HELLYEAH
Photo: Chad Lee

At first, Vinnie Paul Abbott wasn't at all interested in making music again.

Not even two years had passed since the onstage assassination of his brother — and Pantera/Damageplan confederate — "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting"), and really, much of his spare time was being spent running his label, Big Vin Records (see "Vinnie Paul Ready To Release Dimebag's Rebel Music"). Committing himself to a new band was just something he couldn't bring himself to do. But that didn't stop Nothingface bassist Jerry Montano from trying.

"Since May of last year, I started getting phone calls from Jerry, who I've known for a long time, just saying that they planned on putting something together and they needed a heavy hitter — they needed me," the drummer explained. "And I was like, 'Man, I'm so busy with my record company, and I don't know if I'm really ready to do this again' and all that. And after about seven or eight calls, he finally caught me one night when I was in the right frame of mind. I had been drinkin' and listening to some music, and I said, 'You know what? Let's give this thing a shot.' The next day, I talked to everybody in the band, and everyone was so super cool and had the same mindset."

Abbott invited the rest of the group that would inevitably become Hellyeah — Montano, Nothingface's Tom Maxwell and Mudvayne's Chad Gray and Gregg Tribbett — down to his Texas abode, and within eight days, the band had written seven complete songs. The guys jammed inside the same studio where Abbott had worked with Dime on the final few Pantera LPs, Damageplan's debut offering and the Rebel Meets Rebel album.

"It was just magic, man," Abbott recalled. "It was like it was meant to be. I think, just given everything I've been through, it's something that, if it hadn't fallen into my lap, I may not have ever been a part of again. It just sorta came to me."

And truth be told, Abbott's impressed with the final results: Hellyeah's self-titled debut, which drops April 10.

"I honestly think it's the best record I've been a part of since [Pantera's 1992 classic] Vulgar Display of Power," he said. "The thing that makes me feel that way about it is, when we made Vulgar, it was just magic. It happened. Everybody's mindset was in the right place. After that record, we never had that same vibe. We still made amazing records, but there were all these forces pulling us in different directions. So when we made [the Hellyeah] record, I had that same kind of feeling. It was just too easy. Everybody was into it. And I feel these songs are that strong, and I think everybody brought something special to the table.

"It's just a special record," he added, "and I really believe we're gonna be f---ing kick-ass live. We haven't done any live shows yet, but I know that everybody comes from a band that's been known as a kick-ass live band. So I know the five of us together are going to make some hellacious noise."

The upcoming album took the band about a collective month — spread out over several months — to write and record. When it hits shelves, it will boast a dozen brutal tracks, including "You Wouldn't Know," "GodDamn," "Rotten to the Core" and "Alcohaulin' Ass," which Abbott said is "a good song about drinking and something that all guys kind of tend to like, and that's ass."

Abbott thinks some fans will be surprised by Hellyeah's tracks, and he said the entire LP is a "very song-oriented record." To him, "it's music with an attitude. It's like a familiar groove but with a new sound. I really don't think it sounds anything like the bands that any of us are from. I think it has its own sound, its own identity, and it's special in that aspect."

While its members consider Hellyeah a bona fide band, its formation will not impact either Mudvayne — who are working on the follow-up to 2005's Lost and Found — or Nothingface's future. "The way that all of us talk about approaching this thing is being able to be in two bands and have 'em both function — kind of like Stone Sour and Slipknot," Abbott said. "This is a real band; it's no side project."

Hopping on the Hellyeah boat has been instrumental in helping Abbott heal and come to terms with his brother's death. It's also returned him to one of his first loves: making music.

"I didn't know if it was ever gonna be in the cards for me to do again," Abbott said. "It's a big step, and it's only been two years, but to me, it feels like a whole 'nother lifetime. And I just have to say, I give credit to these guys for making me feel comfortable and enjoying doing what we did and making it fun again. It's been a blast. So, I am glad I went ahead and did it. I knew I loved it, and I knew I missed it. I knew I wanted to get back to it, but it was just a matter of learning how to do it without Dime. It brings me back to what I love, and it's a new life, but it's something I'm going to embrace, and I'm going to go at it just as f---ing hard as I did with anything else.

