it. Gave up after 2 songs
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Feb 08 2021
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1
No me gusta el metal :/
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Mar 15 2021
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1
1/5
metal? well sadly no!
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Jun 09 2021
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1
Awful
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Feb 17 2021
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1
Nope!
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Jun 09 2021
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1
Not a fan of this type of music
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Feb 26 2021
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1
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.
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Feb 26 2021
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1
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.
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May 10 2021
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1
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
👍
Mar 01 2023
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1
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.
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Apr 20 2021
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5
I love this record. It's a great power metal record. Is it power metal? idk I do know that it is one of the best
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Feb 26 2021
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5
Erinnert mich daran wie wir in Stefans küche 3kg Hack zu Fleichküchle gemacht haben und Stefan dann mit nem Weizen auf der Plauze eingeschlafen ist. Das ist natürlich umgefallen und alles war versifft. Er wollte erst nicht glauben, dass er sich dieses Schlamassel selbst zuschreiben muss. Und Dimebag auf der Bühne erschossen worden: Mehr Meddl geht nicht
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Feb 26 2021
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5
Alles klar, sprach ich gestern noch von weirdem Metal, so werde ich heute damit belohnt. Typisch schlecht gemischt, aber vielleicht macht das auch den Reiz aus. Funfact, nach diesem Album haben Pantera nie wieder Demo-Versionen aufgenommen, sondern oft improvisiert. Es tut mir weh, es tut mir gut. Pantera hat hierbei laut Wikipedia versucht, das härteste Album aller Zeiten aufzunehmen, weil das Black Album von Metallica für sie eine Enttäuschung war. Nun gut. "Walk" liebe ich. Stehe gerade auf der Rofatanze irgendwann um viertel nach vier und lasse mich davon treiben. Viel Bewegung ist nicht mehr, es sind nur noch die harten Metalboys da und lassen ihre Haare schwingen. Ich habe keine Haare und Leute, die ohne Haare bangen, sind für mich Abschaum. Also putze ich weiter die Tische und Bänke, um früher in den Feierabend zu kommen. Währenddessen singe ich leise mit und bewege das Zewatuch im Takt. Es ist perfekt. "This Love" ist auch eine fiese Möpp! Kommt so romantisch daher und bläst im Refrain das Trommelfell weg. Wo sind meine Mosherfriends? Hoch mit den Beinen, ich will Zähne fliegen sehen. Jemand den geilen Song "Piss" in der Remastered-Version von 2012 gehört? "Hollow" auch nicht mehr auf dem Schirm gehabt. Finde alles gut an diesem Album, vielleicht zu wenig gehört in meinem Leben. Werde es nun fester in meine Routine einbinden.
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Jan 25 2021
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5
Jeeez
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Mar 30 2021
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5
Ah Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power en Far Beyond Driven zijn mijn favoriete albums van deze band. Helaas in mijn jonge jaren te laat ontdekt maar wat een super band. Top 3 nummers: Broken, Walk en Fucking Hostile
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May 21 2021
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5
Absolute classic! Banger through and through. Ranges from some very fast and "brutal" songs to some slower more relaxing but still groovy songs.
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Jul 17 2021
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5
listened to this and did heroin in my ass like phil did <3333
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Sep 12 2021
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5
Stevige plaat, veel atypische ritmes, en een zeer goed album tout cours
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Oct 04 2021
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5
A brutal assault of an album, Pantera’s vulgar display of Power was exactly that. Building on Cowboy’s heavy guitar tone their follow up took things to a whole new level. Quite simply Pantera sounded like nobody else and with this album they took the crown of the heaviest metal band on the planet. Phil Anselmo’s unmistakable growling vocals and Dimebag’s incredible, truly unique guitar sound compliment each other perfectly - supported brilliantly by the pummelling rhythm section of Rex and Vinnie Paul. Mouth for War, Walk, Fucking Hostile, This Love, By Demons be Driven, Hollow are just a few of the highlights on this incredible album.
