Heroes:
Pantera was formed in 1981 with Dimebag's brother Vinnie Paul on drums. Pantera went on to become one of the most influential and popular heavy metal bands of the 1990s. The band officially split in 2003 due to conflicts between members. Phil Anselmo, in the throes of a heroin addiction, started lashing out at other members. Brothers Vinnie and Dimebag officially broke up the band and went on to form Damageplan.[edit] Other projects
Shortly before singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, Darrell was invited to join the pre-Rust in Peace Megadeth by Dave Mustaine. According to both Darrell and Mustaine's telling, Darrell was willing to join, but insisted on Mustaine also hiring his brother Vinnie. When Mustaine found out that Vinnie was a drummer and replied that he had already hired Nick Menza, Darrell turned down his offer and stayed with Pantera.On and off between 1996 and the formation of Damageplan, the Abbott brothers and Pantera Bassist Rex Brown teamed up with country singer David Allan Coe for a project called Rebel Meets Rebel. Vinnie's favorite recorded Dime solo is on this album, part of the track "Get Out Of My Life". The album was released May 2, 2006 on Vinnie's "Big Vin Records" label.Dimebag played guest guitar solos on several Anthrax songs from their John Bush era: "King Size" & "Riding Shotgun" from Stomp 442, "Inside Out" & "Born Again Idiot" from Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box" (with a voice intro from Dime as well) from We've Come for You All. In a recent interview Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said "Darrell was basically the sixth member of Anthrax". A sample of a Dime guitar solo has been put in the Nickelback song "Side of a Bullet".Shortly before Dime's death, he went into the studio with a band named Premenishen to do a guest solo on a track titled "Eyes of the South" [which coincidentally is the title of one of the songs featured on the debut album by Anselmo's project Down]. The band consists of two of Dime's cousins (bassist Heather Manly and guitarist April Adkisson).There was speculation that Dimebag and close friend Zakk Wylde would collaborate with Eddie Van Halen; however, nothing was confirmed. He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy.[1]Dimebag's musical roots were in Country Western music; he supported the local music scene in Mexico and would sometimes record with local musicians. On December 2, 2006 a very rare track of one of his collaborations was discovered. Dimebag sat in on a recording session with local Mexican musician "Throbbin Donnie" Rodd and recorded "Country Western Transvestite Whore". It features Dime on lead guitar and lead vocals.Dimebag and his Brother Vinnie-Paul along with Rex (during the Pantera Era) and Bobzilla (Damageplan Era) performed at their newyears party every year under the name "Gasoline". Dime, Vinnie and Rex also recorded a cover of the ZZTop song "Heard it on the X" under the band name "Tres Diablos" for ECW wrestling's "Extreme Music" soundtrack.[edit] Press[edit] Magazine appearances
Dimebag frequently appeared in guitar magazines, both in advertisements for equipment he endorsed and in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal guitarist spots. In addition, Dimebag wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness (ISBN 0-7692-9101-5). Total Guitar frequently featured him and wrote about him in the months leading up to his death. One year after his death, they also made a tribute issue.[edit] Equipment
In his early career as a musician, Dimebag used Dean ML guitars and Bill Lawrence L500XL pickups, which he would install in a reversed position to have the "hot" blade facing the neck. His main guitars were the Dean from Hell (an ml guitar customiser by Buddy Blaze, painted with a unique lightning bolt design and 'Floyd rosed' and a Braziliaburst ML. He used Dean guitars from 1983 - 1995. When Dean guitars went out of business he switched to Washburn. Dimebag used Washburn guitars from 1996 – 2004 endorsing various signature models such as the Dimebolt and the Stealth. His main guitars at this point where the dime 333, the stealth, and the culprit (a unique model designed by washburn which varied greatly from the ml's). Seymour Duncan manufactures a signature pickup co-designed by Dime, called the Dimebucker. Dimebag proudly endorsed Seymour Duncan, but continued to use Bill Lawrence pickups in most of his personal guitars. Several months before his death, Darrell ended his long relationship with Washburn guitars, and again became a Dean endorsee, coinciding with Dean Guitar founder Dean Zelinksy's return. Dean guitars built him a brand new signature guitar, called the Dime O' Flame, which he began using live. As a tribute to him, in 2005 Dean Guitars released the new Dime Tribute line of ML guitars. These guitars come in various models, ranging from lower end ones that have a stop tail piece, a bolt-on neck, Basswood Body, and lower quality pickups, to higher end models with Dimebuckers, a Floyd Rose bridge, and set neck construction. In his last few weeks with Dean Guitars, Dime help design a guitar he called the Razorback. After his death, Dean continued with the Razorback project and dedicated them to the memory of him. During the height of Dimebag's fame, he also worked together with MXR and Dunlop to produce the MXR Dime Distortion and the Dimebag "Crybaby from Hell" Wah respectively.Dimebag's main rig included:Randall RH100 heads and cabinets (1983 - 1991, 1996 - 1999)
