They became a "jock metal band" in my opinion and that just ruined it for me.
This is probably why I didn't grow with the band beyond Vulgar Display of Power. The first two albums were these bad-ass, strutting tough guy metal albums and I loved them for that, but for the same reason those albums are so good, they attracted this meathead dickweed crowd that used the ferocity of the music as an excuse to beat up on people smaller than themselves at the shows.
The kind of people I saw decked out in everything Pantera were not the sort of people I wanted to associate with. It reminded me of that pep really in high school when the football team rushed out into the gym and "moshed" while Enter Sandman played. I knew it was all over at that point.
Snobby sentiments aside, though, Vulgar is one of the landmark metal albums of the 90's. That period was particularly tough on metal since 90% of hard music bands stopped what they were doing to ape the Seattle sound and hopefully reap the duckets. It was rare when a metal band actually sounded like a metal band. It's so raw and loud and empowering. There are tons of really positive you-can-do-it kinds of lyrics on it. I love it. I remember being mocked by my punk friends for buying it and playing it in the car on the way to an Agnostic Front show. f**king Hostile came on and everyone shut up. After it was over, one guy in the back said quietly, "That was heavy."
That about sums it up.
