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Monday, Jun 25 2018

Julian Woolsey


Pantera and Hellyeah drummer Vincent Paul Abbott, a.k.a. Vinnie Paul, died on Friday night, June 22nd at the age of 54. He apparently died in his sleep at his home in Las Vegas. No cause of death was given at press time, but sources close to the drummer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he suffered a “major heart attack.” A message at the Pantera Facebook page read, “Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away. Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time.”

Born on March 11th, 1964 in Abilene, Texas to country singer and songwriter Jerry Abbott and his wife Carolyn, Vinnie and his brother, guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, founded Pantera in 1981 along with bassist Rex Brown. After three moderately hard-rocking independent albums, the band recruited singer Philip Anselmo and evolved into a much heavier-sounding act. Their 1990 major label debut, Cowboys From Hell, made them pioneers of a new kind of sound that combined thrash metal riffing with grinding groove-laden rhythms and an almost industrial precision.

Pantera became one of the most influential metal bands of the ’90s, churning out classic albums like Vulgar Display Of Power and Far Beyond Driven, the latter of which hit Number One on the Billboard 200 chart. When the band broke up in the early 2000s due to tensions between the Abbotts and Anselmo, the brothers started a new band called Damageplan.

But that came to an end on December 8th, 2004, when Darrell Abbott was shot dead onstage at the age of 38 by a deranged gunman as the band performed at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. Vinnie never spoke with Phil Anselmo again after his brother’s death, feeling that some less than kind things Anselmo said about Darrell in the press may have set the killer off.

Two years after his brother’s death, Vinnie returned to music with the group Hellyeah, which also featured members of Mudvayne and Nothingface. The band has released five albums together over the past decade, most recently 2016’s Unden!able, and were most recently working on their sixth studio effort. Vinnie was said to have finished his drum tracks for the new LP.

While Vinnie Paul managed to carve out a second phase to his career even after the horrific tragedy of what happened to his brother, it’s his staccato drumming and thunderous sound of Pantera for which he’ll be most remembered — as the backbeat for one of the most influential metal acts of all time.

At press time Vinnie’s body had been turned over to the medical examiner to determine an official cause of death, after which his body will be flown to Texas to be buried between his mother and brother.

Reactions poured in over the weekend from rock and metal musicians around the world to the passing of Pantera and Hellyeah drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who died in his sleep on Friday night (June 22nd) at his home in Las Vegas.

  Vinnie’s longtime girlfriend Chelsey Yeager wrote in an Instagram post that was later removed, “I want to thank each & every one of you guys for sending your love! Please please give me & all of our family/friends time. I can’t begin to describe the pain in my heart from this nightmare… I have absolutely no other words.”

Former Pantera bassist Rex Brown, whose relationship with Vinnie since the band’s break-up had been a strained one, wrote, “The last few days have been very difficult and painful. At this time, I need more time to process my feelings.” He later added, “Everybody is going through their own strife with this. Pray for Jerry Abbott [father of Vinnie Paul and ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott]. No man should have to bury two incredible sons in one lifetime.”

Ex-Pantera singer Philip Anselmo posted a picture of a lit candle in the dark, but has not issued any public comment. Up until his passing, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo. Vinnie partially blamed comments Anselmo made in the press for inciting a disturbed gunman to shoot and kill Vinnie’s brother, guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, onstage in a Columbus, Ohio club in December 2004.

 

Hellyeah guitarist Tom Maxwell wrote, “Just so broken hearted and in shock. I’m struggling to write this but we want to thank you all for your kind words and support in this tragic time. We don’t have much info to give you other then Vinnie is now with Dime and they are together in a better place. Sadness, shock, confusion, anger, despair. We feel it all together. Hug your loved ones and keep them close. Thank you all again for all your love. Vinnie will be and is greatly loved and missed but his music will live forever. Crank it loud today and scream to the heavens so he can hear you.”

Vinnie Paul was a great friend to us here at hardDrive. From Pantera, to Damageplan, to Hellyeah, Vinnie was always up for a great conversation about music. He will be missed terribly.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl says that a cold he got from his daughter is to blame for his voice sounding rough at some of the band’s recent shows. Fans have expressed concern over Grohl’s voice in recent days, with some worrying that Grohl — a smoker as well as a drinker who screams through most of the Foos’ two-and-a-half hour sets — had done permanent damage to his vocal cords.

