Mouth for War

"Mouth for War" was composed in the key of G major.[1]

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". According to Anselmo, the song was written about the then middleweight champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney [2]

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."

"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.

Metal Hammer ranked the song #7 on their list of the 50 best Pantera songs.[3]

Odyssey considered "Mouth for War" to be the best Pantera song. They rated it 5/5, and wrote that it was a metal classic and had an iconic solo.[4]

"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.