Dark Day for Music

Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed today. Casey has a nice take on it.

Naturally, Dimebag's death is revolting because it was so unbelievably senseless and brutal. He was just beginning a set onstage when a madman gunned him and three others down. Sad stuff.

When influential public figures die, their deaths take on a whole other significance. For those who don't know, Dimebag was a founding member of Pantera and, more recently, Damageplan.

I and other bloggers have frequently commented on the virtues of heavy metal: it's a very sophisticated art form that can capture both the sublime and the beautiful because of its commitment to intensity, technical mastery, brutal honesty, and artistic integrity. I've often thought of metal as the classical music of our day, to use an awkward analogy. So much music has, for decades now, been geared solely towards commercial success. Other forms of "purer" music are, to be blunt, wimpy and cowardly. When it comes to pure skill and mastery of the instrument, the members of a great metal band can rival any canonical classical performer.

Sadly that proud legacy has been increasingly coopted by lame imitations that try to pass themselves off as "metal" or "hard rock." Some view metal superficially, as a genre defined by nothing more than noise and anger (think of the newer hardcore bands out there, that all sound alike). Some are soulless and use the metal label to add some credibility to music that is really nothing more than loud pop (think Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park). Very few young bands are carrying the flame forwards (bands like Avenged Sevenfold are wonderful, but even they still haven't fully mastered their sound). The burden still falls on older bands like Metallica, Tool, and so forth.

A lot of these old bands have produced inferior material of late (Metallica, most obviously), but Dimebag was part of something special with Pantera and, most recently, Damageplan. Dimebag was one of the few who kept the spirit of metal alive and continuously pushed it forward. As Casey said, the music world really needs guys like him now. To serious music fans, Dimebag's death is particularly painful now.