Pantera "Vulgar Display Of Power"

Vulgar Display of Power is the sixth studio album by the American heavy metal band Pantera, released on February 25, 1992 through Atco Records. One of the most influential heavy metal albums of the 1990s, Vulgar Display of Power has been described as "one of the defining albums of the groove-metal genre". Several songs from this release have become some of the band's best known, such as "Mouth for War", "A New Level", "Walk", "Fucking Hostile", and "This Love".

The band's 1990 major label debut, Cowboys from Hell, demonstrated a change in their musical direction, from their 1980s material influenced by bands like Van Halen and Kiss to a new similarity to bands like Slayer, Metallica and Black Sabbath.

In 1991, Pantera returned to Pantego Sound Studio to record their second release under Atco, Vulgar Display of Power. The album was produced by Terry Date, who specializes in the rock and metal genres and had worked with the band on Cowboys from Hell. Date also went on to produce the band's following two albums, Far Beyond Driven (1994) and The Great Southern Trendkill (1996). Before Date came in to work on the album, the band had demoed three tracks, "A New Level", "Regular People (Conceit)" and "No Good (Attack the Radical)". The rest of the songs were written in the studio with little preproduction and demoing.

After being in the studio for two months, Pantera were invited to open for Metallica and AC/DC at the 1991 Monsters of Rock free concert in Moscow, Russia's Tushino airfield on September 28, 1991. The band then returned to the studio to continue work on the album. They travelled to New York City to master the album at Masterdisk. Although guitarist Darrell Abbott was credited on the album with nickname "Diamond Darrell", during the recording of the album he had dropped that nickname and assumed "Dimebag Darrell", and bassist Rex Brown dropped the pseudonym "Rexx Rocker"

Drummer Vinnie Paul said that Cowboys from Hell was really close to the "definitive Pantera sound". When Metallica released their self titled album in 1991, Pantera considered it a letdown to fans because they believed Metallica abandoned the thrash metal sound heard in previous albums. Pantera felt they had an opportunity and a gap to fill; they wanted to make the heaviest record of all time.

The riff for "Walk" is played in a time signature of 12/8. Darrell had played the riff during a soundcheck while Pantera was touring for Cowboys from Hell and the rest of the band loved it. Following this tour, the band returned home and found that some friends thought that rock stardom had gone to their heads. The lyrics for the song were inspired from these people's attitude toward the band; Anselmo's message to them was, "Take your fucking attitude and take a fuckin' walk with that. Keep that shit away from me."

The title of the album is taken from a line in the 1973 film, The Exorcist. When Father Damien Karras asks Regan MacNeil (or the demon who possesses her) to break her own straps and release herself using her evil power, Regan replies "that's much too vulgar a display of power.". In April 2007, the title was used for the book A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa, which includes many Pantera song titles as chapter headings.The book details the incidents leading up to the murder of Dimebag Darrell Abbott.

The album's cover is a photo of a man being punched in the face and was shot by photographer Brad Guice, who also shot the photo for the Cowboys from Hell cover. The band told their label that they wanted "something vulgar, like a dude getting punched". The first version of the cover that the label brought to the band showed a boxer with a punching glove, but the band did not like it, so the label produced a second version. According to Vinnie Paul, the man on the cover was paid $10 a punch and was hit in the face 31 times to get the right picture. However Brad Guice stated that the man, who was named Sean Cross, was never actually hit.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Pantera (Phil Anselmo, Diamond Darrell, Rex Brown, Vinnie Paul).

1. "Mouth for War" 3:57
2. "A New Level" 3:57
3. "Walk" 5:14
4. "Fucking Hostile" 2:48
5. "This Love" 6:32
6. "Rise" 4:36
7. "No Good (Attack the Radical)" 4:49
8. "Live in a Hole" 5:00
9. "Regular People (Conceit)" 5:27
10. "By Demons Be Driven" 4:40
11. "Hollow" 5:48

Total length: 52:48

20th anniversary edition bonus track

1. "Piss" 5:07

Total length: 57:55

Trivia:

- The album peaked at #44 on the Billboard 200.

- The title of this album comes from the movie The Exorcist. The priest asks Regan to prove she is the Devil, to which she responds that would be too much of a vulgar display of power.

- Sean Cross is the man on the cover shown being punched. Contrary to popular rumors, Cross was never actually punched according to Brad Guice who took the image. The myth that he was a fan of the band and was paid 10 dollars for each punch to the face to be caught on camera was dispelled by Guice as he explained in an interview that the dynamic effect to make it look like a real punch was all just clever photography and editing.

Music videos:

- Mouth for War

- Walk

- This Love

Recording information:

Co-produced by Pantera.

Recorded & mixed at Pantego Sound Studio, Pantego, Texas (R.I.P.).

Mastered at Masterdisk, New York, NY.