Pantera's sophmore effort.
"Cowboy's" brought us a band with great potential.
As classic as that disc is, it is nothing compared to "Vulgar".
Cowboy's had a more power metal melodic flavor to it.
Vulgar drops all that in favor of a pure thrash assault.
A few songs still have the melody, (Hollow).
But for the most part it's just a vicious attack that succeeds brilliantly on every level.
No weak tracks here, nope.
Another must have?
You betcha!!!!!!
Go buy!!!

This defines power metal.
When it comes to sheer bone-crushing ear-shattering turn-your-brain-into-jello no holds barred savage power, THIS is it! At the same time, the music is precise, the band members play absolutely tight, the equipment setup is near perfect and the energy levels are through the roof.

This is my absolute favourite metal album of all time. Almost every song is a masterpiece of song writing, musical talent and raw unbridled power. Incidentally this is my best pick-me-up album when I'm feeling down.

To me, the only other Pantera songs at this level of awesomeness are Floods, domination, cowboys from hell, 5 minutes alone, and war nerve.

Sick of listening to the garbage churned out by metallica and the likes, I turn to "classics" like VDOP - it is simply perfect, brilliantly composed and executed.

Dimebag RIP :( Miss you.

Top 20 Metal Album Of all Time!!
This was the best of all Pantera's work, I love all the albums but this one hands down is the best. I would rate this album with Slayer's South of Heaven, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, Metallica's Master of Puppets, or Anthrax's Among the Living!! This is real metal raw and in your face, the way it should be!! There's a lot to love on this album Phil's piss & vinegar vocals, and Dimebags (R.I.P.) skull crushing guitar work. Mouth for War, Walk, and By Demons Be Driven will having your grinning in sinister delight!! Grab a copy of this album, and let your aggression flow!!

WALK!
This is pantera's masterpiece the best metal of the 90's.If you love metal trust me this is the one you should truly get every song punches your face away especially Walk!You could be into death/trash/metalcore/extreme metal or any kind of metal except nu metal screw that stuff,and you will love this if you call yourself metal listen to this!

Best Heavy Metal Album of it's Time
Vulgar Display of Power followed the album Cowboys From Hell. Cowboys is a great album. It's kind of an intro to what Pantera is all about which has to be respected. But to me, when Vulgar came out I was entering me Senior year of high school so I was 16/17 at the time and I remember buying this on cassette tape when it came out. It was a warm day and I rolled down my windows and popped in VDOP.

The first song with the double bass drums of Mouth for War pushed my rear speakers to the limit. I actually had to re-wind the beginning because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. No other metal tape pushed the limits of my speakers like that before. I wasn't even past the first sone and had to listen to it again.

I was so impressed by the album being a heavy Metallica/Megadeth/Danzing guy at the time, I had to drop this nuclear bomb on my friends. Well, it spread like a cancer and all my friends who heard it ran out and bought it as well.

The grunge scene cripped the metal scene greatly which sucks, so for me Vulgar Display of Power is the apex, yes the apex, of when HEAVY METAL reached it's greatest point. Other albums such as Metallica's Black Album (1 year earlier), Megadeth's Symphony of Destruction, and Danzing III: How the Gods Kills all came out around the time of Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power.

Black Sabbath, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies were all metal greats. Pantera helped carry metal to the top of the mountain with this album (VDOP). To me things haven't been the same since. Yea, we have bands like Korn, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Disturbed, System of a Down, Soulfly, etc...but it will be a long time before we see metal greats again. I heard talks were just starting over e-mail with Phil and Dimebag about patching things up and maybe playing again as Pantera after their bitter break-up. It's unfortunate some douche bag with a gun had to murder Dimebag. The guy obviously had issues and blamed dimebag for Panter'a break-up. If the guy had a clue they were in the starts of trying to work things out for a possible re-union. Now that will never happen. Seems every nut has a gun these days. Music like Pantera is about getting together at shows with people going through the same B.S. of life. We all have stress, issues, anger, etc. and music is suppose to be the release for that. Your not suppose to act it out in the form of violence.

Anyway, great album. I would rank Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath best metal album of the 70's, Metallica's Master of Puppets best metal album of the 80's, and Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power as the best metal album of the 90's. RESPECT - WALK - ARE YOU TALKING TO ME!!?