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There are two poignant Pantera anniversaries this calendar year. The band’s essential ‘Cowboys From Hell’ album celebrated its 20th anniversary with a reissue earlier this year. Today also marks the sixth anniversary of the tragic, unexpected shooting death of guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott. His death still hurts for the majority of metal fans, his former bandmates and his brother even though over half a decade has passed since the incident.

While most of the music world is reminiscing today about the 30th anniversary of John Lennon‘s also-senseless murder, the metal community is mourning the loss of one of the greatest guitarists to ever pick up an axe.

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Noisecreep spoke to both Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul earlier this year about various topics, both Pantera-related and otherwise. Of course the pair separately spoke about how Dimebag’s loss still impacts them, especially when curating the reissue of ‘Cowboys From Hell’ without him.

In our exclusive chat, Anselmo mused about Dime, wistfully admitting, “I will say that with each passing year, it gets harder and harder and harder. This year was really rough … When I look around today and see what an impact that we made, and where heavy metal is at today, and I think of what could have been? What should have been? It’s very hard. It’s hard to come to grips with it. However, with that said, I am a man who likes to live in the now. All I can do is — like everyone else, like you, like any other fans, and anyone walking the streets that has love in their heart for what Pantera has done — is sit back finally and listen to it as a fan.”

Paul also spoke about how it’s doubly hard for him, having lost his longtime bandmate and his brother, saying, “Of course it’s bittersweet for me. The band was the biggest part of my life for the longest part. We had 14 amazing years, six incredible records and it was great till 1996, when things went sideways with certain people and it got real difficult. The beautiful thing was Dime loved the music he made and he will always live on through the music. It was his heart and soul, from the CFH logo to T-shirts that were his design.”

Mick Hutson, Redferns

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Full disclosure: I own a pair of Converse. They’re my favorite sneakers. They cost forty bucks, have no shoelaces, and provide roughly the same amount of comfort and protection as wrapping my feet in tissue paper would have done. Cheap, pointless, and comfortable: now that’s fucking metal.

So. I was catching up on my Deciblog this morning when I saw this piece that Jeanne Fury wrote on Heavy Metal Holiday, a new short film/long commercial that Converse has produced in an apparent bid to… uh… well, presumably, to win over the metal crowd, although I’m not entirely sure why, or how they think this completely fucking bizarre thing will accomplish that goal. As Ms. Fury so eloquently puts it:

“You can be damn sure Converse spent good money on Heavy Metal Holiday, traveling to London and Venice, renting that fancy hotel room with the giant chandelier, and paying for food and stuff. But why? Yeah, it’s amusing… But couldn’t they have filmed that shit in Baltimore or Cleveland? Is this supposed to be artsy? Or, worse, is it supposed to be funny?”

I actually think Fury is giving the thing too much credit — I didn’t find this amusing at all. For some reason, the audio is all, like, weird n’ shit, with the Black Metal Dude’s rambling constantly overlapping with itself AND competing with some generic background metal, pretty much to the point where it’s difficult to understand what he’s saying. And frankly, we’ve seen enough pictures and videos of guys in corpse paint doing things you wouldn’t expect to see guys in corpse paint doing that HMH would have to come with something pretty damn special to stand apart from the pack. And some Infernus wannabe riding around in a gondola and struggling with his umbrella on London Bridge is not special.

So I guess what I’m saying is, if someone at Converse decided that the company needed to reach out the headbanging demographic, couldn’t that have just made like Scion and sponsored some shows or paid for some awesome band to record an album or something?

Of course, the sneaker company has now succeeded in getting the metal media to write about them, so if their only goal was get everyone’s attention, well, I guess they’ve succeeded.

In any case, go here to watch, if you so please. It’s apparently part of a series that also includes such titles as You Said No to Prom and Mother’s Day is Freaking Awesome, although I didn’t watch any of the others because life is just too short, and because I did, in fact, go to both my junior and senior prom.

Keaton Andrew

Woe, Is Me‘s video for ‘[] Delinquents’ is frenetic and full of action, featuring the band playing while the story of an older gentleman unfolds as part of the video’s larger concept.

“The video was a crazy experience,” clean vocalist Tyler Carter told Noisecreep. “The best part was the catering! Haha! We had a blast though. Even though it was really tiring doing the same thing over and over, it came out brilliant.”

The video moves quickly, with the moshy music and constant action helping to hold the viewer’s attention. But the underlying plot footage is similarly captivating, and Carter expanded on that part of the video, saying, “The man in the video suffers from alcohol abuse and letting the weight of the world kill him. He only wants to create a masterpiece that is perfect, unflawed by the world, and something that he can use to better himself.”

There is a bit of a twist, though. “He reveals at the end that it was actually himself he had been trying to fix, and make perfect,” Carter revealed. “You can really apply the video and the lyrics of the song to yourself in many ways, and that’s what we were trying to do with the song. There’s always a chance to rebuild and better your life.”

‘[] Delinquents’ appears on the band’s new album, ‘Number(s),’ which came out via Rise Records/Velocity Records last August.

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Christmas time is almost here. Traditionally many things come with the end of the year holidays — one is the slow drawn announcements of bands on the Warped Tour 2011 lineup. We Came as Romans and the Word Alive have already been confirmed for the longstanding, always-affordable festival.

We Came as Romans, known for a devastating live performance of the metalcore variety, released the digital single ‘To Move on is to Grow’ back in September. It’s safe to say that the band’s sophomore release could be expected in time for their appearance on the Warped Tour 2011 lineup.

The Word Alive, who just finished up a tour with A Day to Remember (a band heavily rumored to be joining the Warped Tour 2011 lineup as well), are kindred spirits with regular tourmates We Came as Romans, developing keyboard-laden textures and attitudes that go beyond the chest beating aggression of hardcore.

Warped Tour 2011 is slated to begin June 24 in Dallas and run all the way into August.

Nuclear Blast

Death Angel will roar into 2011 by touring in support of their new thrashterpiece, ‘Relentless Retribution.’ They will be joined by an eclectic lineup of bands, including Lazarus A.D., Early Man, Bonded by Blood and Hexen, on this forthcoming road trip.

Before hitting the Death Angel tour dates get into full swing, they’ll enjoy a warm up show by playing the 70K Tons of Metal cruise occurring Jan. 24-28.

In a statement, vocalist Mark Osegueda said, “We are so excited, and proud to finally be doing our first headlining tour of North America since the now-infamous Act III Tour of 1990! We have put together a lineup of bands that we feel will give all the fans what they deserve! An all out blow showcasing all the best elements of thrash metal found today! Ending of course with a full headlining set by Death Angel that we promise will leave everyone feeling relentlessly and sonically ravaged! See you on the road! In the pit! And at the bar!”