February 25, 1992 - Vulgar Display Of Power

Three weeks after my last release and 19 months since "Cowboys From Hell", Pantera released their sixth album "Vulgar Display Of Power" on February 25, 1992. This would end up being Pantera's most successful album commercially and it continues Pantera's new groove metal sound. Pantera thought (like myself and many others) that Metallica's Black Album was a letdown because Metallica largely abandoned their thrash metal past and so Pantera set out to make the heaviest album they could with this newest record. The name certainly fits that style, so let's check out "Vulgar Display Of Power"!

The album kicks off with "Mouth For War" and Diamond Darrell comes in with a hard-hitting guitar riff and he segues nicely into a different but equally as heavy riff to drive the verse. Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul provide a nice heavy rhythm section as well and Phil Anselmo sings a solid verse overtop holding some nice long notes. The opening riff turns out to be a bridge between the verse and chorus and Darrell sounds great throughout this song, playing some catchy and heavy guitar and I love the super high notes he mixes in at the end of the chorus that sound pretty epic. After another cool verse, bridge and chorus Rex plays a nice heavy bass riff to back Darrell's guitar solo and Darrell ries off a pretty sweet solo, as is the norm for him, with some buts of nice shredding. After the solo they speed things up even more and Phil sings a quick new verse overtop that takes us to the end of this solid opener. Up next is "A New Level" and Darrell and Rex both play some slow stuff that sounds nice and super heavy; a punishing riff that turns out to be the chorus riff. Darrell speeds things up for the verse though and he leads the way with a fast-paced and slightly offbeat riff that also sounds pretty cool. Phil half screams/half yells the verse and I think he sounds very raw and heavy and I love it. They shift nicely back to the slow and punishing riff for the chorus and Anselmo holds a couple long screams that sound pretty awesome overtop the sweet heavy riff. After another verse and chorus Paul breaks things down nicely on drums and they play a short bridge that brings us to solo time. Darrell really shows off on this one with a long solo filled with tons of  super fast shredding guitar. Awesome stuff! After the solo Anselmo yells a short part that leads into the chorus nicely and he really shows his emotion as he holds some gnarly, long yells that I think sound pretty awesome. Even better than the first song, which was not bad at all! Track 3 is called "Walk" and it wound up being a moderately succesful single (which is saying something for Pantera, who didn't get very much airplay) and one of Pantera's most recognizable songs. It's driven of course by a nice guitar riff from Darrell that isn't slow, but isn't fast either: it's just a perfectly timed headbanger that is really simple, but obviously pretty effective and catchy. Darrell eventually comes in to sing the first verse and he sings a solid verse to match the mood of the song that grooves nicely along to the music. The roff doesn't even change as they enter the chorus as we just keep on headbangin' as Phil delivers a catchy slow chorus. Why deviate from such a powerful main riff? Darrell speeds things up briefly at the end of the chorus, but returns to the main pace as we hear another verse and couple choruses. Phil then says "no way punk" as they move into the solo and Darrell's guitar isn't very fast, but it's very high up the guitar and it all sounds very epic still. This leads into one final chorus that Phil finishes by saying "walk on home boy" and the rest of the guys jam out the fast ending to the chorus until it finally fades to a stop. The next song is the shortest on the album, titled "Fucking Hostile" and it's played at a much faster pace than the last couple songs as Darrell plays a nice thrash-y guitar riff and Rex and Vinnie back him with a fast rhythm section. Phil sings quickly along to the music in the fast verse and they slow things down just a little bit in the chorus that Anselmo nicely ends by shouting the name of the song. They speed through another verse and chorus and then it's solo time and Darrell plays even faster than the main riff as he shreds through a short but pretty epic solo. He ties it back into the main riff nicely as well and they play a final verse and chorus before Anselmo ends the song by himself with a final, long "fucking hostiiiiiiiile" that is an awesome way to end a pretty cool song. Track 5 is called "This Love" and it's driven by a much lighter guitar riff than any song so far on this album, but it's still a catchy and solid main riff. Phil sings in a lighter voice overtop to match the mood and both his voice and the music shift nicely as they move into the short and heavier chorus. They quiet down again for another verse and after another heavy chorus they briefly speed things up to thrash speeds, only so that the following breakdown hits even harder than normal. They suddenly shift to a very slow and simple riff that sounds really nice and heavy before returning to the quiet main riff as the backdrop for Darrell's solo. This solo is slow to match the mood and has no shredding but things still sound pretty epic and it flows nicely into a final chorus. Phil really yells the last couple "looooove"'s and they suddenly break things down again, this time to an even slower version of the earlier breakdown! I love the slow chugging guitars and I love how they managed to get even heavier than before! This punishing part slowly fades to an end and the main riff starts to fade back in as Darrell closes out the song with another simple but epic-sounding solo. A lot of good stuff packed into this six and a half minute song. The next song is "Rise" and it opens with a really fast