"I'll never be the same, but I've kinda learned that this is my life now, and this is the way it is, and I've got to do the very best I can or Dime's gonna kick my ass one way or another sooner or later," he continued. "I've done my best to carry the torch, because he always used to say, 'You have to keep on keeping on.' So I am doing what I think he wants me to do and what I've got to do to stay sane."

Abbott said Hellyeah will tour extensively this year but that they're still mapping things out. Playing this summer's Ozzfest would make perfect sense for Hellyeah, considering all the bandmembers have taken the festival's stage before. And if Sharon Osbourne extended an offer, the band would gladly take her up on it, Abbott said.

"We will definitely be on tour all summer, and we're definitely looking forward to it," he said. "Ozzfest would be awesome. That's all I can say about that. I'm a veteran of Ozzfest. Everybody knows it's the premier summer tour, so if we were offered to be a part of that, that would just be super, man."

• Vinnie Paul
• Pantera
• Damageplan
• Mudvayne
• Nothingface

Vinnie Paul
Photo: MTV News

Launching his own record label and releasing an album's worth of material that had been in the can going on three years was imperative for former Pantera/ Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul.

Big Vin Records and the upcoming self-titled debut from Rebel Meets Rebel restored meaning to his life. The album is a dozen tracks of countrified metal featuring controversial country singer David Allan Coe and the guitar prowess of Paul's late brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

It has eased some of the pain Paul's been grappling with since his brother's onstage slaying at an Ohio nightclub in December 2004 (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting").

"It's something that me and Dime really wanted to do a long time ago, but we were so busy with everything, we never could," Paul explained. "When Atlantic [Damageplan's label] passed on the Rebel Meets Rebel record because they didn't know what to do with it, I was like, 'I'm not gonna go shop this. This just fell right in my lap, and it's time for me to start this record label that I've been thinking about and, you know, put it all together.'

"It is a lot of work, trust me," he continued. "Getting on a tour bus and riding around the United States and playing for an hour and a half a night is a lot easier than this stuff. But it's fun to be able to learn both sides of the business."

There was also Dimebag's legacy to consider. His work on Rebel Meets Rebel isn't merely a footnote — it's yet another chapter in the life of one of the guitar's greatest advocates, Paul said.

"His guitar playing on this record is incredible," Paul said. "The cool thing about this record is, a lot of times when you're making metal, everything operates kind of like a machine. It's like chung, chung, chung — it's just power. And with this kind of record, it has a Rolling Stones vibe. Everybody can kind of cut loose, play what they want, and all the people really interact instead of it all kind of being one big gigantic tank moving in one direction.

"So [there was] a lot of freedom involved in making this record," Paul said. "And it gave me something to look forward to and to live for because I've never done anything without Dime. ... It's been a long road for me to get to this point where I feel I can move on in my life. And that's what I'm doing, man."

Rebel Meets Rebel, which also includes Paul behind the kit and erstwhile Pantera member Rex Brown on bass, will hit stores May 2, as will "Dimevision, Volume 1," a DVD culled from footage Dimebag had shot with a camcorder over several years on the road and at home. Paul said there will be other "Dimevision" releases down the road — it's just a matter of sifting through the tapes and organizing the material.

"It's in the total spirit of the Pantera videos," Paul said. "I mean, he's the dude that pretty much — in my opinion, a lot of people's opinions — created 'Jackass.' He never got any credit for it, but it's him, his stellar guitar playing and just being the clown that he is."

Rebel Meets Rebel and "Dimevision, Volume 1" are only the beginning for Big Vin Records. Paul said he has about 5,000 demo tapes to listen to. "I haven't really heard what I'm looking for yet," he said. "I want something that's out there. I want something that's different."

