cover image A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa

A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa

Chris Arnold. MJS Music & Entertainment LLC, $15.95 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-9762917-7-0

Anticipating the third anniversary of revered heavy-metal guitarist ""Dimebag"" Darrell Abbott's onstage murder, author Chris A. (abbreviated from ""Armold"") presents an exhaustive account of the people and events involved in that December 2004 evening. Abbott, known primarily for his work with fan favorite Pantera, is relegated to secondary-character status, along with his band, Damageplan, while Chris A. focuses on the three other men who died that night at Columbus, Ohio's Alrosa Villa concert venue while coming to the guitarist's aid. (The gunman, Nathan Gale, was also killed at the scene, by Columbus Police Office James Niggemeyer, who provides an introduction.) In the first half, Chris A. recounts individual stories of doomed Damageplan security honcho Jeffery ""Mayhem"" Thompson, Alrosa Villa roadie Erin Halk, fan Nathan Bray and the murderer (referred to throughout as ""the Beast""). The second half provides gripping minute-by-minute documentation of the tragic night. Despite an amateurish style, which occasionally reads like a term paper and contains little dialogue, Chris A. has reconstructed the crime in admirable detail, and includes 240 black-and-white photographs (many from the crime scene). Chris A.'s narrative is gripping, but not a rock bio by any means; as such, it's more fitting for the true crime crowd than hard-core headbangers.