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Oct 13 2021
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5
Da werde dicke Bretter mit ordentlichen Stihl Kettensägen zu feinsten Mehl verarbeitet. Dabei ist das eingängige Knurren hier und da durch außergewöhnliche Spitzen pointiert. Da stakt nahezu filigranes Schnitzwerk aus Sägespänen hervor.
Für das Genre einfach ein genial gebauter Maßstab; variabel, wiedererkennbar, robust. Ich meine, in knapp 30 Jahren keine Verschleißerscheinungen zu erkennen.
Vulgäre 4.5
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Nov 14 2021
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5
Классика
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Dec 08 2021
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5
Hi- Mouth of War, A New Level, Walk, This Love, Regular People (Conceit)
It's really easy to call it "SCREAMO" or "Cookie Monster Music" but those derogatory labels lack nuance, when Vulgar... is a masterpiece. The opening act with Mouth For War, A New Level, Walk, and *** Hostile all feature killer guitar riffs, but then you're hit with This Love, which is filled with melodic and masterful guitarwork. The rest of the album is more of the same but not really the same because each track is unique and executed with masterful precision in new ways. Hatebreed, Static-X, Mudvayne owe a lot to Pantera, as it's clear they've culled much of their sound from here.
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Dec 17 2021
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5
🤘🏻
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Jan 28 2022
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5
Quite possibly the best metal album of the 90’s. Definitely Pantera’s best album
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Feb 18 2022
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5
Now we're talkin'! This is an album that takes me right back to high school when I would listen to it constantly. One of the bands that first drew me into listening to heavy music. I spent endless hours trying to learn all of these riffs on guitar, and "Mouth for War" was the first drum track I transposed into MIDI for my drum machine, so this album taught me tons as an amateur musician. Over the years, the tone of the guitars and drums on this album have taken on a "ridiculous" sound in my ears, in that it's an extremely polished and over the top but dated sound, one that I don't think I'd enjoy on anyone else's material, but I just love it on these songs.
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May 18 2022
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5
Bad ass thrash metal album. No one ever did it quick like Pantera
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May 19 2022
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5
A fuckin banger
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Jun 03 2022
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5
tbh they kinda aren't great as people but this album fucks
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Jun 10 2022
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5
Pantera for me will always make for a good listen with their signature aggressive groove metal. Vulgar Display displays the band at full force in that field, making for quite the classic metal record.
The first 5 tracks especially are some of my favorite metal songs in general. The second half falls a bit short, but it's overall an excellent time.
Favorites: "A New Level", "Walk", "Fucking Hostile", "This Love", "Hollow"
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Jul 01 2022
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5
It's funny to hear a music from Doom 1 in the wild (Mouth for war).
I love metal so this was destined for a 5 ;)
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Jul 11 2022
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5
Obra de arte, uff
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Jul 12 2022
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5
5/5 no explanation necessary.
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Jul 12 2022
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5
Will never not be part of my rotation
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Sep 22 2022
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5
Fuck yeah.
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Oct 19 2022
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5
9/10
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Nov 11 2022
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5
Great album... but why so fucking hostile
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Nov 25 2022
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5
Hahahhah, YES.
In my metally teens I was a little suspicious of groove metal, preferring thrash or industrial, or nwobhm. I owned this on CD, I'm pretty sure, but it was never one of my favorites.
Revisiting it has been an absolute pleasure. I like Pantera going balls to the wall, for sure, but I also really appreciate their softer moments - my absolute fave track is their cover of "Planet Caravan" from "Far Beyond Drive" - wish they'd done a whole album of dreamy lushness like that!
Fave tracks - "Walk" and "Fucking Hostile", naturally, and "This Love" for having splashes of that softness I like...
👍
Dec 22 2022
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5
A classic metal album. Aggressive and groovy. Everything here from the vocals to the instruments are great. Highly influential and its eqsy to understand why.
Obviously some people are going to be turned off by music like this, but I think it's certainly worthy of inclusion as it is just truly a great of the genre.
