E-Mail This Article to a Friend IN MEMORIAM Dimebag Darrell Abbott: 1966–2004 BY SEAN RICHARDSON

Metal fans all around the world spent last weekend mourning the death of beloved guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was murdered by an apparent psychotic fan during a December 8 performance with his band Damageplan at a Columbus, Ohio, club. Born Darrell Abbott, the Dallas native was just 38.

A semipro football player and former Marine named Nathan Gale reportedly walked up to Dimebag on-stage at the beginning of the band’s first song, and began shooting; Gale killed four people before being shot dead by a police officer at the scene. The motive remains unclear, but Gale’s acquaintances have said he was a fan of Dimebag’s other band, Pantera, and had a history of erratic, though not violent, behavior.

Pantera were the premier metal band of the early 1990s, at a time when Metallica had gone mainstream and the genre was in dire need of new blood. Pantera’s first three major-label CDs — Cowboys from Hell, Vulgar Display of Power, and Far Beyond Driven — were classics that won them a huge international fan base. And Dimebag was one of the best players of the era: his riffs established new standards for heaviness, while his solos split the difference between chaos and virtuosity. Pantera sold millions of albums without ever enjoying a major hit single.

But after 2000’s Reinventing the Steel, the members of Pantera went their separate ways. The contrast between the two bands that emerged from the split suggested Pantera had been torn apart by the usual creative differences. Frontman Philip Anselmo went more hardcore than ever with Superjoint Ritual, while Dimebag and his brother, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, scored the biggest radio hit of their careers with Damageplan’s bar-rocking "Save Me." With Rob Halford sideman Pat Lachman on lead vocals and Bob Zilla on bass, the group were on tour in support of their debut, New Found Power (Elektra).

The influence of Pantera — in particular Dimebag’s razor-edged riffage, with its vicious consolidation of speed-metal heft and power-metal flash — continued to grow even after their demise, becoming the cornerstone of a resurgent wave of underground metal. Massachusetts metal heroes Shadows Fall are one of the many newer bands influenced by Pantera; they recently finished a string of dates with Damageplan, including one on November 24 at the Palladium in Worcester.

As news of Dimebag’s death spread throughout the metal world, friends and fans from Ozzy Osbourne to Slipknot’s Corey Taylor eulogized him as a legend, a great guitarist, and a better friend. Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones, whose band has toured with Damageplan, called Dimebag’s death "insane and beyond travesty."

Though Anselmo spent the past few years trading barbs with the Abbott brothers in the press — culminating with the current issue of the UK magazine Metal Hammer, on the cover of which he proclaims, "This is the last time I ever talk about Pantera!" and, more ominously, "Dimebag deserves to be beaten severely!" — he has been quiet since the murder. Instead, Anselmo has posted a simple tribute on www.downboard.com, a message board for another of his bands, Down. It’s a poignant photo of the two metal gods napping next to each other in happier days, along with the caption, "Darrell my brother. The best of the best."

On December 11, MTV2’s Headbangers Ball aired an emotional one-hour Dimebag special, hosted by Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine. A public memorial was slated for December 14 at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas. And a comprehensive selection of celebrity tributes appears on www.officialpantera.com