For now, though, he's focused on Rebel Meets Rebel, the closest fans are going to get to another Pantera record.

"This record, when you put it on, there's a lot of fun there. And with Rex, it has our trademark [Pantera] sound. When the three of us get together and play, there's no other band that sounds that way. It's just us performing with a different singer, especially not only a different singer but a different genre totally," he said. "It's out there, but it's cool. I don't think hard-core country fans are going to like it. I don't think hard-core metal fans are going to like it. But I think anybody that listens to a wide variety of music will totally dig it. ... I think all of our Southern roots really came together on it."

Even without Dime around to play guitar, Paul said there's a chance Rebel Meets Rebel could tour — so long as he can tap someone gifted enough to tackle the riffs. "I have a couple of people in mind that were really close to Dime and would be perfect for it," he said. "But we're just going to put out the record first and see how that goes. And then if the fan response was really, really good, I think it'd be fun to go play those songs live because they'd be killer songs live."

At the time of Dimebag's death, Paul said Damageplan had finished recording the band's sophomore disc — it sits in his house, mixed, but still needs vocals. The drummer said he has no intention of letting the songs collect dust. He's just not sure what to do with the tracks next.

"What we recorded was really, really kick-ass," Paul said. "With every band, their first record is kind of them getting settled, and their second record becomes the one that really blows up. Me and Dime just recorded all those songs ourselves. He played bass on them and guitar, and I played drums. We produced them together. They're really kick-ass. I really haven't decided what I want to do with them. I've thought about having a bunch of Dime's favorite singers sing on all the songs, which would be really cool. Or have Pat Lachman sing on them and have them be the [second] Damageplan record."

Paul said he's also looking forward to "Six-String Masterpiece: The Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute," which is being sponsored by Dean Guitars, "the kind of guitar my brother made famous."

More than 50 musicians and artists — including Marilyn Manson, Derek Hess, the Deftones, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, Dave Grohl, Slayer's Kerry King, Moby, James Hetfield of Metallica, Billy Corgan, Audioslave's Tom Morello, Zakk Wylde, Rob Zombie, Tommy Lee, Ted Nugent, Sum 41, and various members of Korn and Slipknot — were presented with a Dean Guitar and asked to paint it. The finished guitars will go on tour as a mobile exhibit, and next year they'll be auctioned off, with the proceeds earmarked for charity. One of the guitars even features the artwork of Kelly Clarkson.

"A lot of people went, 'How does she fit into this picture?' " Paul said. "True story: She used to wait on me and Dime at a comedy club in Fort Worth, Texas, back in the day before she made it on 'American Idol' and all that. So we didn't really know her, but we had met each other, and it was really cool that she did a tribute."

For more on the life of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, check out the feature "Remembering Dimebag."

• Dimebag Darrell
• Vinnie Paul
• Damageplan
• Pantera

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
Photo: Vaughn Youtz/Getty Images

On the one-year anniversary of the shooting spree that took the life of Damageplan/ Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and four others, Abbott's family has filed a lawsuit against the Columbus, Ohio, club where he was killed.

The suit against the Alrosa Villa nightclub was brought on behalf of the Abbott family by Dimebag's brother/bandmate, Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul, and by Damageplan tour manager Chris Paluska and drum tech John Brooks, who were injured in the shooting, according to the trio's lawyer, Gerald Leeseberg.

"The central allegation of the lawsuit is that there was inadequate security provided at the music venue given the nature and size of the crowd and previous incidents at the club involving criminal activity," Leeseberg said. The lawyer cited police and media reports about earlier incidents at the metal club involving criminal activity, fighting, handguns and the firing of weapons.

On December 8, 2004 ex-Marine Nathan Gale rushed the stage at the club and opened fire with a 9mm gun, killing Dimebag, Damageplan bodyguard Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, fan Nathan Bray and club worker Erin Halk, and injuring two — Paluska and Brooks (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting").