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Dec 23 2022
View Author
5
If you're growing tired of sappy, cheery Christmas music, I have the solution for you. "Vulgar Display of Power" is the sixth album from American heavy metal band Pantera. This was their second album moving away from glam and hard rock to more thrash and harder metal. The mission was successful. The album received mass critical acclaim especially for Diamond Darrel's Dimebag) guitar riffs. The overall bands performance is pretty relentless from start to finish too. Other band members include vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown and drummer Vinnie Paul. The album title comes from the 1973 film "The Exorcist:" when the Priest asks the little girl "If you the Devil, why not make the metal straps disappear?" And the girl responds "That's much too vulgar a display of power." How Heavy Metal.
Dimebag's hard, heavy guitar riff begins "Mouth of War." The drums and bass kick in adding to the grind. Anselmo growls. Anselmo screams. A hard, fast song. Not the last. Overcoming the past and self-esteem and living for yourself. The second song "A New Level" is lyrically similar. The band speeds up the pace. Screeching guitar.
A searing guitar solo. Another great Dimebag riff and groove drive "Walk," one of their bigger songs. The song is towards people who thought rock stardom got to Anselmo's head and telling them to take a walk.
Let's up the ante and go total thrash and speed metal and they do that on "Fucking Hostile." Needless to say, Anselmo is even angrier, lashing out against the police, priests and parents. And belief it or not, we have a ballad in "This Love." Now this is how you do a eerie, haunting and rocking heavy metal ballad. Anselmo screaming "You take this love, love, love." About a past relationship. It sounds like not a good one either. The band kicks it hard on the next four songs and the album actually ends with another ballad "Hollow." It is apparently about a friend fatally injured in a car crash on life support and how seeing him was so hollow. At the start, the music sounds like "Ride-the-Lightning"-era Metallica. Anselmo is also singing (wow) and sounds like Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate. The song transforms midway through to more thrash. An appropriate way to end.
Dimebag said they wanted to create the heaviest album of all time. They just might have done that. This has been consistently rated as one the best heavy metal albums of the 90's. I'd agree and say probably of any decade or time. A must listen for any one remotely interested in heavy metal. And if you're not, you suck....sorry, still listening to the album.
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Mar 13 2023
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5
Pretty amazingly varied for this type of album
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Mar 19 2023
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5
Genre: Thrash Metal
Review: Used to listen to this album back in college, but listening to it again this time gave me a whole new level of appreciation for the quality of the track "Walk". Other tracks are pretty neat, too.
Rating: 9/10
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Mar 29 2023
View Author
5
Com 15 ou 17 anos não teria condição de reconhecer os problemas das posições facistas do Phill. Mas continua a escutar porque musicalmente foi fundamental para minha formação com metal, especialmente pelos irmãos Vinnie Paul e Dimebag. Com a consciência política atual, talvez não começasse a escutar. De qualquer forma, a música em si não faz apologia fascista.
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Mar 30 2023
View Author
5
5/5
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Mar 09 2023
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5
Definitely the best Pantera album. Walk still gets my engine going.
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Apr 21 2023
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5
Now that's heavy! Man this was some of the cleanest but gnarliest metal I've heard in a while. These guys nailed it
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May 18 2023
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5
Loved listening to this album. I feel like I can always reset my mood when listening to classic metal.
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Jun 05 2023
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5
Raw, powerful. slips into some classic metal licks, but for the post part it stays ever pursuing and angry.
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Jun 16 2023
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5
I was expelled from school when I was 14 and this album was the soundtrack to that time. It was a pretty angry/strange/fucked up time in my life, and I can't honestly say if Pantera was a symptom of that, a coping mechanism, or just existed alongside it all. Nevertheless, I listened to Vulgar Display of Power non-stop in 1998.
I was a manky teenage metalhead and in hindsight, a bit of a cliche. I wasn't very popular; being known for getting kicked out of another school in the area doesn't create mystique unless you're James Dean cool to start with. I was just a misfit. I was a decently smart kid but the only things I really cared about in 1998 were heavy metal and fantasy novels, haha. I hated school and I thought everyone else was a pack of cunts.
