"Fucking Hostile" is a song by the American heavy metal band Pantera. It was released in 1992 on their album Vulgar Display of Power, and is considered by many to be among the band's best songs. It was also a live favourite for the band.

Background

"Fucking Hostile" is a protest song that criticizes those who abuse their authority and power, such as political figures, religious leaders and parents. The song's distorted vocals were inspired by Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole".

Reception

Loudwire ranked "Fucking Hostile" the third best Pantera song, due to that it "operates off a punk-rock battery and is one of the band's fastest". Dom Lawson of Metal Hammer ranked "Fucking Hostile" number 8 on his list of the 50 best Pantera songs. He wrote that it "was so much more extreme than anything else mainstream metal had to offer in 1992 that it took your breath away. Today, it still makes us want to run through a brick wall." Malcolm Dome, also of Metal Hammer, considered it to be among the 10 best Pantera songs of all time. Billboard included the song on their list "10 of Vinnie Paul's Hardest-Rocking Songs, From Pantera's Picks to Hellyeah's Hits". They wrote that the song proved that Paul "was just as great as a straight-ahead thrash drummer, and it's one of the reasons this is one of Pantera's best-known songs." Metal Hammer included the song on their list "The top 10 best 1990s thrash songs" and stated its "OTT energy" and "attitude" is "total manic thrash to the max."

Covers

The American rock band New Years Day covered "Fucking Hostile" in 2018 on their EP Diary of a Creep. In 2019 the band performed an acoustic cover of the song. Slayer and Phil Anselmo would perform a cover of the song live in Athens, Greece on July 2, 2013, after the band invited him on stage in celebration of his 45th birthday.

Personnel