Recorded 1991 Label Atco Records | Length 3:56 | |
Released February 25, 1992 (album)
1992 (single) Genre Groove metal, thrash metal Writer(s) Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul, Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown | ||
"Mouth for War" is a song by American heavy metal band Pantera. It was first released on the band's sixth album Vulgar Display of Power and was the first single off that album. It was later released on the band's compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!
Contents
The song was released as downloadable content for the music video games Rock Revolution, and for Rock Band 3 alongside "Walk", "I'm Broken" and "5 Minutes Alone".
Also, a Midi Version of this song can be listen in Doom (1993 Video Game), Episode "Inferno", first map.
Lyrics
Phil Anselmo stated in a 1992 interview on Much More Music, that "Mouth for War" is about channeling your hate into something productive. This is evident in the lyrics "When I channel my hate to productive/I don't find it hard to impress".
Video
The video shows the band playing the song to an audience. The majority of the video is shot in black and white, and a screenshot of the video was used as the cover for "Walk". It was directed by Paul Rachman who also directed all the videos from the band's first album "Cowboys From Hell" and the feature documentary film "American Hardcore."
Release and reception
"Mouth for War" was the band's first single from their Vulgar Display of Power album. The song is one of Pantera's most popular songs and experienced moderate commercial success, becoming the band's first song to ever chart, reaching number 73 on the UK Singles Chart. It was used as the theme song for MTV's Headbanger's Ball.
Covers
"Mouth for War" has been covered by the Italian melodic death metal band Disarmonia Mundi on their third album titled Mind Tricks. Another cover version by Biohazard appears in the Metal Hammer Tribute to Dimebag Darrell album. An instrumental, all-cello version was also recorded by The Portland Cello Project on the Kill Rock Stars label. Avenged Sevenfold covered the song live in 2011 featuring Vinnie Paul on drums.