Dimebag Darrell & the Black Tooth Grin

Black Tooth Grin, subtitled "The High Life, Good Times, And Tragic End of 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott," is Dallas, Texas area journalist Zac Crain's "unauthorized" biography of the heavy metal guitarist, and seemingly Crain's first published book. Although Crain jumps into the project with great enthusiasm and passion, the result is a somewhat flawed and superficial work that places a lot of emphasis on the "music" and not enough on the "journalism" that would make for a great biography. As such, Black Tooth Grin has elements of the good, the bad, and the ugly within its 300+ pages.

The Good

When you boil it all down, Black Tooth Grin is really Crain's attempt to make some sort of sense out of the tragic and senseless death of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, which both begins and ends this story. Abbott, born and raised in Arlington, Texas, was a youthful six-string prodigy that, along with his drumming brother Vinnie, formed the influential '90s-era band Pantera.

Crain gets into the nuts-and-bolts of the Abbott brothers' early family life in Arlington, focusing on the teenaged "Diamond" Darrell Lance, as he was originally known, and his love of hard rock bands like Van Halen and Kiss. The book does a fine job of presenting the genesis of Abbott's lifelong infatuation with the guitar, covering the many regional contests that he won (to the point where he was banned from competing by the age of 15), as well as the formation of his earliest bands with brother Vinnie.

It is with the Pantera years – the bulk of the Abbott brothers' lives at the time, really – that Crain really shines in his narrative. From the band's earliest incarnation as a glam-metal "hair" band like Motley Crue or Poison during the 1980s, through its evolution into a lean, mean, metal-stomping machine behind vocalist Phil Anselmo during the '90s, Crain describes the many bumps in the road and the obstacles overcome by Pantera in becoming, perhaps, the best-known metal outfit during the alt-rock years, one that influenced an entire wave of metal bands during the last part of the decade.

Crain also delves into the pressures of the moderate fame and fortune enjoyed by the band, as well as vocalist Anselmo's drug addiction and subsequent alienation from the Abbott brothers, a schism that would eventually destroy Pantera. Of particular interest is the descriptions offered of Abbott by his many friends and associates. Regardless of the level of fame that the guitarist achieved, and the many accolades that were heaped upon his brilliant guitar virtuosity, Dimebag remained relatively nonplussed and admirably humble.

In the end, the Abbott brothers and Anselmo suffered through an acrimonious divorce that destroyed the band, with Darrell and Vinnie on one side of the split, vocalist Anselmo and the band's bassist, Rex "Rocker" Brown, on the other. The Abbotts would later form the band Damageplan and begin the long, slow slog through the club circuit all over again. Unlike many club bands, however, they scored a major label deal quite rapidly on the basis of their previous success, and released their lone album, New Found Power, just months before Abbott's death.

As many who are familiar with Dimebag Darrell already know, the good-hearted guitarist met his fate on stage at a club in Columbus, Ohio while performing with Damageplan on December 8, 2004. Abbott was shot to death during the band's first song by some deranged individual, a truly fucked-up wigger who, minutes after killing Abbott and three other people, was shot to death by police. We'll never know why the gun-toting former jarhead targeted Dimebag, but this seemingly random act of violence sent shockwaves throughout the heavy metal community at the time.

The Bad

Far too much of Black Tooth Grin reads like a Pantera fanzine. Several subjects are revisited over and over again to the point of absurdity. While Abbott's infamous Halloween parties deserve mentioning, maybe even the special "bonus" chapter they get, but Black Tooth Grin offers three lengthy passages on these events, as well as numerous mentions throughout the text. Throw in all of the other party descriptions, and the book (unfairly?) paints a rather two-dimensional portrait of Abbott.

Another cavil that I have is the repeated assertions that "genetics" had something to do with Abbott's talent and fame, which I find ridiculous. Crain repeats this inanity in describing Vinnie's drumming skills as well. Although Jerry Abbott, the brothers' father, was a songwriter with a few impressive credits, and a producer on the bottom rung of the country music industry, there is no real evidence that the elder Abbott's genetic contribution had much of anything to do with the brothers' musical talents.

