Tag Archives: vinnie paul

The Reunited Pantera Perform For The First-Time @ Hell and Heaven Metal Fest, Mexico

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The reformed or reunited version of Pantera in 2022 features original members Philip Anselmo and Rex Brown who laid down that primal concrete sledge something fierce back in the heyday with the exemplary talents of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul who are sadly no longer with us. Joining the ranks in their honor are Zakk Wylde from Black Label Society and Charlie Benante from Anthrax on lead guitar and drums respectively. Now there is a lot of chatter to the relevence of this particular reunion and my view is this. It’s good to have the means to let generations of Metalheads in the now enjoy these songs in the live sense since with the proper work it can be done effectively and send the people home exhilarated. While the band was recently in the news with their joining onto the upcoming Metallica World Tour (announced HERE ICYMI), last night they performed at the Hell and Heaven Fest in Mexico and the set list rundown was cribbed from the popular Setlist.fm website.
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Presenting Hellyeah’s “333” Official Video

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The folks in the band Hellyeah have unveiled their brand new video for their song “333” and the cooking track had this clip filmed in Duffs Bar which is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Let’s check it out and offer up some opinion about the clip afterwards.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: Speaking of the clip primarily I had to say that I liked this one a lot since it was done in a popular local establishment that is known for catering to the Metal Legions. The clip flips back and forth to shots of Chad walking the mean streets of Brooklyn to clips inside the popular bar where the fans in attendance surround the players (Kyle, Tom and Christian) and look to be having an excellent time. They turned this around quick as it wasn’t too long ago I saw a call to arms across the Metalheads of NYC to come to the famous bar for a video filming. The track is rather good and at times cooks at a great velocity. The drumming on the track and of course the album is the last recorded work by the late great Vinnie Paul who we lost back in 2018. As the song plays we see representations of Paul around the bar and the songs video closes with a respectful memorial to him. He will be missed for sure and was a larger than life personality for the Metal scene. The song itself moves along rather quickly and while it is named “333” it also runs for three minutes and thirty three seconds. Coincidence? I think not. I’ll aim for discussing the musicality of the track soon so stay tuned for that. Let’s all try to rally behind the track in honor of Vinnie Paul.

Official Website: https://hellyeahband.com/

Reflecting On The 2018 Deaths In Music

As our Entertainment Year draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment and reflect upon the numerous artist losses that we found happening over the past year in 2018. While its true that there is often a longer “In Memoriam” post done for some of the artists here on the PiercingMetal website, it’s all too difficult to do such a piece for every single musician or entertainment personality that we lose. I think I’d need a dedicated writer for that alone. In similar fashion to the full listing that I began last year in this fashion, I culled the research sources and tried to cite all the names that our demographic might be most familiar with. Should a longer “In Memoriam” post exist on the site, I will highlight the name so you can examine that article at your leisure. Let’s say goodbye to these talented people once more before 2018 end.

January 1, 2018: Jon Paul Steuer (33), American punk singer and actor
January 2, 2018: Rick Hall (85), American record producer
January 3, 2018: Josiah Boyd (32), American heavy metal bassist (A Hill to Die Upon)
January 4, 2018: Ray Thomas (76), British progressive rock flautist (The Moody Blues)
January 5, 2018: Mikio Fujioka (36), Japanese heavy metal guitarist (Babymetal)
January 9, 2018: Paul Antingnani, American heavy metal drummer (Sworn Enemy)
January 10, 2018: “Fast” Eddie Clarke (67), British heavy metal guitarist (Motörhead, Fastway)
January 15, 2018: Dolores O’Riordan (46), Irish alternative rock singer-songwriter (The Cranberries)
January 16, 2018: Dave Holland (69), English heavy metal drummer (Judas Priest, Trapeze)
January 20, 2018: Jim Rodford (76), British rock bassist (Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies)

February 7, 2018: Pat Torpey (64), American hard rock drummer (Mr. Big)
February 9, 2018: Craig MacGregor (68), American rock bassist (Foghat)
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Powerhouse Drummer Vinnie Paul (Pantera, Damageplan Hellyeah) Has Died (1964-2018)

I had just gotten home to my apartment after a rousing and quite fun show by the Dropkick Murphy’s last night when my mobile started buzzing with texts from friends with news that I hated to read on my screen. It appeared that influential Heavy Metal drummer Vinnie Paul had died. The news was first broadcast across the Official Pantera Facebook Page (of which Vinnie was a founding member) and this statement has been embedded for you below the photo.

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The Statement: “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”.
Continue reading Powerhouse Drummer Vinnie Paul (Pantera, Damageplan Hellyeah) Has Died (1964-2018)

Hails To 1/4 Century Of Pantera’s “Vulgar Display Of Power” (1992-2017)

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Can you believe that we are at the 25th Anniversary of Pantera’s “Vulgar Display Of Power”? Well we are and while this is actually the sixth album in the bands discography, it’s pretty much the second in the more throttling and intense “Groove Metal” sound that they were laying down and claiming some dominance over. I remembered that I first got into Pantera when I heard some tracks on WSOU and despite my being a fan of some of the earliest Power Metal and Glam Rock of the day, I never did hear of the band during their non-Thrashy times. To say that I played “CFH” to death would be an understatement but it was with “VDOP” that this band firmed up in everyone’s Metal minds that they meant business. As always, these milestone reflections are more personal thoughts as the full litany of what made this album come to pass are well outlined in the official Wikipedia entry below. Let’s continue.

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From the moment that I first played this at the time new album I felt that the band had upped their Heavy Metal game. They were intense and very in your face and had this whole “Take No Prisoners” sort of attitude. In 1992 the Grunge Rock scene was getting more and more prominent and the Metal Legions had to stick by their favorite music in order for it to thrive. It would not be an easy task for Phil, Dimebag, Vinnie and Rex to do since these Seattle based melodic strains were quickly taking over the airwaves and even the video ones. Bands like Pantera were slowly relegated to only being showcased on the later evening “Headbangers Ball” that broadcast once a week. When you did play this album it was very often done at levels that would send a more civilized sort into hiding. Like I said up above, this was some true in your face stuff and for those of us who were enjoying it we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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