"This Love"
Single by Pantera
from the album Vulgar Display of Power
Released	1992
Recorded	1991
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	6:32
Label	Atco
Songwriter(s)	Dimebag Darrell Vinnie Paul Phil Anselmo Rex Brown
Producer(s)	Terry Date
Pantera singles chronology
"Mouth for War" (1992) "This Love" (1992) "Hollow" (1992)

"This Love" is a power ballad by American heavy metal band Pantera. It was first released on the band's best-selling album, Vulgar Display of Power, and later on the band's compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits! A live version was also included on Official Live: 101 Proof.

Composition and lyrics

The song begins with a progressive chorus guitar riff played, and the song soon becomes heavier occasionally. Drummer Vinnie Paul has said that this song was about a relationship vocalist Phil Anselmo had been in previously. "This Love was pretty much the story of a relationship he had been in, and he was really mad about it!".

Reception

"This Love" is one of the band's most well-known songs.

Metal Hammer ranked the song number 10 on their list of the 50 best Pantera songs, writing that it "starts in pretty, elegant mode before erupting into a mad-eyed bar brawl of a chorus."^[1]

Loudwire ranked "This Love" number seven on their list of the 10 best Pantera songs.^[2]

Guitar World ranked the song number five on their ranking of the 25 best Pantera songs.^[3]

Music video

The music video for "This Love" was directed by Kevin Kerslake and shows the band playing on a rooftop in Los Angeles while smoke drifts over them. The chorus shows the band inside, playing on a stage, cutting between this and the rooftop. Phil Anselmo can be seen wearing a Down T-shirt. In a subplot, prostitution is shown with several prostitutes are doing random activities (such as seducing a man and another taking off a wig). This culminates when a particular prostitute gets into a cab which is occupied by another man, who tries to rape her. From the last moments of the video, it appears that she kills him, because she is seen dragging him from the cab and leaving him by the roadside.

Track listing

Appearances in media

• The 1994 computer game Doom II: Hell on Earth rearranges a portion of this song, used on Maps 18 and 27.^[4]
• The music video for this song appeared on MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head and is available on The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 1.
• In 1994, comedy punk band the Radioactive Chicken Heads (then known as Joe and the Chicken Heads) recorded a parody cover called "This Lunch".
• The song was released as downloadable content for Rock Revolution and Rocksmith 2014.

Personnel

• Phil Anselmo – vocals
• Dimebag Darrell – guitars
• Rex Brown – bass
• Vinnie Paul – drums

References