Vulgar Display of Power | ||||
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Studio album by Pantera | ||||
Released | February 25, 1992 | |||
Recorded | 1991 | |||
Studio | Pantego Sound Studio in Pantego, Texas, U.S. | |||
Genre | Groove metal, thrash metal | |||
Length | 51:45 | |||
Label | Atco | |||
Producer | Terry Date, Vinnie Paul | |||
Pantera chronology | ||||
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Singles from Vulgar Display of Power | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
The Austin Chronicle | |
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles | 9.5/10 |
Entertainment Weekly | A |
Kerrang! | |
The Phoenix | |
Q | |
Record Collector | |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Sputnikmusic | 4.0/5 |
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'sTushino 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".