Degüello

Degüello was the band's sixth album and the first on Warner Bros. Ham produced, Manning recorded and mixed, and Bob Ludwig mastered. It went platinum and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard chart. The title is Spanish for slashing of the throat, and it was also the name of a bugle call used by the Mexican Army at the Alamo in 1836.

The band came back from its hiatus with new influences, and Gibbons' time in Europe introduced him to punk. Gibbons also saw a talk show that disguised a guest's voice with a pitch shifter and asked Manning to find out what the unit was. The effect was used on both vocals and guitars on songs such as Manic Mechanic. It was the first ZZ Top studio album with cover versions: I Thank You, written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter and first recorded by Sam and Dave, and Dust My Broom. The singles were I Thank You and Cheap Sunglasses. The Boston Globe said of the album that the shuffling guitar-bass-drums attack was as hard and funky as ever.