On August 20th, 1966, a fire was ignited in Dallas, Texas, USA – a fire
that would capture the hearts, minds, muscles and neck joints of millions of music
fans around the world in the coming years. And on the 8th of December, 2004, the
main flame that started a worldwide bonfire among its fans, was brutally extinguished
from the circle of the material world. This flame was of course Dimebag Darrell,
the guitarist of Pantera/Damageplan and rock star/liqueur-afficionado/fan-lover
extraordinaire.
I will not go through any of the unfortunate details of the tragic day of this
incident. Neither will I go insightfully into the careers of the bands that
Darrell was a major part of in his lifetime. There are several other sources
out there in print and on the net that are far better than anything I could
say, and for fascinating history lessons and info, I urge everyone to search
them out and find some amazing tales. I am here to express how this übermensch
of a guitarist - and by a massive number of accounts - of a person in general
affected my simple life so far, to respect and acknowledge a huge inspiration.
Given my young age (born in ´85), I was not actively there for the truly
golden era of Pantera, as around those times my favourite tunes
were still revolving around the likes of Bobby McFerrins Don’t Worry,
Be Happy and the MacGyver Theme-jingle. The band arose to my attention
about four years ago, when Pantera was making Reinventing
The Steel and a friend of mine, a massive Pantera- and
Slayer-fan, tried hyping this truly amazing band and this even
more awesome disc, Cowboys From Hell, for me. These were still the
days when I jammed hours upon hours to Def Leppard & Bon
Jovi and the most brutal band I dug was Iron Maiden
- my “hair metal daze” as I call them (Yeah, a hair metal maniac
in 2000 – just try and guess how many chicks I impressed with THAT during
my angsty years). So I wasn’t so keen on the more extreme sides of metal.
Or so it was until the same friend lured CFH into his stereo system
when I was at his place and the opening title tune blasted out the speakers.
First thing in my mind was “God DAMN, those guitar sounds are killer!
That’s like a fucking aural razorblade!” Eventually also the brutally
tasty drumming, godly singing and thumping bass caught my ears, but the humongous
riffs and searing solos were the first things to really cause stupendous delight
for me. I was a beginning guitarist at the time, and hearing someone scorch
as good as Eddie Van Halen was mind-bursting and really pushed me to train a
LOT harder. I bought Cowboys myself and found out there was not one
bad song in the bunch. Through Pantera, my mind started to
open up to whole new genres of awesome stuff, from thrash to death and in the
last year or so, even hard core. It might be that without Pantera , awesome classics
like Death, Morbid Angel, Slayer, Dark Angel
and newer killers like Shadows Fall, God Forbid
and the like would have not latched on to me half as easily or surely not as
soon.
Musical awakening was not the only part. The next paragraph will probably venture
into corny roads for some but bare with me here, I couldn’t be more serious.
I'm sure everyone knows and has experienced that the puberty years are not the
greatest times in life in the sense of self-confidence and courage. I too was
a quite reserved person and was afraid to honestly express myself in fear of
ridicule from my peers (I mean come on, I even hyped Limp Bizkit for
a while just to seem cool for a while, one of the few things I regret in my
life). But once I saw some interviews by Axl Rose and the Pantera
home videos that my friend also had, I began to rapidly grow self respect and
inner power. Especially seeing the 3 Watch It Go-tape that documented
the Trendkill-days, I started to see that one could be gigantically happy by
being honest to yourself and, in the end, giving absolutely zip about if anyone
else liked it or not. These lunatic rednecks were blown-out, pissed out of their
minds and defying laws of common sense and morality, and they couldn’t
care less if someone thought down on it. They were having a blast and it was
the thing that mattered. To the shy boy looking at it, it was eye-opening as
all hell. Trends are for the weak and the spineless. Not meaning that anything
considered “hip” would automatically deem it shit, but that the
reason for liking something, whatever, should come from within ones self, not
the state of the majority. The songs, feelings and messages of empowerment I
found in Pantera's tunes and the attitude gave some really humongous
bursts of energy and confidence that guided me towards a much brighter future,
one that is still far, far away ahead of me.
And so, we have met another example about the frailty and importance of life.
One minute there on the street, at the edge of a cloud or boiling on brimstone
the next. Life should not be taken for granted, but lived to the fullest, every
day, every way. This is a way of life that to my mind, Dimebag personified with
his entire being. And as for so many before him, Dimebag's message of life and
his spirit shall live on in what he left behind. We must never let it go but
pass it on, into generations to come.
The way we were
The chance to save my soul
And my concern is now in vain
Believe the word
I will unlock my door
And pass the
Cemetary gates
-Never Forgotten, Always Carrying On In Music & Inspiration. Thank You,
Darrell Lance Abbott-