Far more important to the brothers' development into world-class musicians – which, thankfully, Crain goes into in depth – is the support provided by Jerry and Carolyn Abbott for Darrell and Vinnie's musical endeavors. Whereas dad provided session time at the recording studio that he ran, managed the band in its early days and, in fact, drove the fledging covers-band that was Pantera to its initial gigs, mom provided a stable home environment and the sort of loving support necessary for a prodigy like Darrell to drop out of school and sit in his room playing guitar all day.

Although Black Tooth Grin is an "unauthorized biography," Crain gained access to many of Abbott's friends and associates, and uses published interviews with the guitarist, his brother, and other musicians to fill in the blanks. Too often, however, these various people have little or nothing to say of importance beyond remembering boozy days and nights spent with the guitar great.

There are exceptions, to be sure, such as longtime-friend Buddy "Blaze" Webster, or Larry English of Washburn Guitars, who deliver insightful remembrances of the man and his talents. Far too often, though, Crain fails to challenge his interview subjects to say something really interesting about their relationships with Abbott. I'm not looking for scandal or the sordid details of what was seemingly a life lived in public, just something more than "we got drunk together once," which leads us to…

…and the Ugly

Crain spends waaayyy too many pages and a bucket of ink fretting over Abbott's drinking habits, even including an entire chapter at the end of the book about such in a futile attempt to place Dimebag's prodigious hydration in proper context. Zac, buddy, we get it…Abbott drank a hell of a lot of hooch. Yes, he may have been a functional alcoholic, and it's obvious from the war stories told by various interviewees that booze played a major part in the guitarist's life.

But Abbott's drinking had absolutely no role in his tragic fate, and its effect on his music is questionable at best. That any rock star – much less a heavy metal guitarist – drinks to excess is not really surprising, and mostly irreverent to the narrative of Abbott's life. Give us a few more pages about what Dimebag thought about his music, or the creative process, or playing the guitar, or whatever and less about him serving up trays of shots to friends and sycophants.

Weighing all these factors together, I'd still have to recommend Black Tooth Grin to both fans of Dimebag Darrell/Pantera and to anybody even mildly interested in the work of this once-in-a-generation six-string talent. Although Crain too often comes across as the same sort of star-crossed fanboy that he frequently describes Abbott to be, instead of a serious biographer, he does a decent job of capturing the highs and lows of Dimebag's life nonetheless. Crain is an engaging writer, and Black Tooth Grin a quick, entertaining read that captures the essence of Dimebag Darrell Abbot…but it also could have done so much more. (Da Capo Press)

(Click on the book or CD cover to buy from Amazon.com)

Dave Thompson's Punk Rock Memories

British music journalist Dave Thompson is a veteran author of rock 'n' roll biographies, penning dozens of books on folks like Iggy Pop, Kiss, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many others over the past couple of decades. As frequently as he has turned his insight towards dissecting the life and art of others, however, this is the first time that Thompson has used his undeniable talent to look inward at his own life and experience.

Subtitled "True Adventures on the Front Lines of Punk 1976-1977," Thompson's excellent London's Burning is, as he calls it, a "memoir" without "too much me" included. Ostensibly the story of a year in the life of British punk rock, the teenage Thompson had a front seat to the birth and evolution of punk from a provincial underground phenomenon to a worldwide cultural revolution.

To tell this tale, Thompson relies on his own memories, and those of the many musicians that he has interviewed through the years, as well as those he spoke with specifically for the book. Beginning with the death of the glam-rock era and the lingering descent of pub-rock into obsolescence, Thompson's personalized history of the first stirrings of punk is developed from his youthful vinyl obsession and eager attendance at dozens of shows by early versions of bands like the Sex Pistols, the Adverts, the Stranglers, and the Damned, as well as his friendships with many of the music-makers.