Leeseberg said one of the other claims in the suit is that the security that was provided performed "horribly" in that they were aware of Gale's suspicious behavior prior to the shooting. "They watched him scale the security fence and gain access to the club and for reasons to be determined, he was allowed to go through the crowd and begin firing a weapon," Leeseberg said. "He was carrying a weapon and 50 rounds of ammunition, all of this with the knowledge of security that this individual was behaving strangely and they did nothing to stop him."

Leeseberg said the suit cites an incident eight months earlier in nearby Cincinnati in which security at a venue where Damageplan were playing identified Gale as a suspicious person and subdued him. In that incident, at the venue Bogart's, Gale was dragged off the stage during a Damageplan show on April 8, 2004 after he caused nearly $2,000 in damage to stage lights and other equipment during a struggle with police.

At the Alrosa Villa, eyewitnesses said Gale had been acting strangely before the show, first blocking the club's parking lot exit with his car, then pacing back and forth on the Villa's front lawn as the opening act played.

Leeseberg said the suit argues that steps could have been taken to intervene and stop Gale and that a metal detector at the front door would have deterred people with guns from coming into the venue. "If you have a gun, you wouldn't go through a metal detector," he said. "And if you are mentally ill and don't appreciate that if you have a gun it will go off, you will get caught."

However, Gale, who had a history of mental illness, did not enter the club through the front door, where a metal detector might have been placed. He jumped a low wall near the back and entered through a stage door after rushing by security guards. Leeseberg said that in allowing Gale to illegally enter the club, security failed to do its job. "They are supposed to stop that because security guards saw him do that [climb the fence]," he said. "One of the security guards said that he didn't want to mess with him [Gale] because he was a big dude."

Because of Ohio laws governing civil damages, the lawsuit seeks more than $25,000 in damages, though Leeseberg speculated that the actual amount of compensatory damages a jury could award the Abbott family and Paluska and Brooks for economic losses and pain and suffering would likely be "substantially" higher. In addition to waiting for the final, 600-page police report on the incident, Leeseberg said December 8 was also chosen as a date to file the suit for symbolic reasons.

Alrosa owner Eric Cautela could not be reached for comment, but in an earlier interview with local station WBNS, he reportedly admitted his security force wasn't prepared to stop a man bent on killing.

"My security guards aren't supposed to stop a bullet. They get paid $10-$12 an hour. They aren't paid to take a bullet," Cautela told the station last June.

The Alrosa will be closed on Thursday and Friday in honor of the anniversary of the murders.

For an in-depth interview with Vinnie Paul, see "Dimebag Darrell: A Brother Remembers." For a feature where Dimebag's friends and peers remember the good times and great shreds, see "Remembering Dimebag."

Click here for more on the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the Ohio club shooting.

[This story was originally published at 8:13 am E.T. on 12.08.2005]

• Dimebag Darrell
• Pantera
• Damageplan

• Dimebag Darrell
• Pantera
• Damageplan

Damageplan's Vinnie Paul
Photo: MTV News

In the year since Pantera and Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was gunned down while onstage at an Ohio nightclub, fans and friends have pledged that his life and his music will live on for years to come. Now it seems that Dimebag's legacy won't be limited to memories and familiar riffs.

"There's a lot of stuff in the archive that Dime has left us with," Dimebag's brother and bandmate Vinnie Paul told MTV News. Speaking on-camera for the first time since his brother's tragic death, Paul said that in addition to the oft-discussed collaboration that he and Dime recorded with controversial country singer David Allan Coe, there's a trove of previously unreleased Dimebag footage being compiled for a DVD collection and an assortment of songs that had been intended for the second Damageplan album.

"They were the best [songs] yet," Vinnie said of the tracks he and Dime had been working on. "We learned a lot from being on tour, we grew as a band, and we were about to make the [equivalent of Pantera's breakthrough sophomore album] Vulgar Display of Power for Damageplan. Basically, a band's first record is them coming together and really learning everything, and then after they're on the road and really become a unit, the next record slams. We were to that point, and it was coming, man. We felt really, really strong about it."