Randall Century 200 heads and cabinets (1992 - 1995, 2000)
Randall Warhead heads and cabinets (2000 - 2004)
Randall X2 Warhead heads and cabinets (2004)
Krank Revolution heads and cabinets (late 2004)
Furman PQ4 parametric equalizer (1990 - 1995)
Furman PQ3 parametric equalizer (1996 - 2004)
MXR Six band graphic equalizer ('the blue one')
MXR flanger / doubler (1990 - 2004)
MXR DIME Distortion (2004)
Lexicon effect modules
Korg tuner
Rocktron Guitar silencer
Digitech Whammy pedal
Jim Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Crybaby From HELLWhen Dime left Washburn a few weeks before his death, he also left Randall Amps. Dimebag had always swore by his solid-state Randall's through the years, but in late 2004 he switched to Krank amplifiers, which where purely tube driven. He planned to redefine his very own sound by developing the "Krankenstein". He used the MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive with the Krank amps.[edit] Musicianship
He took only one guitar lesson and then focused on self-prescribed teaching through a mix of watching and talking to the local country acts recording at his father's studio and playing along with his favorite artists' albums.At a very young age Darrell won a series of local guitar competitions where he won his first Dean ML guitar and his first Randall Amplifier, the 2 staples of his style and sound. By the end of the winning streak he was barred from competing ever again, but was asked to return as a judge.[edit] Influences
Among Dimebag's influences were Kiss, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Rusty Burns, Jimi Hendrix and Pat Travers. Dimebag once said in an interview that if there was no Ace Frehley, there would have been no Dimebag Darrell - he even had a tattoo of the Kiss guitarist on his chest. Ace signed the tattoo in pen ink upon meeting him, at Dimebag's request, and then the autograph was painstakingly tattooed over soon after, so as never to be washed off. In addition, he cited many of his contemporaries among his influences, including Slayer's Kerry King, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, Metallica's James Hetfield, Prong's Tommy Victor and Helmet's Page Hamilton. He also credits Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups. According to an interview with Dino Cazares then of Fear Factory Dime told him that during the recording of Reinventing the Steel he A/B'd his guitar tone with Dino's (incidentally during the making of Fear Factory's Demanufacture Cazares A/B'd his guitar tone against that of Vulgar Display of Power).Dime has stated, in various interviews, that his riffs were largely influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Indeed, Tony's influence can be heard in many Pantera songs, Dime often emulating his sliding, slurring, style, his odd timing, his dissonant, eerie single note riffs, his open string chugging, his use of the wah pedal on rhythm parts, his penchant for odd changes and adding funky embellishments and his frequent use of sludgy, mammoth walls of distortion. Tony's influence can occasionally be heard in Dime's soloing as well, with his fast, manic pentatonic licks. Tony also influenced Dime's tunings, which often went down to C# or lower. Pantera covered Planet Caravan, Paranoid, Hole In the Sky and Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath.He has also cited thrash giants Anthrax, Metallica and, despite a sometimes vicious feud, Megadeth as primary influences. He was also a great fan of Slayer and a good friend of Kerry King. Dime mentioned in an interview with Guitar World that the clean chord passages in the intro to Cemetery Gates were influenced by the clean chord passages found in much Ty Tabor's, of King's X, material. Dime cited Alice in Chains as his favorite grunge band, and Pantera frequently toured with them. The first song Dimebag learned was said to be "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Fistful of Metal-era Anthrax can clearly be heard in Dimebag's guitar playing. The frantic, out of control feel of both Anthrax's leads and rhythms are common place in Dimebag's playing. Dimebag has stated on multiple occasions that ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' bluesy, soulful playing style has, if subtly, had an influence over him.Indeed Dime frequently made use of pentatonic scales and slide guitar in both his leads and rhythms. Another playing characteristic Dimebag shares with Rev. Gibbons is stomping, aggressive, and yet still grooving rhythms. Both guitarist employ blues scales, start / stop dynamics and pedal tones. A good example of each style would be Dime's southern style riff in "The Great Southern Trendkill", and the stomping main riff to ZZ Top's "Tush". Randy Rhoads' eerie, clean, dissonant chord arpeggios can be heard in much of Dime's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep", and "This Love". It is also possible that Dimebag developed his love for the wah pedal, which can be heard on nearly all his leads on Vulgar Display of Power, through listening to Metallica's Kirk Hammett, whom he has in fact cited as an influence.Although most of Dimebag's influences were from music, he had other influences too, especially if they were people he trusted the most. Contrary to popular belief, Darrell did not always like being called "Dimebag". He felt that marijuana was wrongfully placed with narcotics made through a chemical synthesis (example: cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine), because of marijuana's derivations to organic life. Since he could not change this political fallacy himself, he just wanted his most trusted influences to simply call him "Darrell".[citation needed][edit] Murder
