Guitar Gear Forum

I've been wondering and was curious if others felt the same.

Had Dimebag not gotten killed, would anyone today find him relevant? I personally enjoyed the Damageplan album, but could not get into Rebel Meets Rebel. Since Vinnie died not too long ago, we know we would've gotten the brothers for a bit longer.

Just curious as to what everyone thought.

They were hugely popular and still very young. They had a lot more to bring to the table. I would look at the rest of the genre from the day and though its simmered down a good bit there are still Metalheads left that would get behind whatever they had to offer. It’s possible he would have grown and expanded his musical endeavors. So we’ll never know but I think they would be strong today. Especially as the rest of the metal world is retiring they were on the younger end of those big bands and would still have some fire left. Robbed , we all were. R.I.P.

He would have eventually played an 8 string... and that would have been weird.

Somewhat serious answer. Pantera and specifically the Abbot bro’s before and after Phil simply didn’t have the same quality and impact. People love to hate Phil, but he had the vision on how to use their music and create something bigger. And he definitely pushed them into the heavier shit and made Dime bring the A level goods instead of the C and B level it seemed Dime would have been fine using at times.

Without Phil, They would be on par with say Black Label Society or sumthin. A band you can see at the house of Blues and pay extravagant Parking and liquor prices!

EndTime wrote:Somewhat serious answer. Pantera and specifically the Abbot bro’s before and after Phil simply didn’t have the same quality and impact. People love to hate Phil, but he had the vision on how to use their music and create something bigger. And he definitely pushed them into the heavier shit and made Dime bring the A level goods instead of the C and B level it seemed Dime would have been fine using at times.

Without Phil, They would be on par with say Black Label Society or sumthin. A band you can see at the house of Blues and pay extravagant Parking and liquor prices!

As much as I go back and forth on Pantera for pretty much dumb reasons; all of this. Damageplan was terrible. Phil was what they needed. He needed them too, but not quite as much I don't think.

I agree with Eric. I never did get into any of the projects after Pantera broke up, including Down or Damageplan. They might still be relevant and some people would be worshiping him all the same, but dying made him a legend with the back catalog, not anything he was actively doing.

Regardless of what Dime would be doing today,(probably doing endless Pantera reunions, assuming Phil has kicked painkillers) his timing and melody were so fucking good. I'm glad I got to see him live 4 times. FWIW, I never liked Damage Plan. I actually hated "Reinventing the Steel".

In the last few years, I've seen some famous shredders in real life. I know some people have off nights, but....

Eric Johnson's timing and feel was pure shit. Incredibly boring.

Yngwie's timing and feel was shit. I think this would be much better had I been drinking.

Joe Satriani's timing was great, but his feel was kind of robotic. (This was still much better than EJ and Yngwie)

Steve Stevens was pretty good. Not majorly impressive, but the right stuff. A player's player.

Buckethead is the only person I've seen lately who has that "it" factor like Dime where you can have 100% confidence it's going to sound awesome in the most groovy way.

He probably would have ended up saying some sketchy shit on twitter

EndTime wrote:Somewhat serious answer. Pantera and specifically the Abbot bro’s before and after Phil simply didn’t have the same quality and impact. People love to hate Phil, but he had the vision on how to use their music and create something bigger. And he definitely pushed them into the heavier shit and made Dime bring the A level goods instead of the C and B level it seemed Dime would have been fine using at times.

Without Phil, They would be on par with say Black Label Society or sumthin. A band you can see at the house of Blues and pay extravagant Parking and liquor prices!

Rex too, at least according to rex. Supposedly when they hit a road block vinnie and dime would just leave and leave Phil and Rex to figure it out.

Unless dime/vinnie/phil fixed their issues and got back together, I dont think anything big would of happened with dime or vinnie..

No doubt he would have ended up doing more great stuff.....there was only one direction to go from Damageplan afterall (and that direction is up)

Love me some classic Pantera. Vulgar Display, Far Beyond Driven, and Trendkill are three of my favorite records. All time classics. Though I do have to agree that they needed Phil. He just brought out the best in them, and vice versa. Some of the best metal ever recorded.

That said, Damageplan sucked and Hellyeah were fucking awful.

That first Down record, though...hooboy.

Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Yeah, same. Was a combination of things, really. I'm sure internally, we all wanted the guy to be as good as Phil was, and there was simply no way that he was gonna live up to that kind of standard. Phil in his prime is an absolute legend.

Plus Dime just sounded different. I think that was around the time he was using and/or trying out Kranks, and his tone was way different. Warmer, not nearly as abrasive. People shit all over his Pantera tone, but it suited him, and their music.

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Terrible singer who was like Five Finger Death Punch before there was Five Finger Death Punch.

JiveTurkey wrote:

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Terrible singer who was like Five Finger Death Punch before there was Five Finger Death Punch.

You know, that's a great comparison. I never thought of it like that.

He was definitely no Phil, but it was suitable (to me) for what they were going for. I guess it's no surprise to find out that the brothers weren't happy working with the dude and; maybe post death rumors; that they were looking to reform Pantera.

Murdoch wrote:

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

If you're feeling adventurous, it's on YouTube. There are some shit tracks, but there are some great Dime hooks here and there.

Murdoch wrote:

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Yeah, same. Was a combination of things, really. I'm sure internally, we all wanted the guy to be as good as Phil was, and there was simply no way that he was gonna live up to that kind of standard. Phil in his prime is an absolute legend.

Plus Dime just sounded different. I think that was around the time he was using and/or trying out Kranks, and his tone was way different. Warmer, not nearly as abrasive. People shit all over his Pantera tone, but it suited him, and their music.

Oh dude, yeah, his sound was more growly and warm on the Damageplan album than the razor sharp tightness we got on some of the Pantera albums. To my ears, it was almost like his tone was trying to resemble something close to what was on Reinventing the Steel. Granted, tone is subjective and there's a lot of nuances.

I think Pantera would probably have reunited at some point if Dime and Vinnie were still around. A project with Zakk was also bound to happen at some point and I think that would've been great.


But regardless, yeah Dime would still be relevant today, regardless of whether his current work was big or not. He made too big of a mark in music history and once you reach that legend level you don't go back. There are many guys like that out there. Pete Townsend, John Sykes, Marty Friedman etc.. these guys haven't made a hit record in decades and they're still revered as guitar royalty, move endorsed products etc.. and they will always be.

hell, Dime could have semi-retired after Pantera and he would still be legendary.

Murdoch wrote:

Devin wrote:

Rumpleforeskin wrote:Man, no Damageplan love? I honestly enjoyed the album a lot. There were some great riffs and nuances in Dime's playing on that album. Hellyeah on the other hand.......shit was awful from the beginning.

I mainly just remember being excited when I first heard the announcement that the band was thing, then listening to the first single and instantly hating the vocalist


To be fair I've never listened to the whole album

Yeah, same. Was a combination of things, really. I'm sure internally, we all wanted the guy to be as good as Phil was, and there was simply no way that he was gonna live up to that kind of standard. Phil in his prime is an absolute legend.

Plus Dime just sounded different. I think that was around the time he was using and/or trying out Kranks, and his tone was way different. Warmer, not nearly as abrasive. People shit all over his Pantera tone, but it suited him, and their music.

Dime was also tuning down quite a bit more, which doesn't hold that edge that Pantera was infamous for quite as nicely.

I dug Damageplan for what it was, but what it was was no Pantera. Granted, after going through watching all the big thrash names destroy themselves during the nineties with complete garbage music, the Damageplan transition felt like, "hey, at least they're trying something. It's not like they went pop or tried to fit in some disco beats or some shit."