That material will have to wait, however, as Vinnie plans to roll out the Dimebag/ Coe collaboration album, now titled Rebel Meets Rebel, in March on his own Big Vin Records. The brothers and Coe worked on the project off and on for the better part of four years, and the result is "something that Dime was very proud of."

"It's the first thing that came to me since all of this happened, to keep my brother's legacy and everything he did alive," Vinnie said. "It's a fun record, that's what I like about it. It's not metal, it's not country — it's fun. Anybody that can smoke a joint, drink a beer, this record is for them. His Southern roots really come through big, and it's something that we were waiting on the right time to put out."

While the growth of Damageplan was the chief concern for Vinnie and Dime when trying to get the album's timing right, Vinnie was forced to confront a whole new host of previously unthinkable concerns after his brother's death last year. The months that have followed have been, in Vinnie's words, full of "unimaginable sadness." He said the idea of returning to music without his chief creative partner — and best friend — has been difficult to face.

"Gettin' on with gettin' on ain't an easy thing," Vinnie said. "I've been down to the studio where we recorded everything two times since then. It still has his brand-new Krank amp sitting right where he had [his amps], still has the police tape where he didn't want anybody touching them, 'cause he loved the tone. It was really weird, man. I just ... I didn't stay long. I walked in and ... I just ... it's pretty tough, man. It freaked me out, and I just left. It's not good."

Vinnie said that time has eased things a bit, affording him the ability to talk openly about Dime and his death, but emotions still run high and the loss is great. He's said he takes comfort in the support of friends and fans, and in the vibrant Dime who can be found in the video footage he's been combing through.

"The thing that makes me feel good is when I see him on video. It makes me feel like he's still here," Vinnie said. "The videos make me smile. Pictures usually make me sad, listening to the music bums me out — but when I see him on the video, it's like I could just reach right through that TV and grab him and give him a big hug."

For much more from our interview with Vinnie, check in with MTVNews.com on Thursday, December 8, when we mark the one-year anniversary of Dimebag's death with an in-depth interview with Vinnie. Then tune into "Headbangers Ball" on MTV2 this Saturday, December 10, at midnight for a special Dimebag tribute edition.

For a feature where Dimebag's friends and peers remember the good times and great shreds, see "Remembering Dimebag."

• Dimebag Darrell
• Damageplan

• Pantera
• Damageplan
• Dimebag Darrell

Dimebag Darrell
Photo: Vaughn Youtz/ Getty Images

The Columbus, Ohio, detectives investigating the slaying of Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott may never learn what inspired Nathan Gale's murderous rampage on December 8, 2004 (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting").

But according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch, after months of working on the case and 287 eyewitness interviews, investigators have dismissed one common theory: that the shootings were motivated by the breakup of Pantera, Abbott's former band, or a public dispute between Abbott and Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo.

The Dispatch — which obtained the 627-page investigative file on the case Wednesday — quotes a document in which Detective William Gillette wrote, "There is no evidence leading detectives to believe Nathan Gale was communicating with Phil Anselmo or any other individual ... in an effort to hurt Dimebag Darrell Abbott" (see "Dimebag Darrell's Brother May Soon Perform Again; Anselmo Looks To Make Peace").

The documents further reveal that police searched Gale's apartment in the wake of the shooting and found no "computers or magazines or compact discs" connected with either Damageplan or Pantera, according to the Dispatch. However, a Damageplan CD was found in the player of Gale's Pontiac Grand Am, which he drove to the concert.

Investigators had hoped the interviews — conducted with members of Damageplan and the band's crew, concertgoers, club employees, police officers and emergency personnel — would clarify details about the shooting, including the order in which Gale's victims were shot. That issue remains clouded, but the accounts do provide a clearer portrait of what happened at the club that evening before Officer James Niggemeyer's arrival on the scene (see "Officer In Damageplan Shooting: 'I Was Hoping He'd Let The Hostage Go' " and "Videotape Of Chaos During 'Dimebag' Darrell's Shooting Released").

