Vulgar Display Of Power by Pantera will turn 30 years old on February 25th. Last week, we kicked off our celebration of the record’s upcoming anniversary, premiering HD remastered music videos of popular songs from the album. Alongside these music videos, we also included exclusive footage of an interview we conducted with Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo; Phil provided behind-the-scenes context to each song, spoke to what touring and fans were like back in 1992, and what the late Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell would have wanted for the band. The music videos we premiered are, “This Love,” “Mouth For War,” and “Walk.” We also had special guest contributors like Arejay Hale of Halestorm and Stephen Carpenter of the Deftones share what Pantera means to them.
With Vulgar Display Of Power’s anniversary just a couple days away now, Revolver has uploaded a video interview involving Phil Anselmo and Pantera bassist Rex Brown. The interview was conducted by Jimmy Hubbard.
As transcribed by Blabbermouth, speaking to Vulgar Display Of Power’s legacy three decades later, Phil said, “Correct if I’m wrong — is ‘Vulgar Display Of Power’ the one record that we play the most of it live, out of all the other records, the most material. I mean, does that not say it all? It’s not our choice, really — it’s what we get from the crowd; it’s what they wanna hear; it’s their choice what songs we play, really. Don’t get me wrong, Pantera plays and there’s a contingency of people out there that wanna hear something that we had never really played; of course people are gonna do that. But for us, we can’t leave off the big songs; we can’t. You can’t go see Pantera and not have us play ‘Walk’ or ‘Fucking Hostile’ or one of them songs — ‘Cowboys From Hell’, any of that shit. So the fact that ‘Vulgar Display’ holds the most of those songs, man… And I’m sitting here thinking about how Vince [late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott] and Dime [late Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott] would feel about this legacy, and, of course, they would be ecstatic; they would be over the moon.”
Rex then said, “It was our staple; it was our stamp. In hindsight, that record changed a lot of ballgame for us. And we were just making a record — but our way. Finally — our way. The way that we wanted to do it. And the tightness that came with that and the confidence that we had struggled before it, when we finished it, that was dividends in itself.”
To which Phil agreed with, saying, “It felt like an accomplishment, getting the damn thing done. You mentioned before, did we know it was gonna be huge, and we both answered no. You don’t know what a record’s really gonna do or who’s gonna like what, but the fact that it has touched people like yourself, Jimmy, and so many people. A lot of the fans that I meet, and I’m sure it’s the same for Rex, that’s probably one of the first things they say: ‘Oh, man, ‘Vulgar Display’.’ Most of ’em. That says it all.”
You can check out the video interview below.
What does Vulgar Display Of Power represent to you? Where does the album land in your ranking of Pantera records?
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Words by: Michael Pementel
