“This Love” by Pantera

"This Love" is where Pantera dim the lights on Vulgar Display of Power, the 1992 wrecking ball that became their best-selling album. It's a power ballad with its knuckles taped: it starts out almost pretty on a guitar riff, then keeps lurching into something far heavier, Dimebag Darrell, Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul hitting like a collapsing wall behind Phil Anselmo. By Vinnie Paul's account, Anselmo was writing about an old relationship he was plenty angry about, and every bellow sounds it.

Terry Date and Vinnie Paul produced and mixed it, and all four members share the songwriting. It has become one of Pantera's best-known songs, carried onto The Best of Pantera and cut live for Official Live: 101 Proof, and the critics' lists keep it high: fifth of 25 for Guitar World, seventh of ten for Loudwire, tenth of 50 for Metal Hammer.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.