Damageplan
It pays to hang with Rock stars. When in Dallas, guitarist Pat Lachman, a veteran of Rob Halford’s band and Diesel Machine, hooked up with guitarist Darrell ‘Dimebag’ Abbott. They killed time drinking and listening to demos.
Dimebag and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, were putting together a post-Pantera band. But this would-be supergroup had a major problem.
A series of vocalists were auditioned but none made the cut. On top of that, Lachman, having heard what had already been recorded, wanted in. But Dimebag had the guitar work covered. No problem. Lachman coveted the vocalist slot. Given a track to work with Lachman went to L.A. to lay down the vocals.
When he returned the tape Dimebag was impressed. A couple more tracks found their way to Lachman and he added vocals. Score another success.
Born in Hawaii, Bob Kakaha was raised on Sabbath, Deep Purple and Zeppelin. Starting on drums, he quickly moved to bass and worked in his older brother’s band. By the time Kakaha was 18 he was in L.A. with bands that covered the stylistic spectrum. But he wanted to play Metal.
Aside from music, Kakaha also developed a reputation as a tattoo artist. That led him to Dimebag and Vinnie Paul, who both had serious ink. During Kakaha’s audition Vinnie Paul exclaimed, “sounds like Godzilla comin’ outta that rig (bass/amp)!” Kakaha was in and tagged with the name Bob Zilla.
Damageplan released their debut “New Found Power” in early ’04. Dimebag and Zilla filled the album with industrial strength riffs. “Blunt Force Trauma” had a brilliant opening chord progression while “Reborn” rode hook laden riffs. But “Explode” was the set’s killer song.
Unbelievably, Dimebag Darrell was shot to death during a club appearance in Columbus, OH, later in the year (12/8/04). The deranged gunman was killed by police. Three others also died in the unprovoked attack.
That was the end of Damageplan.
There was talk of an album of unreleased recordings but nothing came of it.
New Found Power
Blunt Force Trauma
Vinnie Paul has said the song was, “about when something you don’t expect comes right up behind you.”
Explode
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