Pantera

Vulgar Display Of Power

A quintessential metal album

Review Score:

(8/10)
For me, and probably for many others, "Vulgar Display of Power" was a gateway album, one of the albums that got me into metal a couple years ago. Pantera were able to combine a high level of accessibility with a full-on metal onslaught that brought together old-school thrash and Southern-style Sabbathesque sludge. Dimebag Darrell may not be the best guitarist ever, but he does come up with some creative, memorable and catchy riffs; the riff from "Walk" has been periodically getting stuck in my head for about the past year. The blazingly fast "...Hostile", featuring some extremely vitriolic vocals from Anselmo, is another highlight, along with the agressively anthemic "A New Level" and "Mouth for War." Lyrically, the album is stronger than many of its ilk, with diatribes directed at phonies, posers, and other lowlifes. On the down side, the too-slow "No Good" is rather weak, and the ballad "Hollow" is pretty wretched. Still, if you want to hear some metal with good, solid riffs, angry vocals and lyrics, and a strong songwriting (for the most part), VDOP is worth picking up.

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