Metal was in an interesting phase in early 1998. Thrash metal had been replaced by groove metal, and was in turn being replaced by nu-metal. It hadn't quite happened yet, though, and imo 1995-99 or so were the most creative few years metal had to offer. Sepultura, Machine Head, Fear Factory, White Zombie, Faith No More, Tool, Rammstein, Cannibal Corpse, etc etc. But none of those bands were as cool as Pantera. Even Sepultura, arguably my favourite band of all time, they weren't as utterly cool as Phil and Dimebag. Those two guys really were my idols at that point. And I guess as a weird kid who didn't fit in, I really did want somehow to *be* cool. This band and album imprinted on me bigtime.
You know how sometimes music can do more than just remind you of a time? When I listen to Hollow, I can smell the mould and dank permanently-wet cement in the science block. I can feel the slimy green algae-type stuff that was in every gap in the cement. I was a ratty teenager; I rubbed my fingers on that shit all the time. I listened to Pantera instead of paying attention in class. I got into more and more trouble at my new school and drove my parents fucking insane. Dad threatened to smash my Pantera CDs at one point, haha. He stood in the backyard with them (Cowboys, Vulgar, Far Beyond Driven and Great Southern Trendkill) spread out on the lawn, ready to smack them with a sledgehammer. In hindsight, Phil and Dime would've thought that was pretty cool. I talked dad off the ledge somehow.
25 years later or so and I'm still not cool, and I haven't ever been cool in the meantime. I don't mind anymore. I really enjoyed listening to this album today. I am kinda stoned right now so this is a bit rambly, but I genuinely enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. I listen to Pantera every so often, but not usually this album. It was a pleasant little listen. It really still is that damn good. I might listen to a Machine Head album or two this weekend. 5/5.
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Jun 22 2023
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5
Un excelente album de metal y un verdadero fundador de lo que posteriormente se pasaría a llamar “Groove Metal”. Probablemente el punto más alto de la carrera de Pantera.
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Jul 22 2023
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5
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.
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Aug 15 2023
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5
This Band and Album Rocks!!!
A Perfect 5/5, ‘Nuff Said.
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Aug 17 2023
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5
This is my favourite Pantera album and I like Pantera, so it's an instant 5-star review from me. I liked Cowboys from Hell, but this album feels more coherent, everyone at the top of the individual member's form, tight as it could possibly be. The songs are great and we even get Hollow at the end.
Lovely production here as well, just overall a fantastic album. It's always a good sign when I open Spotify and half the tracks have green hearts already!
I used to play this endlessly as background music when I was playing some video game (that I can't remember the name of now) back in the day and it never got annoying.
Yes, this was a high point with many lows to follow, but I'm not going to knock off a point just because the lead singer turned into a douchebag.
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Sep 22 2023
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5
Some good music. I enjoyed the album especially the guitar solos
Looked at some
Other albums and liked songs on Spotify. Very iconic guitar intros to Walk,
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Oct 18 2023
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5
Brani Preferiti:
- "A New Level"
- "Walk"
- "This Love"
- "Live In a Hole"
- "Hollow"
Note:
Chi ama il genere sa che i Pantera sono un gruppo che ha rivoluzionato questa scena assieme a pochi altri.
Potrà considerarsi mainstream ma come disco preferisco più "Cowboys...", ciò però non toglie quanto questo probabilmente è l'album che ha definito i Pantera come li conosco.
È un album che si merita un 5? Secondo me non un 5 pieno.
Perché do 5? Perché dopo un mese di attesa, finalmente è capitato il mio genere di musica preferito.
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Nov 26 2023
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5
Now this is a metal album! Reee-SPECT! FUCK YEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!
I love everything about it, top marks! RIP Dimebag, you were a guitar god and you deserved better.
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Nov 27 2023
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5
4.7
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Dec 18 2023
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5
Que álbum sensacional! Puro rock de qualidade!
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