Dimebag Darrell

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Carrie Underwood, Filter, Paramore, etc.

Carrie Underwood Toyota Center, April 23 Seemingly shoved off the queen-of-country throne by Taylor Swift's ascendancy, Carrie Underwood may have taken the title right back now that Swift has crossed over completely into the pop realm. No one will ever mistake Underwood for Loretta Lynn, of course, ... More >>

Last Night: Anthrax & Exodus at House of Blues

Anthrax, Exodus House of Blues April 10, 2013 I am going to come right out and say it: I never thought Anthrax should have been a part of The Big Four. When laying out the titans of thrash metal, the boys from New York -- a fact they never seem to want you to forget -- always seemed a bit out of p ... More >>

Rex Brown's Official Truth: Pantera's Literary Autopsy

Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera By Rex Brown Da Capo Press, 304 pp., $15.47 Back in Pantera's '90s heyday, few fans would have guessed that the first guy to write a tell-all history of the band would be Rex Brown. Though an indivisible component of Pantera's larger-than-lif ... More >>

Friday Night: Down and Warbeast at Warehouse Live

Down, Warbeast, Honky Warehouse Live January 11, 2013 "Seems like we just played here," said Philip Anselmo as he surveyed the crowded Warehouse Live ballroom from the stage on Friday night. The feeling was understandable: The singer's band, Down, had indeed played the same stage just eight scant ... More >>

Omotai's Terrestrial Grief Shows Daring Steps Towards Masterpiece.

Even though Omotai is always on the list of Houston's top metal acts, this is the first time I've really had the opportunity to check them out. Seeing as how their live prowess is always shouted from the rooftops, I was curious how that energy translated into their first full-length and oft-delayed ... More >>

Listen To Our Texas 30 Picks On Rdio and Spotify Right Now

Today we reveal the top 30 Texas albums released over the past 30 years. It was rough work, but we did it. Rewind: The Texas 30: The Third Runners-Up, Albums 60-51 The Texas 30: The Second Runners-Up, Albums 50-41 Behold the Texas 30, Plus Albums 40-31 From Selena to Steve Earle to Pantera, th ... More >>

Yes and Zeppelin? 5 True All-Star Near-Collaborations

Quick, what's your dream supergroup, living or dead? When I was a big prog nerd, mine was Peter Gabriel on vocals and lyrics, David Gilmour and Robert Fripp on guitar, Geddy Lee on bass, Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Levin on Chapman stick, and Rick Wakeman on keys. Come to think of it, that still sou ... More >>

"Free Randy Blythe": Lamb of God/Dethklok Tour Canceled; No Houston Sept. 7 Show (UPDATE: Blythe Has Been Released)

(UPDATE: From Adrenaline PR: "After five weeks in a prison in Prague in the Czech Republic, Randy Blythe has been released on bail and is returning to the United States. Although Lamb Of God has cancelled their summer co-headline tour with Dethklok, the band is currently targeting October 26th as t ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Phil Anselmo: The Trendkiller's Top 5 Side Projects

On June 30, ex-Pantera and current Down frontman Philip H. Anselmo turns 44 years old. For a while there, it didn't look like he was going to make it this long. The metal titan suffers from chronic back pain caused by degenerative disc disease in his spine, and beginning in the mid-'90s, Phil self-m ... More >>

Top 10 Weirdest Kiss Memorabilia Items Up For Sale

In rock n roll and pop music, merchandising has always been a somewhat lucrative ordeal. This especially rings true whenever an artist becomes extremely popular. It is a great marketing ploy, whether for teens, diehards, collectors or regular fans. Let's face it, when it comes to music merchandisi ... More >>

Phil Anselmo Talks Solo Records, New Down Material & Pantera's Legacy

Phil Anselmo, former lead singer of the mighty Pantera, currently of Down, is a busy man. But he always has time to talk about his beloved New Orleans Saints, who are going through a trying offseason, to put it mildly. "I can talk Saints all day. I think we have a great season coming up and I thin ... More >>

10 Things Musicians Have Been Buried With

Everyone dies eventually, even rock stars, and when they go it's not uncommon for them to take beloved personal items with them, or to have such things placed there by grieving friends and family. That is of course unless they're cremated and have their ashes snorted or smoked. For those who went th ... More >>

Top 10 Most Outrageous Onstage Incidents, Antics & Meltdowns

Everyone has their meltdown moments, no doubt about it. We make mistakes and, most of the time, we try to correct them. We have them because we are all human. Unfortunately, though, when you are in the spotlight, your hurts, tantrums, mistakes and meltdowns are all magnified for all the world to se ... More >>

Van Halen's A Different Kind Of Truth: A Track-By-Track Breakdown

First off, Van Halen's first album in 14 years, A Different Kind Of Truth is - in the words of my friend Lisa - "better than it should be." And I agree. The guys could have slacked off on this and coasted on their legend - however possibly tarnished in the eyes of fans - but Truth is no cash-in li ... More >>

Charlie Benante Keeps The Beat Steady For Anthrax

Photos by Andy BuchananAnthrax 2011 (L-R): Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna, Charlie Benante, Rob Caggiano​After a tumultuous few years both musically and memberwise, New York thrash metal pioneers Anthrax will be able to close out 2011 on a pretty high note. In addition to releasing th ... More >>

Happy World Mental Health Day! 5 Crazy Songs

Delirium is the youngest of the endless. She smells of sweat, sour wines, late nights, old leather. Her realm is close, and can be visited; however, human minds were not made to comprehend her domain, and those few who have made the journey have been incapable of reporting back more than the tiniest ... More >>

Rock & Roll's Top 10 Brawlin' Brothers

Note: Not real brothers. We just liked the picture.​Brothers share a link that is unique and special. Same DNA, same familial backgrounds, quirks, talents, and sometimes musical taste. They can also argue, get physical, try to overpower one another, and hold grudges over years that are hard to ... More >>

Black Wedding: The Best Of Burly, Beastly Beard Metal

​Tonight Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society hits House of Blues for what seems to be their annual Houston gig. Craig's Hlist can't remember a year in recent history where they weren't in town at least once or even twice in a calendar span. The band released their newest album, The Song Remains ... More >>

"Satisfaction": The Mother Of All Rock & Roll Riffs?

