For music fans, few events in the last decade carry the same weight and significance as the murder of guitarist Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott. While there were a relativity small number of fans present at the December 8, 2004 show, held at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, featuring Abbott’s post-Pantera band Damageplan, the event had a profound effect on music fans the world over.

In addition to the loss of one of rock music’s most charismatic and talented guitar players, the senseless tragedy also claimed the lives of Nathan Bray, Erin Halk, and Jeff Thompson and forever changed the lives of those who were present on that fateful night. Despite what some critics of heavy metal have said, the actions of killer Nathan Gale, an allegedly deranged fan, contradict everything that true metal-heads stand for. For the generation of fans that grew up on bands like Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica and, of course, Pantera, this is our Altamont, a moment that forced us all to take stock of what we really stand for when we pledge our allegiance to heavy metal.

In his forthcoming book, A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa, Chris A. explores the solidarity of the metal community, the heroic actions of Officer James Niggemeyer who provides the book's foreword, as well as the Columbus police department and the fans who were there. What the book is not is a glorification of killer Nathan Gale, but rather a story of triumph over evil.

The following is a conversation with author Chris A. about the book and his experiences writing it. You can get more information about the book, scheduled for publication in April, at the author's website.

What originally interested you in doing this book?

Well the whole event really kind of bothered me, and I don’t think I had felt that way since John Lennon was killed. It was just one of those things that I had a lot of questions about, and I was always very skeptical about the break-up of Pantera being the cause. I was also very interested in the other three people who were killed that night, and there was very little in the media about them. Their stories seemed to be obscured by Dimebag's celebrity, so I started to do some digging.

What did you find out?

Well, after I went online and did a little poking around, I discovered that there were really very few things of any merit that had been written, so I got the idea in my mind that maybe it was something I could do.

At one point, in a 2004 interview with Metal Hammer magazine, Phil Anselmo had said that Dimebag “deserves to be severely beaten.” How much do you think that statement might have influenced Dimebag’s murder?

I looked into that aspect a great deal and the fact is that nobody knows. Obviously if he [Nathan Gale] heard about it or read about it, one could suspect that it may have influenced him. As far as finding anything absolute or concrete that he was even aware of the interview, there wasn’t anything.