A Vulgar Display of Power-Pantera

 This evening I am reviewing Pantera's classic A Vulgar Display of Power. As soon as the record hits the table you hear a soaring and powerful riff from Dimebag's almighty fingers. This is the album that proved that Pantera was truly amazing. With their previous albums Pantera was rising to power, but with this album they proved themselves as metal gods. Dimebag has an amazing guitar that releases beautiful riffs, the bass is rock steady and well done, in addition the drums are powerful and fast. Anselmo's vocals are amazing and help define Pantera's awesome sound. The lyrics are shocking and powerful and simply awesome.

Dimebag's guitar is, simply Dimebag, there is no other way to describe it. Dimebag is pretty much the best guitarist of the 90's (except for maybe Zakk Wylde) and he proves it on this album. His guitar is hard riffing and very powerful. There is more raw energy in Dimebags riffs than there are on many thrash albums. Considering the energy in Dimebag's riffs one might consider renaming this album A Vulgar Display of Energy. In essence Dimebag's raw energy dominates the music. The bass is solid but uninspiring, Rexx Rocker does have a great stage persona though. Then the drums of Vinnie Paul are excellent, they are fairly original and have an excellent sound in them.

The singing of Anselmo is borders on death growls. His singing is a bit lighter than full on growls though. He has a very powerful voice and he puts a lot of guts behind it, you can sense through the music that he really means what he feels. The vocals of Anselmo are on a similar level of growliness as those of Venom and maybe some harder Zakk Wylde. These vocals define the sound just as much as Dimebag does and they are just as awesome as Dimebag's shredding guitar. The vocals are very dark and often punk like. They reflect a lot of anger against society and call for upending society, the lyrics seek to dominate with their anger. While they are good they are not ground-breakingly original.

Overall this is an awesome album from a great band. There are a lot of things that make this album sound awesome. One of the greatest things is Dimebag's spectacular guitar, it excretes energy as it goes about its riffing business. Of course his riffs are onnly matched in majesty with his incredible solos. The bass is solid but meh, the drums are excellent and incredibly original with a lot of great fills. The vocals are excellent, bordering on death growls they contain a lot of raw anger and this is often reflected in their angry lyrics. All in all this is a great listen and a fun one at that, this is a great album for any metalhead.

OVERALL 9/10