Rebel Meets Rebel - Rebel Meets Rebel (2006)

The senseless death of metal giant “Dimebag” Darrell is all the more tragic considering that the talented guitarist had a lot of music left to share. The best example of this is Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaborative effort between Dimebag, his brother Vinnie Paul and outlaw country legend David Allen Coe. Growing up in Texas, the brothers were huge fans of Coe’s music, and somewhere along the Pantera/Damageplan road-to-ruin they had the pleasure of meeting their longtime idol. As musicians are often want to do, they agreed that they should get together sometime and write some songs. Mind you, these informal agreements seldom bear musical fruit, but in the case of these three madmen, they created the metallic twangfest that they called “Rebel Meets Rebel.”

With Coe supplying vocals and lyrics in front of a band that includes brother Vinnie blistering the skins, Dimebag delivering his typical scorched-earth six-string pyrotechnics and bassist Rex Brown holding down the bottom end, these songs kick serious ass! An unlikely mix of honky-tonk country, Southern-fried funk and uber shred-metal, this bastard hybrid actually works! The album’s inspired instrumentation reveals previously unseen facets of Darrell’s talents, the hard-rocking results both breathtaking and invigorating. This is muscular music that takes the best of its myriad influences and proceeds to knock down the house with a sonic fury, creating a fitting epitaph to the amazing career of the one-and-only Dimebag Darrell. R.I.P. (rock in peace) big guy! (Big Vin Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Rebel Meets Rebel from Amazon.com)