It was today, December 8th, five years ago that one of the greatest ever metal guitarists, former Pantera axe man, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was killed by a deranged fan while onstage gigging in Ohio with Damageplan. He was 38. “He was next in line after Eddie Van Halen,” says Scott Ian, Anthrax guitarist. Korn frontman, Jonathan Davies, claims “He was one of the last three great traditional metal guitarists.” To quote here just two tributes from fellow artists, sums up the legend that Dimebag leaves behind.
While fans across the world mourn the loss of such a legend, Stereoboard.com takes a brief look at the music-worshipping, beer-chugging master, whose percussive riffs and bluesy, adventurous solos carried the flag for classic metal into the Nineties.
Born on August 20th 1966 in Dallas, Dimebag spent the majority of his teens covering Iron Maiden and Van Halen classics with his brother, drummer, Vinnie Paul. The two went on to form Pantera originally as a glam-metal band in 1983 after being pushed by their father Jerry Abbott, who was a country songwriter, to make some original music.
But Pantera’s signature thrash metal assault didn’t arrive then. With the addition of growly vocals from singer Phil Anselmo and the gelling of Dimebag’s fluid dynamics of Van Halen’s technique with Pantera’s hard power-groove thrash. Only then, the definitive Pantera sound emerged. The result? One of the nineties’ most uncompromising and successful metal acts.
Known for being an expressive guitarist, Darrell Abbot had a personality as colourful as his dyed goatee. With his own vocabulary, “Dimebonics”, he communicated with “dude” and “bro” even when writing his instructional column for Guitar World magazine. Black Label Society and friend Zack Wylde recalls, “Dime would always make fun of everything”. But under the surface of the jokes and humour Abbott was evangelical about the music he loved. In 2000 Dimebag said, “It’s our fucking religion. It’s what drives me from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep.”
The tragedy occurred when obsessed fan, Nathan Gale, 25, jumped a six-foot high fence and rushed into the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, where Dimebag and band Damageplan were playing to a 250 person crowd. Gale, a stocky 6’3” former marine, who shot at the band killing Dimebag and three other people was said to have been obsessed with heavy metal and reportedly upset that Pantera had broken up, blaming Abbott for the bands split.
Other victims of Gale’s actions were 23-year-old fan Nathan Bray, Damageplan roadie Jeff “Mayhem” Thompson, 40 and club worker Erin A. Halk, 29. The deaths came of the twenty-fourth anniversary of the shooting of John Lennon who was also shot and killed on 8th December, but in 1980.
With the ongoing tributes, debates and cash-ins still going strong the innovation and skill that was packed into Dimebag is still unparalleled by anyone or anything else in music. Ever heard the words, “…they’re like the new Pantera…”? Didn’t think so.
RIP Dimebag Darrell Abbott.
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While fans across the world mourn the loss of such a legend, Stereoboard.com takes a brief look at the music-worshipping, beer-chugging master, whose percussive riffs and bluesy, adventurous solos carried the flag for classic metal into the Nineties.
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