Thompson marks the flashpoint of British punk rock with the first performance of American rocker Patti Smith, her powerful, primal sound launching a hundred bands. Although the story touches upon many of the aforementioned and better-known punk outfits, Thompson takes great care to include obscure (but no less talented or fondly remembered) bands like the Arrows, Radio Stars, and Heavy Metal Kids in his exploration of the music. Sometimes his stories are funny, sometimes poignant, and sometimes even harrowing as Thompson describes the racism present in mid-to-late-70s England, as well as the violence that would come to be leveled against anybody perceived as being a "punk rocker."

Thompson is being only a little disingenuous when he calls London's Burning a memoir without too much "me" because, in truth, it is the presence of his younger self, and that experience that is central to the book's immense charm. In remembering his youthful love of the music, and unbridled enthusiasm for the changes wrought by punk's ascendance, Thompson also reminds us of why the "Class of '77" was so important in the overall evolution of rock music. The stories and memories of the assembled musicians are vital to the story here, but it is Thompson's interaction and role as a documentarian that drives the book.

British punk rock circa 1977-79 has been covered in abundance, almost to the point of absurdity, by dozens of books and hundreds, if not thousands of magazine articles and even compilation albums. Few have the firsthand knowledge and experience of Dave Thompson, though, and the talent to express it so succinctly and in an entertaining manner. Nobody has the stories that Thompson has accumulated, making London's Burning the final word in '70s British punk rock. If you're an old-school punk fan, you should definitely check this one out….(Chicago Review Press)

Related: The Reverend's review of Thompson's I Hate New Music in Blurt Magazine

(Click on the book cover to buy London's Burning from Amazon.com)

Bonus MP3s:

The Adverts - "One Chord Wonders"

The Damned - "New Rose"

The Stranglers - "No More Heroes"

Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Teenage Depression"

Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know

A couple years back, I believe 'twas, the Ronnie James Dio-era incarnation of Black Sabbath (i.e. 1979-1982) got together to pimp Rhino's freshly-released The Dio Years compilation. The two-disc set included some of the best musical finery from the line-up's two early-80s sets, Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules, as well as a few things from the Dio-fronted obligatory live album (Live Evil) and their "reunion" misstep, 1992's Dehumanizer.

The Dio Years also included three honkin' new tunes recorded specifically for the set, the foursome of Dio, guitarist Toni Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Vinny Appice using the band name Heaven & Hell (after their first album together, geddit?) because, allegedly, Sharon Osborne refused them the use of the holy, and seemingly priceless Black Sabbath name. The new tunes fell on receptive ears, Heaven & Hell went out on tour in support of The Dio Years, and they found a modicum of acceptance from hidebound Sab fans, subsequently squeezing out a well-received live album.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings us to The Devil You Know, the first "official" Heaven & Hell studio release and a fine collection of riff-driven doom-metal, ya know. There's no reason, at this point in the game, to believe that you're going to receive much of anything different from Dio, Iommi, and the gang, and that's just fine by me. The album opens with the plodding, seriously downtuned "Atom And Evil," the intro itself worth the price of admission. Featuring one of Iommi's best sludge-metal guitar lines and Dio's slow-as-cough-syrup vocals, the song stomps along ungracefully and lets the listener know exactly what to expect from this latest Black…er, Heaven & Hell album.

The proggish "Bible Black" opens with a piercing guitar line thrown against an acoustic guitar strum, Dio's slow-boiling vocals evolving from an initial menacing growl into his typical full-blown wail as Appice's drums explode and Iommi's fretwork grinds and howls. "Rock & Roll Angel" is the album's best bet for a radio-ready single, with a sledgehammer riff marching like an angry carnivore behind Dio's over-the-top vocals and a matching suit-and-tie of martial rhythms. The unrelenting doomishness of "The Turn Of The Screw" is gussied up with some uncharacteristic Dio vocal gymnastics that evoke memories of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in their inflection and flexibility.

Dio is know as an arcane lyricist, a fanciful songwriter whose head is filled with dreams of dragons and witches and darkness, and The Devil You Know is filled with Dio's typically oblique imagery, words that seem so much more frightening when spit at the listener with Dio's usual power and glory. The songwriter can have a little fun now and then, however, and "Eating The Cannibals" is Dio's tongue-in-cheek stab at humor. A locomotive rocker with screaming six-string and fast-paced rhythms, Dio's vocals run at a pace similar to Bruce Dickinson's, while Iommi's lightning-quick fretboard runs prove that the man can shred with the best o' them.