While some of the witnesses contend Gale produced the gun after stepping onto the stage and targeted Dimebag first, Damageplan's tour manager, Christopher Paluska, told police that he was shot first, while trying to prevent Gale from taking the stage. "Mr. Paluska related he grabbed the guy and this individual turned around and shot him," according to police documents. "After doing this, Paluska ran to the side of the stage, where someone helped him lie down and he watched as Dimebag Darrell Abbott ... got shot by the shooter."

Stage technician John Brooks — who, along with Paluska, was one of three who survived being shot — told police he was standing behind speakers at the right side of the stage and watched Gale make a beeline for Abbott. He further claimed that Gale first shot Dimebag, then the band's head of security, Jeffrey "Mayhem" Thompson, who'd rushed to the guitarist's aid. Thompson died from three gunshot wounds.

Brooks, who was shot three times during a struggle with Gale, recalled being overpowered and later used as a hostage. "Don't move, don't move!" Gale yelled at Brooks, who was pinned to the ground and said he could feel the gun pressed against his head. Brooks told police he "thought the gunman was going to shoot him in the head."

The third survivor, a fan named Travis Burnett, told detectives he scaled the stage and challenged Gale. The gunman told him to "Get the f--- out of here," but according to the Dispatch report, Burnett attempted to put Gale in "a wristlock" when the gun fired, nicking his left forearm. Burnett retreated and immediately "heard three more gunshots that he believed were aimed at his head."

The members of Damageplan told police they saw very little beyond Dimebag's murder. Bassist Robert "Zilla" Kakaha "looked over toward Dimebag, and the suspect looked like he was hugging him, then turned to the side, and that's when he saw the gun aimed at his head." Kakaha fled through the club's rear exit. Dimebag's brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, took cover behind onstage amplifiers after the guitarist was killed. Gale walked right past frontman Patrick Lachman, who said he didn't realize what was happening until he heard gunshots. Lachman then ran offstage, yelling for someone to call 911.

The report also reveals details about Gale's method of entry into the club: He scaled a wooden fence surrounding the venue's outdoor patio, witnesses reported, and his intrusion was encouraged by several concertgoers, who eventually helped the gunman sneak inside. Gale then walked past a security guard, who tried to prevent him from entering the club without a ticket.

Click here for more on the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the Ohio club shooting.

• Pantera
• Damageplan

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
Photo: Vaughn Youtz/Getty Images

A T-shirt bearing slain Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's image has been deemed inappropriate by school officials in Indiana. The term "dime bag," which commonly refers to a $10 parcel of illegal drugs, violates the high school's dress code.

According to a report in the Times of Northwest Indiana, 17-year-old Lake Central High School junior Timothy Briones was called down to the school's dean's office last week and was asked to turn his shirt inside out as it violated the school's uniform dress code. But Briones, who idolizes the guitarist, refused; he returned to class and was not disciplined for his defiance.

Briones claims he's worn the shirt to school before without incident. His mother, Debra Briones, characterized the dean's request as a clear attempt to violate the student's First Amendment rights. She told the Times that she visited the school's principal this week with various news articles on Dimebag and tried to demonstrate to school administrators that the guitarist was a "good guy," but the principal refused to read the clippings.

Lake Central School Superintendent Janet Emerick told the paper that the district's dress code applies to all students, and prohibits apparel "that alludes to drugs, alcohol, sex, the occult, gangs, profanity" or is otherwise "offensive to ethnic or racial groups." Debra Briones said all she wants is for her son to be permitted to wear the shirt to class.

Former Pantera guitarist Abbott was one of four victims gunned down by Nathan Gale during a Damageplan concert at a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub on December 8, 2004 (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting").

