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Album Reviews : Dimbag Darrell: DimeVision – Vol 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over

By on February 1, 2018

Technology is moving rapidly in 2018, unfortunately, time travel hasn’t been perfected yet, so the chance to ever see Dimebag play live for me, unfortunately, will never come, and no the idea a hologram could ever be put on stage in his place hopefully will never happen, so hearing unreleased material which the great man wrote is a pleasure. When the release of Dimevision was announced by Dime’s long-term girlfriend Rita Haney she noted. “These songs come from his off-time, it was entertainment to him – one of them was even inspired by a George Michael solo record coming out back in the 80s!” and the five demos certainly highlight an eclectic musical taste and a further reminder of Dime’s unique abilities, not that anyone could ever be unsure of his talent.

‘Twisted’ which was originally released to the public back in 2012 has a country, metal vibe to it. It’s my personal favourite track from the demos, the clean electro-acoustic intro conjures up mental images of riding a horse in the Texan desert, bound to get your foot tapping. The lyrics hint at a deeper side to Dimebags personality, him being fully aware of the crazy party lifestyle he lived through the 90’s with Pantera and up until his tragic death while on tour with Damageplan in 2004 ‘ Lately, I’ve been living way too damn fast,’ this successful life I’m living is bound to kick my ass’. Both ‘Twisted’ and second track ‘Ain’t no surprise’ both sound like they could have been easily lifted from Damageplan’s ‘New Found Power’.

‘True’ comes as the biggest surprise, has an 80’s electro feel about it, coming straight in with a synth riff, it sounds closer to Abba than Pantera, but there’s still room for a solo fit for the gods, and hell when your one of the best guitarists of all time why not play about with an 80’s sounding synth track!

‘Let’s go’ clocking in at just 56 seconds is the perfect song to get your mosh on to, it has a high energy punky vibe, the vocals grabbing you by the throat, and sounding not dissimilar to Phil Anselmo at the height of his power.

Closing track ‘Whiskey Road’ embodies Dime’s sound as a proud Texan, with jangling acoustic guitars embodying a country sound and Dime’s lead work once again being absolutely flawless. The perfect track to sip a cold beer to on hot summers evening.

Overall, Dimevision 2 just further highlights the magnitude of how good a musician Dimebag was. Any metal or music fan, in general, knows Dime was one of the greatest guitar players of all time. But to me what these tracks made obvious was just how good of a vocalist he was as well. The true shame is that the only way to hear unheard music from Dime is through various unreleased demos which he recorded over the years and that we were robbed of his genius far too early. I’d certainly recommend this EP for any fan of Pantera or just metal in general. Unfortunately, the music world will never be able to witness a Pantera reunion or any new music from the great man. R.I.P. Dime

Band: Dimebag Darrell
Album: DimeVision Vol 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over
Year: 2017
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Origin: USA

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