Black ribbon sticker that appeared on vehicles in honor of Dimebag Darrell.On December 8, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot a total of five times, at point blank range in the back of the head. He was 38 years old.Three others were killed in the shooting: concert attendee Nathan Bray, 23 of Columbus; club employee Erin Halk, 29 of northwest Columbus and Damageplan security guard Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, 40 of Texas. The band's drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were also injured.According to police, Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, taking the time to reload once, remaining silent throughout the shooting. When security staff and audience members climbed the stage to try to stop him, Gale fired at them, killing Thompson and Halk, who had attempted to stop the gunman with a wooden table, and wounding Paluska. Gale then took Brooks hostage, holding him in a headlock position after the technician attempted to wrestle him to the ground. Police then arrived on the scene. 5 officers came in the front entrance lead by officer Rick Crum, and moved toward the stage. Officer James D. Niggemeyer came in through a back door. Gale only saw the officers coming from the front: he never saw officer Niggemeyer. When the hostage moved slightly, officer Niggemeyer shot Gale in the face with a police issued 12 gauge shotgun. Gale was found to have 35 rounds of ammunition remaining.During the rampage, nurse and audience member Mindy Reece, 28 went to the aid of Abbott. She and another fan administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Dimebag Darrell was buried at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.Some months before his murder, Darrell had found out from one of his industry contacts that Eddie Van Halen and Charvel guitars were going to produce a limited-edition series of guitars bearing Van Halen's trademark tape-striping. Van Halen himself would be individually taping each guitar and they would also come with a picture of him doing so and a certificate of authenticity. According to Eddie, Darrell called him on the phone and asked if he could purchase one before they became available. Eddie replied that the next time he saw Darrell, he would have one of the guitars with him and would stripe it in Darrell's presence as a gift. Before they could meet again, Darrell was murdered. Eddie recounted this story when he spoke at Darrell's funeral, then to the surprise of those in attendance, he brought out the black and yellow tape-striped guitar seen on the back cover of Van Halen II (which Darrell had said was his favorite guitar of Eddie's) and laid it in Darrell's casket to be buried with him. Darrell was buried in a Kiss coffin.The shootings had occurred on the 24th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon (who himself was murdered by a crazed fan), but there is no indication that this was a factor in Gale's actions.In May 2005, Officer Niggemeyer testified before the Franklin County grand jury, which is routine procedure in Franklin County after a police shooting. The grand jury did not indict Niggemeyer.Niggemeyer received a commendation from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission for his outstanding police work in time of crisis, as well as The National Rifle Association award as 2005 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The five other officers that were first on the scene received Ohio distinguished law enforcement medals for their brave work.Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have acted based on the Pantera breakup, or a public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these have now been ruled out by investigators. Another theory is that Gale believed that Abbott had stolen a song that Gale had written.[2]Abbott's family has now decided to sue the night club where he was murdered. They claim that if the club had employed competent security guards, this death would have never occurred. The club owner states that his security guards are not trained nor were ever intended to thwart gun-wielding guests. The news of this lawsuit comes within days of the anniversary of Abbott's murder.[
