Pantera- Vulgar Display of Power Reissued & Still Ruling the Metal World

 

Pantera's masterpiece Vulgar Display of Power got reissued in a deluxe 20th anniversary edition recently, and it sold 9,000 copies in its' first week of being rereleased. This landed it at the 48th place in the Billboard 200. That's more than double that that of the reissue of the preceeding album, Cowboys from Hell. I heard this news via Duff's Brooklyn Facebook who posted a link to this post from Blabbermouth: http://legacy.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=174388   

Vulgar Display of Power is considered a metal classic and rightfully. It's thought by many, myself included, the best album from the band. They were one of the few metal bands to see huge success in a era that shunned the genre. The fact that this album was so damn heavy, and that each following album was even heavier, only made that success that much sweeter. The band's crunching mix of thrash metal, hardcore, and a killer groove gave us groove metal. They would influence many other bands who dabbled in nu-metal, groove metal, and metalcore. None of these bands, even the best of, though could touch the power of the mighty Pantera. 

I got the album, then on tape, back in the 90s when I was in high school.  And, it simply blew me away. It was heavy, aggressive, and fucking badass. It made me wanna break shit and mosh all over the place, most of all on the bus I took to school. Pantera became along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax one of my five favorite bands of all time. This is where they remain to this day. Their music was so important to my life. Admit ably I went through some hard times in high school, college, and in some of the early years of my post-college life. Yet, their music always gave me energy and power. Even when I felt like shit, they were one of the bands that I could count on to get me pumped. For that reason along, my connection to the band is extremely deep. 

When Dimebag was tragically killed in December 8, 2004, it saddened me greatly. I cried. Shit, even writing this brings back some of those feelings. I wrote a letter to Revolver magazine, which got printed expressing my sadness and my deep love for him and Pantera.

The reissuee proves that this album has not lost any of it's power despite the many bands that have ripped-off the Pantera groove and sound. It's still heavy and killer as fuck. Aside from the classic album, with such ferocious classic tracks as "Walk", "This Love", "Fucking Hostile", and "Mouth of War" (my all time favorite Pantera track), it comes with the never before released track "Piss". Unlike many never before released tracks that are kind of lame, this one is totally killer!! There are also some live videos on a DVD, as well as the three videos made for the album. 

Pantera and Vulgar Display of Power fucking rule. And, if you need to be reminded then hear ya go:

I would like to also take this time to wish you all a safe and fun long Memorial Day Weekend. And, to not forget the true meaning of it, either. As, we should always remember and be thankful for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.