The stunning "Follow The Tears" strides the razor's edge between Sabbath's typical doom-and-gloom sturm-und-drang and Euro-styled Goth-metal. The song's strident, unyielding rhythms are paired with crunchy guitar riffs, predatory six-string solos, and Dio's best lyrical cynicism and dark-hued cathedral vox. The Devil You Know closes out with the same sort of retro-cool, dino-stomp tarpit rock as it opened with, "Breaking Into Heaven" allowing Dio to cut loose with his most frenetic vocals yet, which are themselves layered above Iommi's assaulting guitarplay and the Butler/Appice rhythmic cyclone.

No matter what you want to call it – Heaven & Hell, Black Sabbath, or the Archie & Jughead Good-Times Soda-Pop Quartet, the result is exactly the same – this is The Devil You Know. A wolf in sheep's clothing is still gonna eat yer Granny, and Messrs. Dio, Iommi, Butler, and Appice are always going to blow your face off. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, indeed. (Rhino Records)

Related: Sabbath's Dio Years Revisited

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Devil You Know from Amazon.com)

MP3s:

Heaven & Hell - "Rock And Roll Angel"

Heaven & Hell - "Breaking Into Heaven"

Interview w/Yngwie Malmsteen

His name is synonymous with neoclassical shredding, executing technical arpeggio scales that are nearly impossible to replicate…who is he? It’s Yngwie Malmsteen, that’s who! For a career that spans decades, with various bands (Steeler, Alcatrazz), a mass of solo endeavors that spawned gems such as "I'll See The Light Tonight" and "Heaven Tonight," to even melding his metallic drive with real symphony orchestras (Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Em, Opus 1); the axeman is truly a legend.

His newest album, Perpetual Flame is his first to feature notable vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens (Beyond Fear, ex-Iced Earth, ex-Judas Preist) for a record of blistering melodically heavy tunes, one of Malmsteen’s finest in years – complete with gripping hooks and monstrous leads that pull you in. The record itself is, in his own words, a continuation of the way he has always worked – just letting it flow.

"The way I do things, I just sort of start writing songs and I let it flow…whatever comes out naturally," begins Malmsteen. "I just go with it. I don’t try to go into this direction or that direction or anything like that I do exactly what comes out and follow it, because to me that seems like the right thing to do. What happened was that I went on tour and I came back and started recording some drums and went back on tours and came back and recorded guitars and keyboards, started writing lyrics, went back on tour again, and in the middle of all this I realized that I needed a lead singer for all of this because the way the songs were taking shape. So I know what I am looking for, I know what I hear in my head, and Ripper has always been discussed," he says.

"We had talked a couple of times so he came down and sang a couple of songs and we both said ‘this is great.’ It was a long process, I started writing songs back in the beginning ’07, and I would listen to the songs in a different way and hear different things. To me Ripper was playing the roles as DeNiro or Pachino would, and I am the Director/Screenwriter so to speak, that’s how I work. I know what I want, I know where I am going with it; that’s why I don’t use an outside producer or anything like that. I’m very efficient in that sense. A lot of times that is a dangerous thing to do because you can get locked in, but again I did some writing and recording, went on tour and came back and everything would sound different, so it was great to be able to record some do some recording at a time in respect to not getting locked in."

With the record industry being in shambles at this point on all ends of the spectrum, just about everybody has been affected, and it’s no surprise that after having dealt with several major and independent labels for years (including Polygram, Pony Canyon Japan, and Spitfire to name a few), that the guitarist would go out and finally form his own label, Rising Force Records, to keep a better grip on the business end of things to keep making music on his own terms in this time of downloading and new media.

