Interview: Vinnie Paul, Pantera

VULGAR HOSTILITIES

About a year or so ago, I came across an album by some band called PANTERA whilst working for a radio station here in London. It was sitting with a pile of other records that were due to be binned. The title of the album was Cowboys From Hell and my first reaction to it was "Yeeeah!" Now, it's not actually my field of music - more Marion Garden's - but I'm pretty open-minded, more so since my lobotomy. Shortly after acquiring Cowboys... I was lucky enough to catch Pantera at their only London date at the Marquee. FUCK, what a show. Vocalist Phil Anselmo's sense of humour and the band's sheer power mixed perfectly with the antics of a feverish audience cracking their heads together at the front of the stage.

Now the time has come for the release of Pantera's second major release, A Vulgar Display of Power, power being the operative word. (It's their 6th release in total - four came out on the independent label Metal Magic, created by the band some years ago in order to give themselves a product). It's as hard as a bastard and vulgar as they come, but on that note, a melodic side creates a greased rail for it to glide along with ease, leave in an access all areas feel to it. [Yes, if you hadn't guessed it from that comment, Peter Grant, while he lived, was gay ~ Ed]

During the recent tour in support of SKID ROW, drummer and co-producer Vinnie Paul took some time out to talk about what Pantera had been up to, and what they have planned for the coming months. Touring with the SKIDs a bit of a weird bill for you, isn't it?

"Yeah," he agrees with a thoughtful tone. "It's kind of weird, but it's kinda the same difference as maybe OZZY and METALLICA or QUEENSRYCHE and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. The crowds have been great, man. We've been having a real good time playing to them."

But onto the coming album A Vulgar Display of Power. The man who's been brought in to produce it is the same Terry Date, who was responsible for Cowboys..., only this time things are much heavier than the previous album.

"That was the mode we were in, y'know," says Vinnie. "We wanted to make sure that with the album being titled A Vulgar Display of Power, it really meant a vulgar display of power. So we had to make sure that came across in the sound and in the songs."

Even though the songs are really heavy you always seem to catch this melodic side.

"Right, it's something that has always been an element, and it's been an important element, because, no matter how good the band is musician-wise, singer-wise, or whatever, they have to have songs, and the songs people remember have melody to them, and it doesn't matter how heavy they are, how fast, how slow, as long as it's got some kind of melody to it. Y'know, people can remember that stuff. That's an important element in Pantera."

Vinnie considers the Metal Magic years to be the band's training ground.

"We always wanted to aspire onto a major and move on and do things the way that we always wanted to. Those independents were a chance for us to learn our direction and develop the music. We always thought that demo tapes were just... demo tapes we wanted to fucking do records, so that's what we did.

Vulgar Display... was eight weeks in the making (it would have been six but they decided to take a week off to go to Moscow to open the "Monsters of Rock Festival" over there). Vinnie's actually a sound engineer in his own right, so that's how the production partnership between him and Terry came about.

"Originally, I wanted to do the record, but the label, they were a kind of shaky about that. They just wanted to make sure it was done right so we said 'Fuck, let's bring Terry in,' because Terry knows the band inside out. Basically, we worked together on the drum sound until we were happy with it, and we worked together on the guitar sound. We knew what we were looking for on that. And then he would, like, record while I played the drums, then I'd come in and record the rest of the band; Phil's vocals, (Dimebag) Darrel's guitars, and Rex (Rocker)'s rocker base. At this point, Terry would have a seat and just produce and listen. Whenever something sounded like it wasn't happening, he'd raise his hand and say do that again."

There's a particular point that I wanted to bring up, and that was the distinct lack of double tracking with the guitars on some tracks. Did you find it important to create only what could translate successfully to the stage?

"Well, that's one part of it, and the other part is we wanted it to be raw. We wanted it to be like it's live. We wanted, y'know, the old VAN HALEN albums. Their first four records, they had that fucking raw live energy to them and there weren't any overdubs and stuff, and with this record that's what we wanted to go for. We just wanted it... eh, it's going to be heavy, it's going to be like us, fucking not doll it up, but just leave it alone and let's rock."

All the recording and mixing for Vulgar... took place in Pantera's home state of Texas, as opposed to the former release, when they recorded in Texas but went to another studio called the Carriage House in Connecticut, which has a much more advanced mixing facility. But they didn't feel comfortable in that room while they were mixing because they were unfamiliar with it. So, this time, they had more going for them, as in surroundings and time. And Vinnie feels that it's all added up to a better mix.

Pinpointing certain tracks to talk about on the album can become cliched, but one track in particular couldn't fail to catch your attention, it's called "Fucking Hostile," a good, no shit, overt warning that I'm sure I will create a reaction in some quarters but Vinnie makes the point that... 

"If it takes bad words to express a feeling at that point in time, that's what it takes."

Vinny is also proud of his hometown of Texas.

"It's a great scene, it's a great place. It's not, y' know, Hillbillies and oil wells, like everybody thinks. It's a very modern place and it's a good place to play. There's a lot of great bands come out of Texas, KING'S X, ERIC JOHNSON, ZZ TOP, there's been some killer bands come out of there, and we're totally different. One thing I can say about Texas is that every band that manages to get signed out of Texas is totally different from the last one that got signed. Whereas, maybe, the Seattle Sound, or New York, or whatever, the bands tend to follow a trend once one of them gets signed."

Well, from Texas to England. Pantera look set for a tour around April time, so if you haven't seen them before, the chance will soon be on you, and, believe me, they are worth seeing, and a vulgar display of power is going to take some beating!

Peter Grant
Riff Raff
April 1992

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