​Today is the 46th anniversary of Keith Richards rolling over in his sleep in a Florida hotel, humming the main riff of "Satisfaction" into a bedside tape recorder and going back to slumber, or nodding off. The Rolling Stones would record the song months later and make it their calling card, t ... More >>

Black Label Society

John Lennon And Dimebag Darrell: Together In Death

​On this day in 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon. On the same day in 2004, Nathan Gale shot and killed Darrell Abbott, aka Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. In the spirit of the famous Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences list, which is mostly bullshit, here is a list f ... More >>

Cowboy From Hell: Dimebag Darrell's Best Guitar Solos

findagrave.com​This blog is stupid, because Rocks Off - this member at least - loves everything that Pantera did. In turn, that means we like everything that the Texas metal gods' late guitarist, Metroplex-bred "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, did. But still, let's look back and some of the best solo ... More >>

Will Concert Craziness Continue At Smashing Pumpkins?

Sunday night we watched a rambling and, supposedly, elegantly wasted Scott Weiland confound a packed crowd of Stone Temple Pilots fans at the Woodlands. The comments are blowing up left and right, and even industry blog Pollstar took to quoting us on the occasion. Somehow even Rocks Off got accuse ... More >>

KISS Merchandise The Band Hasn't Thought Of... Yet

owensworld.com​KISS pulls back into Houston Friday night for a show over at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, less than a year after their last Bayou City stop at the Toyota Center. We aren't really sure if this show will be much different than the one we saw in December, save for this time yo ... More >>

The Internet's Freakiest Fan-Drawn Musical Art

Lady Gaga​Rocks Off scoured the Interwebs for at least an hour Thursday looking for the worst musical fan art we could find. Aside from being mildly sidetracked by pictures of Katy Perry and Britney Spears, we also found plenty of ghastly fan-made visages of their favorite rock and pop stars. ... More >>

Top 10 Last Words By Famous Musicians

​Musicians tend to be a mouthy lot. It takes a certain kind of soul to want and express your own inner world to the outer world at large. So when the time comes for them to shuffle off this mortal coil, they often have some very interesting exit lines... 10. Ludwig Van Beethoven, "Friends a ... More >>

Aftermath: Megadeth And Testament Power-Metal Through Irritating Fans

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​Why would you want to piss off Dave Mustaine? The Megadeth front man doesn't seem like the proverbial shrinking violet. He's a pissed-off and generally irritable redhead who sings about crushing people's heads and not taking prisoners. So wh ... More >>

The Great Green Room In the Sky: The Grim Reaper's 2009 Musical Roll Call

​Thankfully, 2009 was a sorry year for the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter. Aside from the not terribly unexpected (but still weird) demise of the King of Pop, few bona fide legends went on to the Great Green Room Beyond the Sky. The Rock Death Meter rates rock deaths on a ten-point scale in three c ... More >>

2009 Concert Rewind: The 2009 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase and Ceremony

Showcase Sunday, Part 1 Shea SerranoRunaway Sun​ Dominique: "We guess critics would call her style 'neo-soul,' but it didn't seem very 'neo' to me, more like 'jazzy soul.' She fronted a piano-led trio with two backing vocalists and from the first sultry Fender Rhodes groove to the final explosive ... More >>

The Man Comes Around: Top Ten Big-Deal Musical Deaths of the Decade

​This past decade saw the passing of an innumerable amount of musical icons and pioneering giants. Not only did we lose the second coolest Beatle, but we lost two of the best dancers and performers the world will ever see. Punk rock and metal saw some of their best and brightest lights get snuffed ... More >>

Five Hour Energy

The 2009 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase in 300 minutes or less.

HPMA Aftermath: Ozeal & the Eulypians, Nosaprise, Benjamin Wesley, Tha Fucking Transmissions, Kristine Mills, Peekaboo Theory, Versecity and Spain Colored Orange

Chris Gray​Five hours is not a long time. It is if you're driving from Houston to Texarkana or Uvalde, maybe. But when hopscotching all over downtown trying to take in as much of the Houston Press Music Awards showcase as you can until your feet and your ears cry uncle, those 300 minutes go by in ... More >>

“Genghis Khan”

History’s bad boy goes on display

Down

Drenched In Blog: Somebody Help Bob Goulet

Hellyeah

Hellyeah

David Allan Coe

Thursday, August 24, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

Rebel with a Cause

Dimebag lives on in these new recordings

String Theory

Twinemen get the ball rolling again after the untimely demise of Morphine

Roadie Royalty

Houstonian author and Webmaster Karl Kuenning is a prince among road dogs

New Angels in Rock Heaven

Scoring the grim reaper's 2004 harvest

Trend-Spotting

In a scandal-ridden election year, the year's top ten music stories were all about winning the popular vote

Yin and Yang

The killing of Dimebag Darrell rains on Michael Haaga's Continental Club Plus and Minus Show parade

Direct to Video

When the concert season cools down, warm up with the latest rock and metal DVDs

Texas Thunder

Stay true to Pantera. They're true to you.

Straight Forward

Pantera keeps pumpin' with Trendkill

Losing the Beat

Not long ago, Anthrax's Charlie Benante wondered if he could still pound it out

Live Shots