The book "A Vulgar Display of Power" chronicles not just the life of Darrell, but also the lives of the other three victims and the shooter at the Alrosa Villa bar in Ohio.
It's still hard to imagine the scene of seeing ex-Marine (and very much mentally ill) Nathan Gale striding on stage and pointing a gun in Abbott's chest and pulling the trigger, let alone the carnage that followed. Columbus Police Office James Niggemeyer's prompt response onto the scene (less than 2 minutes after the first 911 cell phone call) and action once on the scene saved more than a few others that night.
But music lost a giant that night. You may not have heard of Panetra, but to millions of metalheads in the very early 1990s, they were one of the few bands speaking for them. Metallica had sold out with "Enter Sandman" and "The Black Album," and hair metal had killed off any attention real metal should have gotten. Grunge was just getting started in a big way in Seattle, and suddenly flannel and Kurt Cobain were everywhere.
But in 1994, just as everyone was writing off metal, Pantera unleashed "Far Beyond Driven." Suddenly, the little band from Texas that no one thought anyone else knew had the hardest metal CD to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
Personally, "Vulgar Display of Power" remains my favorite. And Darrell's post-Pantera project, Damageplan, still makes its way onto my iPod from time to time. But an argument can be made that "Far Beyond Driven" was the CD that saved metal in the mid-1990s.
So, have a Black Tooth Grin at a bar near you, lean over to the guy in a denim jacket next to ya, and raise a toast to Dimebag Darrell. Getcha Pull!
/Hey, I made it through this whole post without mentioning what a tool singer Phil Anselmo is! Oh, wait...
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