Click here for more on the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the Ohio club shooting.

• Dimebag Darrell
• Pantera
• Damageplan

The Mercy Clinic's Pat Lachman
Photo: Chad Lee

When the news surfaced early this summer that former Damageplan singer Patrick Lachman had started assembling a new band, he found himself the target of caustic criticism. How, some wondered, could Lachman be looking to the future with such a tragic event — the December murder of Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott — still so fresh in his past? But for Lachman, his new band has allowed him to come to terms with the loss of someone he still considers a brother.

"I don't think there's really ever a time that it's going to feel appropriate for me," Lachman said of moving on after the shooting (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting"). "Ultimately, you have to get back on the horse. You could easily let a decade go by and not do anything. I'm happy to have walked away with my life after the situation I was thrown into. But, I mean, what do you do? I'm a musician. I'm going to make music. What Dime would have told me was, 'You make music, mother---er. Get back on it. Do what you do.' So, that's what I did."

According to Lachman, the Mercy Clinic — which features guitarists Brian Harrah (Professional Murder Music) and Josh Stinson (Drist), bassist Steed Najera (Triple Seven) and drummer Bevan Davies (Danzig and Jerry Cantrell) — began more than a year ago when Harrah sent him some demo material he'd been working on.

"He just wanted my opinion on it, and I loved it," he said. "It was completely different from what I was doing with Damageplan. And then, after everything went down in December, I took a little time to figure out what I was going to do next."

That's when Harrah suggested Lachman give the demos another listen and consider adding vocals if he felt ready.

"It started as an experiment, and it was really cathartic for me," Lachman explained. "All this sh-- that I had floating in my head just sort of came out so rapidly; I was shocked. I never had inspiration of that magnitude. There was some heavy sh-- going on upstairs. I just started writing and dumping everything I had — all this sewage in my head — into the lyrics. I'm incredibly proud of it, and think it's the best work I've ever done."

And it's also his heaviest work, if only for what inspired the lyrics to the songs. While none of the 12 tracks the band has recorded — including "The Day the Sun Refused To Shine," "Let It Burn" and "Can I Become Me" — specifically address Dimebag's murder ("I didn't want to be that obvious," he said), the songs are reflective of Lachman's morose mood and chronicle the internal struggles he'd endured throughout the entire mourning process.

"It turned out to be the most realistic way for me to grieve," the singer said. "What am I going to do, see a shrink?"

At the same time, Lachman said the Mercy Clinic music is also the most melodic material he's ever had a hand in. There are metal elements in the songs at times, but generally, it's radically different from Damageplan. "The material's very broad," he explained. "It runs the gamut from heavy to acoustic, surreal to just wacked-out effects-laden stuff with no drums and different vocal approaches."

Lachman had some reservations about whether he was prepared to take that step toward moving on at first. Then he performed with a regrouped Alice in Chains in February during a tsunami-relief benefit in Seattle, Washington. "It was like I'd forgotten how cool it was to sing," he said. "I was dealing with my stuff, and they were dealing with the emotions of Layne Staley's passing and being onstage [together] for the first time in nine years. ... It was heavy."

Yes, the singer has heard rumblings that Alice in Chains is considering a full-time reunion, but hasn't been approached yet to take over vocal duties. "I'm just waiting for the phone to ring, to see if and when it's going to happen," Lachman said. "I would be willing to participate if it's something they wanted to explore. The door's wide open, and it would be an opportunity of a lifetime to play with musical icons and people I now consider my friends."

For the moment, Lachman is sticking with the Mercy Clinic, and that band is taking a DIY approach; there's no label affiliation or management, and that just fine with the singer. But in time, he'd like to be able to sign a recording contract, release these songs and take them on the road.

"It was important for me to keep it pure and unadulterated," he said. "I just wanted to write the songs I want to write and not worry what my hardcore metalhead friends think. I want to do what I want to do and see what happens and keep the outside influences away from tainting what we wanted to get across."

