Vulgar Display of Power

Pantera

album cover

Vulgar, in a Good Way

Perhaps Ovid was a headbanger. The ancient Roman poet and philosopher, who wrote long rhapsodies about love, women, and mythological transformations, once observed that "A safe pleasure is a tame pleasure." By that logic, he likely would have enjoyed Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power, a romping stomping blast that exposed the softness and pomposity of 1980s hair metal.

The power on display here isn't all vulgar—an awesome precision guides these jackhammering guitars and pulverizing backbeats. This is metal with much of the artifice stripped away, with emphasis on sheer crushing force rather than inflated audaciousness. The band's previous experience might have had something to do with that: Pantera spent the '80s trying to sell itself as a glam-metal band, and met mostly with indifference. When the Arlington, Texas, four-piece went back to the drawing board, it rethought metal from bottom to top, rejecting standard practice. Vulgar Display is the result. Its rhythms lumber majestically; at times Pantera sounds like a speed-metal band that's shifted into low gear. Its lyrics express an undisguised hostility; screechy vocalist Phil Anselmo could, in his most ferocious moments, easily be mistaken for a psychopath. Equally impressive is the furious rule-breaking lead guitar of Darrell Abbott, aka Dimebag Darrell, whose extended solos, often performed with no rhythm guitar support, are marvels of dastardly unhinged intensity. Dimebag was murdered in 2004 while performing onstage with the band he formed after Pantera dissolved in 2000; his death prompted vigils on satellite radio metal channels, and left a gaping hole in the genre. Very few guitarists—in any genre—had Dimebag's flair for dramatic solos.

Vulgar Display was a career-making huge commercial success, but it is equally notable for the shock waves it sent through heavy rock. Virtually all of the "groove metal" and rap-metal bands of the '90s (Korn, etc.) copped some of the caterwauling menace and the massive sonics that define this work. It's not all vulgar. It's not all pretty. But it consistently hits extremes of one sort or other, and that is enough. As Ovid also wrote: "Be patient and tough; one day this pain will be useful to you."

Genre: Rock
Released: 1992, Atco
Key Tracks: "Mouth of War," "Rise," "Live in a Hole," "Hollow"
Catalog Choice: Cowboys from Hell; Far Beyond Driven
Next Stop: Tool: Aenima
After That: System of a Down: Toxicity
Book Pages: 575–576