"It’s no secret that the whole music industry and the whole scene of making and selling records has changed for the worst in the last few years," elaborates Malmsteen. "A lot have things have changed for the worse, such as a lot of things or support that you would normally get from your record label in the past, you don’t get anymore, and so they can do what they want to do. But I don’t want any part of that anymore; I want to make sure things get done. It's my wife/manager's (April Malmsteen) thing, it’s distributed by Koch in North America and Pinnacle in Europe, Pinnacle are pretty big in Europe so they are a big corporation. With Rising Force Records, what we’re doing, we have everything under control because with everything going down in the record industry lately, it’s been pretty disastrous in the past few years."

In 1998, he composed his first concerto for orchestra and guitar featuring himself and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, fulfilling a lifelong dream – he even later released a DVD with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra to further express this exquisite musical endeavor. It is something that he hopes to do in the future, but for now, it’s all about the metal, “Of course (I want to do that again), but right now in my life & career I just want to rock out. Just turn it up and rock; there will be plenty of time to other things like that later on. That was a dream come true and I am very pleased with the results.”

Malmsteen's influence comes from a wide variety of performers, from early classical composers to axeslingers such as Hendrix and Blackmore; he explains in detail on how hearing music in his early life and the first records influenced the musical virtuosity he is known for. "When I was five, on my fifth birthday, I was given a guitar and my own brother and sister are really good musicians," explains Malmsteen, "but it wasn’t until I saw Hendrix on the news, burning his guitar when I was seven; there was no music per say and I said this is what I want to do, I want to burn the guitar – so Hendrix’s impact to me was that I saw him burn his guitar and that’s when I really wanted to start playing."

"A year later my older sister gave me Deep Purple's Fireball, now I’m eight years old, next week I get Deep Purple In Rock, which is another very powerful record – having a huge impact on me. So I started playing in bands when I was ten, playing all over the place and being very active, after I learned all the blues and platonic scales I decided that I wanted to go somewhere else and that’s where the classical music came in, eventually having a much stronger impact on everything I did."

"It always has the sense of power and energy and that’s something I have always held dear to my heart, and combined with the Marshalls and all that stuff, whether it's metal or blues, it's great I love it, it's what I want to do. So I drew a lot from Bach, Vivaldi, Paganinni, and Tchaikovsky and that is what really influenced me, of course combines with the metal sound. Whether it's a double kick drum or a really big chorus, it's like a Bach invention and so that’s really what I love to do, take the feel of those classical chord progressions."

Besides being known his constant use of the Strats, Marshalls, and Ovations, he has just been inducted into Hollywood’s Rockwalk Hall of Fame and even been immortalized further by having an award given in his namesake for the Xbox 360 Version Guitar Hero II; if you play 1000 notes in succession, you will be given the beloved 'Yngwie Malmsteen' award. Still though with his new album and an impending tour, he plans to take everything one day at a time concluding. "I take everything day by day so what I am doing right now, I am concentrating on the new release and the tour. Things tend to fall into place and follow the yellow brick road." (Interview by Tommy "Hashman" Hash, October 2008)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Perpetual Flame from Amazon.com)

The Doors' Live At The Matrix '67

When the Doors were booked to perform two nights at the Matrix in San Francisco in March 1967, they were just another group of hopeful L.A. area musicians trying to ride the rock 'n' roll gravy train to fame and fortune. Hungry, loud, raw, and energetic, the band's first album had only been released a couple of months previous, and few in the sparse audience knew (or, evidently, cared) about the Doors.

I won't go into too much detail about the band – the story of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore is known too well, been re-hashed far too often since Morrison's "alleged" death in 1971 to bore the reader with useless observations. Suffice it to say that when the band's self-titled debut was released in early-1967, its unique mix of rock, pop, and blues…shaded with psychedelic strains and Eastern exoticism…sounded like little that had been previously released in the world of rock.

The band's songs would become weaker with each subsequent album, Morrison's poetic lyrics strained by hurried composition. The band's sound would also become overly stylized, polished by the studio and producers to better fit the charts. The performances displayed by the band here are nothing short of remarkable, however. Live At The Matrix '67 is the first legitimate release of an often-bootlegged set of tapes, drawing material from across the four sets performed by the band over the two nights. Unlike the band's later recordings, Live At The Matrix '67 showcases the band in all of its ragged glory.

