Taken from www.uraniummusic.com.
I'm writing these words just hours after the tragic news of ex-Pantera/Damageplan guitar legend Dimebag Darrell's death. I'm shaking, in total shock, and really, really sober and somber. The details haven't been gathered yet, but this is what I know so far.
The shooter, according to eyewitnesses, ran on stage and specifically sought after Dimebag, shouting "You broke up Pantera" or something to that degree. After shooting the guitar player 30 seconds into the band's first song 5-6 times, chaos ensued and the shooter continued to pump bullets into the crowd, killing at least 4 others before an undercover officer came in through the back door and shot and killed the shooter. The club owner has said that if the officer had not showed up, more would have died.
I'm numb right now. One of the reason why I got into metal is dead. Pantera was Dimebag's show all along, and I was glad to have seen the band play at least 3 times over the years.
In my lifetime, I've never been devoted to anything like I am to metal. It consumes my life and is 100% a part of everything I do, sort of like a soundtrack to my life. I write about metal because I can't play an instrument and deeply want to contribute to it's growth and expreression as a major atform in many many people's lives. I never so badly wanted to just give up listening to it then I do now. I never so badly wanted to just quit writing about it then I do now. When Chuck Schuldiner died, I laid my head down somberly and just listened to Death all night. When I first started listening to Metallica, every September 26th I would put on "Orion" for Cliff Burton. I waste a good deal of time on defending the metal community, trying to explain to outsiders that the stereotype of the caveman-type meatheads that drink beer and had the average IQ of a 12 year old is untrue. That the posters that mis-spell everything and anything trying to post that someone or something "is gay and sucks" don't represent the majority of metalheads that actually work for a living, that have degrees in stuff like physics and engineering. That strive to make metal a legit art form, like the way classical music is viewed.
Then some caveman takes what Phil Anselmo says about the Pantera breakup, and gets the idea that Dimebag had to be dead and the world robbed of a very very gifted guitar player, a man who expressed his love for the music by playing his guitar better then a LOT of people, that woke up everyday because he wanted to do what he loved the most in this world, a human being. Now, not only do we lose a gifted player, but the metal stereotype has only degraded more, to the point where we're no better then the LA Gangs, then the terrorists, then anything the media has declared "the enemy". I want to give up so badly right now, to admit that this music is just a teenage phase that goes away over the age of 22, and to quit writing about the topic.
But I refuse to.
I absolutely despise what the metal scene has become and the massive lack of unity and absense of intelligence, that people scream 'sell out' when bands get a few more fans, that "mallcore" additude that kids have thanks to Hot Topic and nu-metal. But over the years, I've talked to countless people who stand by real metal like a religion, that view this music as way more then an artform, but as an experssion of who we are for life, as a release of all the world's problems in one simple, safe, and effective form. As a lifestyle, and as a factor that unifys complete strangers. The nod from one metalhead to another as they randomly pass by each other without a word muttered and know the other person is cool, the devil horns as a battle sign, telling life to fuck off when it gets way too complicated. That the successes of the world were and still are metal fans. That inside every kid going to Hot Topic in a desperate attempt to be different, there lies a spirit of a metalhead just waiting to discover what fans of less mainstream forms of the music are like and what power this music holds. And inside every person that loves metal, there's the spirit of somebody that will go to great lengths to express their love to a society that thinks of all the stereotypes when they think of metal.
I am metal! All the fans that go to and will continue to go support these bands that make the music we love are metal! And most of all, those bands that make the sounds that do so much for our lives are metal! Now and forever, until death or rebirth, in the afterlife and for all eternity, even if the music fades away after a while. "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, Rest in Peace. You join a great company of metalheads that have gone before you and your spirit will enrich this music we love for generations upon generations to come.
As a special tribute, On December 9th at 9 PM (EST), I'm asking all Uranium readers to play "Floods" in it's entirety. Even if you have to download the song. I want the entire nation of metalheads to play it, so the noise from your stereos and discmans and computers reaches the Afterlife and thanks the man for all that he's done.