Grohl told the Daily Star, “The week before the tour, my four-year-old got f**king sick, I’m at home with her all week, and I’m, like, ‘Oh, God. No, no, no! Please, don’t do it,’ but she wants a kiss goodnight every night. I try to give her the cheek, but she wants the lips, and then on the flight over to Germany, I start to feel it. I’m, like, ‘F**k! I’m getting a fever. I’m feeling sore. Then the next show, my throat closes up on me. I’ve got a f**king cold. There’s nothing I can do!”

One fan wrote on the Foos’ Reddit page after a show in Belgium last Monday night (June 11th), “I thought the state of Dave’s voice was kind of worrying — towards the final third it began cutting out entirely (noticeably on ‘Breakout’).” He added, “I know it’s been an issue since the start of the tour, but it’s clear that it’s not a ‘cold’ any more. And it can’t be any good long-term.”

Another fan replied, “I don’t think it’s shot just yet, but he does seem to have ‘off’ days more often… It’s a miracle it’s held up this long tbh, given that he’s a smoker who doesn’t seem to take particular care of his voice and screams all night long on a regular basis.”

Foo Fighters will begin a North American trek on July 6th in Columbia, Missouri, winding down on October 18th in St. Paul, Minnesota. The band is touring in support of its 2017 LP, Concrete And Gold.

Halestorm has released a new single called “Black Vultures” from the band’s upcoming fourth album, Vicious. The track follows up the lead single from the set, “Uncomfortable,” which arrived at the end of May. While “Uncomfortable” was a fast, rip-roaring thrasher of a cut, “Black Vultures” has a moodier feel and darker melodic themes.

Halestorm debuted “Black Vultures” in concert at the opening show of its Canadian co-headlining tour with Stone Sour, back in late January in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Vicious will arrive on July 27th and follows up 2015’s Into The Wild Life. Among the other tracks on the album are “Skulls,” “Buzz,” “Do Not Disturb,” “Conflicted,” “Killing Ourselves To Live,” “Heart of Novocaine,” “Painkiller,” “White Dress,” “The Silence” and the title track.

Halestorm will embark on the second leg of its U.S. tour showcasing all female-fronted hard rock bands on July 27th in Kansas City, Missouri. Other acts on the bill include In This Moment and New Years Day.

Stone Sour will release a deluxe edition of its sixth studio album, 2017’s Hydrograd, on August 31st. The two-disc set will contain the original LP along with a total of 13 additional tracks, including unreleased covers, B-sides, live recordings and alternate versions of songs from the album.

Among the highlights are a previously unreleased track and video called “Burn One Turn One,” an acoustic version of the hit “Song #3,” plus covers of Soundgarden‘s “Outshined,” Van Halen‘s “Unchained” and Rage Against The Machine‘s “Bombtrack.”

Hydrograd was Stone Sour’s first album since 2013 and singer Corey Taylor explained a while back the goals he had for the set: “We just wanted to make a feel-good album, man, you know. We just wanted to make one of those kind of throwback albums that you just put on and there doesn’t have to be an overall message. There doesn’t have to be an overall statement. We just wanted to make a good, kick-ass hard rock album that just takes you anywhere you want to go. That’s what we did with this album and it just feels awesome.”

Stone Sour will support Ozzy Osbourne on the initial North American leg of the legendary vocalist’s “No More Tours 2” trek, which kicks off on August 30th in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian has revealed in an official newsletter sent to fans that he has roughly five songs he originally wrote for the band which he now plans to rework and release either on a solo EP or as part of a film soundtrack.

Tankian wrote, “I have five rock songs that I wanted I do with SOAD but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna work out, so I am finishing those up to release them as a solo EP or possibly as a soundtrack for my film cause they are interrelated.”

Although the members of System Of A Down have reportedly written some 15 new songs over the past few years, the band seems unable — for reasons that are not clear — to get into a studio and record a new album for the first time since 2005.

Guitarist Daron Malakian is issuing a new album called Dictator from his recently revived side project, Scars On Broadway, on July 20th. Malakian recorded the LP in 2012 but held the album back, also in hopes of recording a new LP with System Of A Down.

Malakian told us a while back how System Of A Down’s sound originated: “There was this kind of music that was in my head that I was looking for in a band that I just couldn’t find. So that was the kind of music that we wanted to create, because we all that same type of frustration where it was like, ‘Yeah, we like heavy music, but we like this and we like that and we like this — where can we find a music that blends all those emotions into one song?’”

Despite its continued studio hiatus, System Of A Down will play five U.S. shows this October, in San Bernardino, Sacramento, Phoenix San Diego and Las Vegas.

Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Nickelback bassist Mike Kroeger, and ex-Marilyn Manson guitaist Zim Zum.