PANTERA - Vulgar Display of Power

I am sure that each of you (or almost each of you) who read these lines right now have heard this album at least once, as it is a classic of the genre and really needs no presentation. I will not go through the songs, because from Mouth for War to Walk and from Fucking Hostile to This Love, each and every track of this record is a classic. So then why write this at all? Well, on 25 February 2012 it’s exactly 20 years since this metal jewel was released with the title Vulgar Display of Power. It is undoubtedly one of the most important metal records released in the 90s and one of the most important if not the most important in Pantera’s career. So, what’s so awesome and revolutionary with this record? Take any of Lamb of God, DevilDriver, Machine Head, Throwdown (from Venom & Tears on), Five Finger Death Punch, and in fact right about any band from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and you’ll see how much they are tributary to Pantera and especially this record. I won’t say that releases like Cowboys From Hell (1990), Far Beyond Driven (1994), The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) or Reinventing the Steel (2000), are not good, valid and standing the test of time, or not bringing a considerable contribution to contemporary metal, no! All I’m saying is that Vulgar Display of Power is probably the brightest of these jewels!

Ok, there are many bands that have left their mark on metal in the 90s, if we consider what was happening when Pantera released this record, so this makes us give them even more credit! Metallica were releasing The Black Album (to be honest a good record but far from what the previous ones gave us), grunge was blooming with strong champions in Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the most important if we consider media attention + Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, very cool bands that released even cooler albums, but something was missing. What was missing was the aggression and dynamic of the 80s metal in the stage lights, the fury that makes you go out of your mind and release everything, the band that would unite all the furious people in the underground under a single banner! As Motorhead did many years before. And this is exactly the spot that Pantera took without contest in the 90s. Combining the cutting riffs of thrash metal, the hardcore attitude of Phil Anselmo, and the members’ love for bands like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kiss, plus the wish to do something that really mattered in a sea of bands that copied each other obsessively and boringly, Pantera managed to give us with their Vulgar Display of Power one of the most important records of the 90s, a soundtrack for a generation’s fury, and for all generations to come!

H. Nota: 10