I'm writing these words just hours after the tragic news of ex-Pantera/Damageplan guitar legend Dimebag Darrell's death. I'm shaking, in total shock, and really, really sober and somber. The details haven't been gathered yet, but this is what I know so far.
The shooter, according to eyewitnesses, ran on stage and specifically sought after Dimebag, shouting "You broke up Pantera" or something to that degree. After shooting the guitar player 30 seconds into the band's first song 5-6 times, chaos ensued and the shooter continued to pump bullets into the crowd, killing at least 4 others before an undercover officer came in through the back door and shot and killed the shooter. The club owner has said that if the officer had not showed up, more would have died.
I'm numb right now. One of the reason why I got into metal is dead. Pantera was Dimebag's show all along, and I was glad to have seen the band play at least 3 times over the years.
In my lifetime, I've never been devoted to anything like I am to metal. It consumes my life and is 100% a part of everything I do, sort of like a soundtrack to my life. I write about metal because I can't play an instrument and deeply want to contribute to it's growth and expreression as a major atform in many many people's lives. I never so badly wanted to just give up listening to it then I do now. I never so badly wanted to just quit writing about it then I do now. When Chuck Schuldiner died, I laid my head down somberly and just listened to Death all night. When I first started listening to Metallica, every September 26th I would put on "Orion" for Cliff Burton. I waste a good deal of time on defending the metal community, trying to explain to outsiders that the stereotype of the caveman-type meatheads that drink beer and had the average IQ of a 12 year old is untrue. That the posters that mis-spell everything and anything trying to post that someone or something "is gay and sucks" don't represent the majority of metalheads that actually work for a living, that have degrees in stuff like physics and engineering. That strive to make metal a legit art form, like the way classical music is viewed.
Then some caveman takes what Phil Anselmo says about the Pantera breakup, and gets the idea that Dimebag had to be dead and the world robbed of a very very gifted guitar player, a man who expressed his love for the music by playing his guitar better then a LOT of people, that woke up everyday because he wanted to do what he loved the most in this world, a human being. Now, not only do we lose a gifted player, but the metal stereotype has only degraded more, to the point where we're no better then the LA Gangs, then the terrorists, then anything the media has declared "the enemy". I want to give up so badly right now, to admit that this music is just a teenage phase that goes away over the age of 22, and to quit writing about the topic.
But I refuse to.
I absolutely despise what the metal scene has become and the massive lack of unity and absense of intelligence, that people scream 'sell out' when bands get a few more fans, that "mallcore" additude that kids have thanks to Hot Topic and nu-metal. But over the years, I've talked to countless people who stand by real metal like a religion, that view this music as way more then an artform, but as an experssion of who we are for life, as a release of all the world's problems in one simple, safe, and effective form. As a lifestyle, and as a factor that unifys complete strangers. The nod from one metalhead to another as they randomly pass by each other without a word muttered and know the other person is cool, the devil horns as a battle sign, telling life to fuck off when it gets way too complicated. That the successes of the world were and still are metal fans. That inside every kid going to Hot Topic in a desperate attempt to be different, there lies a spirit of a metalhead just waiting to discover what fans of less mainstream forms of the music are like and what power this music holds. And inside every person that loves metal, there's the spirit of somebody that will go to great lengths to express their love to a society that thinks of all the stereotypes when they think of metal.
I am metal! All the fans that go to and will continue to go support these bands that make the music we love are metal! And most of all, those bands that make the sounds that do so much for our lives are metal! Now and forever, until death or rebirth, in the afterlife and for all eternity, even if the music fades away after a while. "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, Rest in Peace. You join a great company of metalheads that have gone before you and your spirit will enrich this music we love for generations upon generations to come.
As a special tribute, On December 9th at 9 PM (EST), I'm asking all Uranium readers to play "Floods" in it's entirety. Even if you have to download the song. I want the entire nation of metalheads to play it, so the noise from your stereos and discmans and computers reaches the Afterlife and thanks the man for all that he's done.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
dansquatch:
Agreed
lucyfur666:
I was really shocked as well... Darrell's death is such a loss 
RIP 
RIP