Show Legendary Guitarist Killed at Concert Nick Parker Opinion On Tuesday December 8 at a club in Columbus Ohio the metal band scheduled scheduled scheduled sched sched- Damage plan was to play a concert for a afew afew afew few hundred fans It was on this fateful night that legendary legendary legendary leg leg- metal guitarist Darrell Abbott was gunned down on stage Once was shot repeatedly the gunman turned on the crowd and security Six people were shot and four were killed Darrell founded the seminal metal group Pantera with his brother Vinnie Paul Abbott and Rex Brown When Phil Anselmo joined the group in 1989 they broke through the musical musical musical musi musi- cal pantheon as something special and changed the way that hard music was perI perl per- per l I Towards the me late laie nineties Pantera disbanded Phil Anselmo left to do a few other projects such as Down and Ritual and his brother Vince went on to form the band that played the night of Darrells Darrell's death When the Pantera breakup was publicized in 2003 many fans were devas devas- One was Nathan Gale a schizophrenic paranoid-schizophrenic and uber It was this deranged t man that gunned down the loveable in Ohio Mr Gale was shot and killed by a police officer responding to calls Thousands have mourned the passing of this truly incredible guitarist and amazing amazing amazing ing person I was affected quite a bit since I have been beena a fan of Pantera for a couple couple couple cou cou- years and have studied guitar work on occasion I even own his signature sig- sig signature signature sig sig- nature wah wan pedal On those nights when you came home pissed off at your girlfriend or friends you'd blast some Pantera and rock out to Darrells Darrell's amazing work Pantera and Slayer were probably the three greatest metal bands of the past twenty years When I heard the news 1 I emailed my friend ScottI Scott I Iwasaki from the Deseret News with my feelings and inquired about his He told me that he was quite distraught dis- dis distraught distraught dis dis- and couldn't sleep all night He listened to the CD in addin addi- addi f 1 n r tion Hon to all 01 of the me Pantera albums one after the other I Iguess Iguess Iguess guess 1 I wasn't the only one Has our society become so sick that we must be violent almost constantly Daily I hear young children playing as if they were killing maiming maiming maiming maim maim- ing or committing other violent violent violent vio vio- lent acts with other kids I Iwas Iwas Iwas was certainly raised in the society that allowed violence See Abbott continued on page 6 Abbott continued from page 5 in its media and culture My favorite TV shows when I Iwas Iwas Iwas was young were those in which the hero killed many bad guys in search of their honor and in order to save the girl or the world I went to a movie a couple months ago and at the conclusion conclusion conclusion sion one man climbs up and says to another Ill come comeback comeback back for you It is clear that the mortally injured man wont won't return but something in the tone of his voice must've been funny because the entire theater erupted in laughter I went to see the same movie for a second second second sec sec- ond time in the theater about two weeks later and the very same thing happened It seems that the violence and tragedy of the situation was superseded by a weird look on the face of the victim so I guess that makes it ok In no way am I blaming the media or the entertainment industry for the senseless act committed in Ohio but can we please pleas chill on the violence violence violence vio vio- lence America I know that the entertainment entertainment entertainment entertain entertain- ment industry makes trillions of dollars from their vio vio- lence-laced lence endeavors but when will we trade our handguns handguns handguns hand hand- guns for hugs When can we forgo the ugly face of bloody disaster in favor of a happier nation and world And finally when will we weI I all learn that a dialogue between two people whether it be intelligent or not will always solve more than 1000 violent acts |