Somewhere between where life's uncertainty and nature's fury collide, Dark Ages resides. Singer/guitarist Max Cavalera, conductor of the innovative metal mavens Soulfly and co-founder of the renowned band Sepultura, returns with Soulfly's heaviest, most flammable work to date. Dark Ages marries the band's aggressive driving force with disarming experimentation - Soulfly hallmarks that are as unpredictable as they are brave. Armed with the same core band as found on last year's Prophecy (guitarist Mark Rizzo, drummer Joe Nunez, bassists Bobby Burns and Dave Ellefson), Cavalera also continues the tradition of adding guests into the mix and blowing sonic boundaries out of existence.The explosive raw quality of Dark Ages is palpable. While making the record, Cavalera lost his grandson Moses and also experienced the tragedy of longtime friend, Dimebag Darrell's death. "I think one of the reasons it's called Dark Ages is it's also somehow personal dark ages...at the end of December [2004] when we were making the record, with losing Moses and Dimebag, it was a very dark month - it was a dark way to end the year," says Cavalera. It's evident on the album. It's confrontational. It surprises. There's a battle brewing: with the chaos of loss, anger, and hate - like a dam about to break, jarringly juxtaposed against some unexpected spiritual moments. Heaviness meets nature - in all its beauty and brutality. It's precisely that uneasiness - walking that fine line – which Cavalera wanted to capture. "Nature on one hand is beautiful, peaceful on the other hand it's lethal and ruthless as we see in tsunamis and things like that . . . Soulfly records are a bit like that: one side of it is very peaceful, very positive, very spiritual. And the other side is very apocalyptic, dark, even self destructive...I embrace the extremes."As with 3 and Prophecy, Cavalera served as producer of Dark Ages. And it was mixed by Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera, White Zombie). Traveling to five countries - Serbia, Turkey, Russia, France, and the U.S. (though not intentional, it's symbolic as this is Soulfly's fifth effort), Cavalera recorded native artists as well as employed some unusual recording techniques. Turkey was chosen because "Constantinople was the center of Christianity one thousand years ago and I found it to be really exotic," he says. "I wanted to add some flavor of that part of the world on an album called Dark Ages." It was in that historical country, inside the ancient temple Haggia Sophia, that the disconcerting, tinny metal echoes serving as the outro to the speedball-infused "Bleak" was recorded. "It's actually people working, they're banging metal on metal."Cavalera's quest to add fresh vibes to his love of metal continues throughout Dark Ages. Though Cavalera stretches the boundaries and adds many world flavors, the results are always subtle, giving each song a sound that is distinctly Soulfly. Cavalera wouldn’t have it any other way. "It's unorthodox metal...I've been metal my whole life from when I started Sepultura, but it's a different kind of metal. I'm actually trying to create something new and trying to be a kind of scientist, like a metal scientist - fuse these things that normally would not fuse and see what happens when you combine them together. I love fast music, aggressive. I love metal, hardcore, and I love to combine them with other things. That's really my passion, making metal different somehow."The cultural spice is accentuated by his decision to travel the world to capture the sounds within their own natural environments. While in Russia, the frantic "Molotov" begins with Russian lyrics. "In Russian it means 'Fuck the war, let's think about what's important'... It comes from the liberation of Russia after communism." S.O.D.'s Billy Milano makes a guest appearance as well on the song. Cavalera called Milano and said, "Do you mind singing over the phone and I just record it? . . . Even the distortion coming from his voice is actually from the phone."Amid the darkness, there are also lyrics that inspire. A song entitled "Inner Spirit" is followed by "Corrosion Creeps." "Fuel The Hate" is flanked by "Stay Strong." There's conflict, a pulling between the spiritual and the turmoil. It challenges comfort levels, yet it can also be uplifting. Take the rhythmic rolling into full roar of "Inner Spirit," which blends the melodic vocal of Serbian artist Coyote, who also peppers the song with trombone into Cavalera’s screams. Likewise, hope comes in the form of "Stay Strong," which features meandering melodies within the urgent speed. "My son Richie sings on 'Stay Strong.' I'm really proud of him 'cause he sings his own lyrics and he's really singing his heart out for Moses and for his brother Dana."A gifted maverick at charting new explorations, Cavelera gives a nod toward some musical influences he also enjoys in the industrial realm occupied by bands like Prodigy and his side project Nailbomb. With the explosive "Riotstarter" he brings all the cultural elements together with Brazilian, Middle-Eastern, and industrial rhythms making one intoxicating brew.As is tradition for Soulfly, the album is bookended by a song that shares the name of the album along with a closing eponymous epic entitled "Soulfly V." In France, Brazilian French musician Stephan helps close the record with the peaceful and evocative "Soulfly V." Cavalera added the real sounds of rain and thunder to flavor the song. After all the ferociousness that makes up Dark Ages, it culminates in a sprawling, almost peaceful end. It's appropriate, Cavalera says. "[After] going through the bad and the good and the rough, but in the end into this spiritual cleansing...it's kind of like the calm after the storm."Soulfly provokes. It's metal for the daring. Dark Ages assaults as much as it does redeem. As Cavalera contends when he approaches Soulfly songs and albums, "I think more about a landscape of a movie" - always creating a sonic journey. Never safe and always engaging, Soulfly delivers another compelling album. Dark Ages is fierce and unrelenting, heavy and foreboding. Yet within the darkest depths, beauty exists.