With contact between the surviving members of Damageplan "dwindling," Lachman doesn't know where the band stands; the healing process continues for everyone who was there that night, and whenever there's contact, Lachman said it only dredges up memories of the horrific shooting. The singer instead tries to focus on his favorite memories of Abbott.

"He loved the first Audioslave album," Lachman recalled. "I can remember many a night, 5 a.m., drunk as sh--, laying on the floor, listening to Audioslave with Dime going, 'What a f---ing great record this is.' Matter of fact, we got a friendship tattoo of the Audioslave [flame] logo.

"For Dime, it was monumental, symbolically, that those guys could come back from their respective bands and put something together and move forward in a new direction. So one night, he's like, 'Come on, we're going to get tattooed.' And we went. Mine's black, and his was orange and yellow, like a flame. Around it, it says 'Slave to the Power of Music.' That's how much it meant to him, symbolically, that a band could do that. Really, that's what he wanted for Damageplan."

Click here for more on the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the Ohio club shooting.

• Damageplan

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
Photo: AFP/Getty Images

A previously unreleased solo by late Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell will appear this fall in an unlikely place: on Nickelback's new album, All the Right Reasons. The guitar parts for the flailing, 24-second lead were donated by Darrell's brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, and assembled from outtakes from the Pantera albums Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven.

The song, a tribute to Darrell titled "Side of a Bullet," was written three months after the guitarist was killed while performing onstage with Damageplan in Columbus, Ohio (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting"). Kroeger first penned the song's aggressive, metallic riff, then wrote call-and-response lyrics from the perspective of a Pantera fan so enraged over Dimebag's murder that he vows revenge, not realizing the shooter had already been killed by a policeman.

Kroeger roars in the song's chorus: "How could you take his life away (What made you think you had the right?)/ How could you be so full of hate (To take away somebody's life?)/ When I heard you let him die and leave the world, I wondered why/ I sat and home and on my own, I cried alone and scratched your name in the side of a bullet."

"I was very upset, and for two months, if I saw his picture somewhere I would get angry," Kroeger said of his motivation for writing the song. "I hadn't lost somebody to a shooting before — it wasn't as though he'd been killed in some sort of accident. He was taken in such a horrible, malicious way that just made it more painful."

Once Kroeger finished demoing "Side of a Bullet," he called up Paul and played it to him to get his take on the tune. Paul liked what he heard and urged Kroeger to write lyrics about Dime. "I said, 'Well, funny enough, that song is about your brother,' " Kroeger recalled.

Paul volunteered to play on the song, so Kroeger overnighted him the tape and encouraged him to record a new drum track over the one played by Nickelback drummer Daniel Adair. "He thought about it for a while," Kroeger said, "then he decided that Daniel had done such an amazing job that we should leave it the way it was. That's when he sent the guitar parts from Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven, which we used for the solo."

Kroeger was introduced to Dimebag and Paul in 2002 in Dallas by former Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, who was touring as Nickelback's opening act. A few drinks later, the ex-Pantera members admitted to Kroeger that they were big fans. "Vinnie told me he listened to Nickelback every day, which really surprised me," Kroeger said. "But I guess they come from that whole Southern-rock background, and we're a hard-rock band with Southern-rock influences, so they liked it a lot."

In 2003, the next time Nickelback played Dallas, Kroeger hooked up with Dime and, during a long night of partying, played him his demo of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," which Nickelback were covering with Kid Rock for the soundtrack to "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle."

"I wrote all these heavy, tuned-down guitar riffs and I asked him if he wanted to play the guitar solo on it, and he was pumped to do it," Kroeger said. Dime ultimately joined him and Kid on the track. "That was the first time I appeared on a record with Dime, and now this. I just wish this wasn't the way it had to happen."

Click here for more on the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the Ohio club shooting.

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MTV2 Headbangers Ball Tour April 1, 2004 at Roseland Ballroom in New York City

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