The two-CD set kicks off with a strident, high-octane take of "Break On Through (To The Other Side)." Starting off with a shuffling beat, the song jumps into Morrison's rattletrap vocals sitting firmly astride Ray Manzarek's stabbing keyboard riffs, his voice simply crackling with electricity. Robby Krieger's guitar is somewhat subdued here, lost in the chaos until he roars above the mix at around the three-minute mark to lay out a razor-sharp solo. The performance itself is breathtaking in its energy, shocking in its relative brevity.

Manzarek's familiar keyboard line opens the bluesy "Soul Kitchen." Accompanied by Krieger's fine fretwork, the song's running time is stretched out to almost six minutes with brother Ray's keyboard pyrotechnics, some bombastic John Densmore skin-pounding, and a couple of explosive six-string solos. "Twentieth Century Fox" is another short, sharp shock, with swirling psychedelic keyboard riffs and stomping rhythms almost drowning out Morrison's hoarse vocals. Krieger's guitar solo here is particularly tasty, evincing the sort of bluesy psychedelic edge that was often softened on the band's recordings.

"Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" is a fine cross between Delta blues and German cabaret, an odd little song that builds upon the sanitized album version with an even more reckless reading of the lyrics and an intriguing, syncopated rhythm that hits the ears with an outlandish perversity. "Light My Fire," which would become the band's breakthrough hit a few short weeks after this performance, stands up well in a live setting, the Doors' again jamming their way past the eight-minute mark with all the intensity of a wildfire.

The band's live performance of "Moonlight Drive" is, perhaps, less mesmerizing than the LP version, but manages to create a different sort of magical vibe nonetheless. With reckless vocals, slinky/squealing guitarwork, crashing rhythms, and Manzarek's keys pounding away at the bottom end, the song sounds almost improvised, chaotic in conception but drunkenly anarchic in its execution. The excellent "People Are Strange" is somewhat more sparsely arranged than the version offered by the Doors' sophomore album, with Manzarek's keys chiming freely above subtle rhythms and Morrison's haunting vocals.

The psychedelically-morose "When The Music's Over" is extended by a couple of minutes from its appearance on Strange Days, but the longer run time does little to dilute the song's stammering power. With Manzarek's ever-present keyboard runs, Morrison's voice soars and dips, stomps and plunders across the lyrics like a pirate's swordfight, his swaggering voice matched by Krieger's distorted, strangely disquieting fretwork, which runs through the song like a needle and thread. The result is a thoroughly off-balance work of genius that strained against the boundaries of rock music that themselves were being almost weekly with new album releases from a number of artists.

In the beginning, the Doors brought a strong blues-rock flavor to their material, and this is displayed up-front on Live At The Matrix '67 with a number of blues and R&B covers, some working and some…like the middling "I'm A King Bee"…falling flat on their face. A cover of Bo Diddley's classic "Who Do You Love" is stronger – propelled by Densmore's tribal drumbeats and an overall anarchic instrumental vibe, Morrison's fledgling lizard king vox pairs nicely with Diddley's voodoo-infused lyrics. The band's take on John Lee Hooker's classic "Crawling King Snake" is appropriately menacing, even if Morrison's primal howl is no match for the master's mojo hand.

A spirited and inspired cover of the Van Morrison/Them garage-rock classic "Gloria" is provided one of the best performances short of Patti Smith's classic take of the song. Starting slow and simmering to a boil, the Doors' performance is built on a lively guitar lick and galloping drumbeats, augmented by Manzarek's best approximation of a Farfisa organ run amok.

The sound on Live At The Matrix '67 is somewhat hollow, sometimes muddy, and often times bright to the point of distraction, i.e. it stands a notch above that of a decent bootleg CD, but less palatable to sensitive ears than your watered-down, slick-as-a-baby's-bottom contemporary live LP. No matter, 'cause it's the songs here that matter, and to that end Morrison et al deliver, perhaps, their best performance ever caught on tape. Along with the historical provenance of these recordings, should be enough to spur long-suffering Doors fans to their local music emporium to snatch up a copy of Live At The Matrix '67. (Rhino Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Live At The Matrix '67 from Amazon.com)