riff led by some quick guitar by Darrell before they shift nicely into the offbeat main riff that sounds nice and heavy. Phil sings a nice verse overtop that flows perfectly with the guitar and they shift back to the speedy opening riff to bridge the gap between the verse and short chorus that just has Phil shouting "it's time to rise! Rise! Rise!" and then they start the cycle over again. Another cool verse/bridge/chorus later and Rex sets up the solo nicely with some solid bass before Darrell goes off on an absolute tear with a pretty sweet guitar solo. He leads a new fast riff that also sounds pretty sweet and this leads perfectly midway into a final verse and they finish off the song with a final bridge and chorus as the cool songs just keep coming. Track 7 is "No Good (Attack The Radical)" and Darrell unsurprisingly leads the way with another cool guitar riff. The guitar falls away completely as Phil begins the first verse by talking in a low voice overtop Rex's low bass until Darrell comes thundering back in with some nice heavy guitar. Phil switches to some full-on yells for the rest of the verse and I think he sounds great screaming in a nice high voice. Things flow into a pretty similar chorus and things continue to sound good as they roll through another verse and chorus. Then of course it's solo time and Darrell delivers a pretty cool solo as usual. They play a final chorus before ending the song with a pretty repetitive guitar riff that just eventually fades out in an oddly unexciting ending to this one. Up next is "Live In A Hole" and they kick right into a cool distorted riff and Darrell delivers an early solo overtop that sounds pretty cool. They segue nicely into the distorted main riff that has some simple but really great-sounding guitar by Darrell and Phil sings a solid verse in his usual voice. The opening riff turns out to be the chorus riff and after a short chorus Darrell delivers another solo that perfectly leads into the main riff. After another verse and chorus Darrell goes off on a much longer solo with several sections. It starts off pretty fast with some nice shredding, then he nicely breaks it down to a slow and heavy part before speeding up again for another really cool fast part. He is one hell of a guitarist and I am locked in and entertained by everything he plays! They then end the song with a final chorus. Track 9 is "Regular People (Conceit)" and once again Darrell leads the way with a heavy guitar riff that just grooves so nicely and stops and starts at all the right places. Every song could be described this way, but each one has it's own uniquely cool music and the only real connection between them is that every song sounds pretty great! This song is instrumental for over a minute before Phil joins in, but it's a great opening minute that sounds nice and heavy. Phil's vocals start quite low, but it's not long until he's yelling in his usual nice voice. The verse flows right into a similarly good chorus and I love how Phil yells "any streetwise son of a bitch knows, don't fuck with this". After another rockin' verse and chorus they set up a very distorted and heavy backdrop with Rex playing some nice bass for Darrell to solo over. I'm running out of ways to say that he delivers an exceptionally amazing guitar solo that sounds super epic and high and that's filled with lots of great shredding guitar. Fantastic stuff! They play a final chorus before nicely ending the song with a final quick riff. The next song is called "By Demons Be Driven" and they play a long instrumental opening once again with a nice stop and start guitar riff that of course sounds heavy and pretty sweet. The guitar shifts to a much higher tone in the verse but it also sounds pretty sweet and Phil sings a great verse to match the mood. The chorus is much simpler but still nice and heavy and despite the repetitive lyrics Anselmo's delivery is still great. After another verse and chorus Vinnie plays a great little drum fill to take us to the solo and Darrell plays a fairly simple chorus for him, but it's very distorted and sounds pretty crazy. This leads nicely into some final choruses before they jam out the end of the song to a simple and very thrash-y riff. The final song on the album is "Hollow" and it has a much lighter feel than any other song on the album as Darrell plays some slow melodic guitars that show Pantera can sound solid even when they decide to tone it down a bit. Phil is truly singing this chorus rather than his usual yelling and while I personally prefer the yelling his voice sounds good here too and fits the mood of the music well. There is no chorus, just a long verse followed by a short instrumental bit. After another long verse this song completely shifts gears and they nicely turn things into a more standard, heavy Pantera style. There's no real solo, but Darrell plays some cool guitar as usual and Phil sings a nice new verse. After the verse they play some more heavy stuff that fades into quiet for a second or two, but they come thundering back in and jam it out for another 45 seconds or so to end this record.

That is the end of "Vulgar Display Of Power" and I thought it was a fantastic album through and through. Every song on this album is easily an above average song, a pretty incredible feat on it's own, but a few of them were particularly awesome with "Walk", "Rise" and the short but wicked "Fucking Hostile" all being excellent songs. Pantera really did pull out all the stops with some great heavy music that had me headbanging for the whole 53 minutes! Their last album "Cowboys From Hell" was also pretty awesome and I think these two albums are both really good, but I give the slight edge to this newest album as "Vulgar Display Of Power" is a perfect way to describe this great metal album. It's crazy to think these guys were glam rockers in the 80s! I can't wait to see what they do next!