707. Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera

So, with only the respite of a week since the delicate tones of Slipknot were pumelling us, we have Pantera. Now this is a band who have been around since the 80s, with a guitarist who was asked to join Megadeth but turned them down after the group refused to take on his brother Vinnie on drums, so there is some real pedigree there. My main concern was that I'd reached heavy metal fatigue, alongside the fact that I'd never thought much of Cowboys from Hell, the predecessor to this particular album. 

Pantera were founded in the early 80s, and were originally a Glam/Hair Metal outfit, an era not featured on their official discography. Following limited success over the mid 80s, the original vocalist Terrence Lee left the band, to be replaced by the significantly angrier Phil Anselmo. Following a couple of albums that had some success, it was Vulgar Display of Violence that helped the band take off, reaching number 44 on the US charts upon release, and leading to tours that included co-headlines with Iron Maiden. The cover image on the album shows a fan being punched in the face - apparently it took 30 takes, and he was paid $10 a go; even accounting for inflation, that doesn't sound great. 

Mouth for War is an extremely accessible opener once you've grow accustomed to the hoarse delivery of Anselmo. It is powerful and percussive, but follows a fairly traditional musical form. Walk is one of the best known tracks off the album, and it's anthemic chorus would clearly go down a treat at festivals after a bingey weekend, where everything seems to smell of stale hops. However, I actually found this track one of the weaker numbers, with its repetitive nature becoming slightly galling on repeated listens. Following this with Fucking Hostile makes for a fairly abrasive combination, and the technical fretwork aside, it's a little bit "speed metal by numbers" for my taste. This Love, on the other hand, goes big on light-heavy-light-heavy combo, and comes up trumps. Whilst Chloe may claim it sounds like some shit Bon Jovi track, she's wrong on many, many levels. The call and response chorus and the delicate verses echo some of Metallica's finest work, complete with waves of tight yet distorted guitar, and then a cutting solo near the end, complete with vocoder. Ok, so that is a bit Sambora, but since when was that a bad thing? Rise has a bit more variety than some of the other tracks, with a tempo that never seems to settle. Live in a Hole sounds like Alice in Chains, from the song title through to the guitar sound - it is easy to imagine Layne Staley's voice over the top of it. The best shoutalong chorus award goes to By Demons be Driven, as it is just utterly belting. Darrell's guitar on this song shows his flexibility, holding the rhythm section together on the chorus, whilst squealing and squawking left, right and centre in the bridge. Hollow is similar in style to Live in a Hole, with a more meandering approach to the delivery, and ends the album on a less brutal, more reflective note.

I enjoyed this album a lot more than I'd anticipated. It shows significant;y more variety than I'd been led to expect, and whilst I would almost need to be in a certain mood to fully enjoy it (angry), the combination of Dimebag's extraordinary fretwork combined with the control Anselmo shows in his voice does make it really rather compelling.

Chloe's album rating: 5
Chloe's favourite track: 7. Live in a Hole
Olly's album rating: 7
Olly's favourite track: 4. This Love

Next week we have our newest album yet 984. Two Dancers by Wild Beasts. Despite it being on most best album of the year lists from 2009, I'd never heard of it. Oops.