Papa Smurf

The "Cowboys from Hell," Pantera's guitarist Dimebag Darrell, drummer Vinnie Paul and bassist Rex Brown's, teamed up with iconic redneck iconoclast David Allan Coe -- best known to Pantera audiences for the "Jack Daniels If You Please" warm-up music -- for a seamless sonic thrust that packs a blindsided-rusty-nail-two-by-four kind of wallop. Captured in stray moments over the course of four years, the Rebel Meets Rebel project tears into musical pockets with the power-teeth of a chain saw -- shredding, pumping, thumping, wheeling and at times even finding a way to whiplash melodic cyclones to the Paul's always propulsive backbeats.


The CD and artwork were completed and stored for safekeeping. Dimebag joked to Vinnie he wanted the sessions to be released on CD "before the old man (Coe) kicks the bucket." Instead fate stepped in. Two years and a few unfathomable pages in the history books later, this is a work of music that is the culmination of the groundbreaking guitarist's vision -- and also the fruit of his brother's business acumen, coming out on his own Big Vin Records.

The Rebel Meets Rebel CD will hit stores May 2, as will "Dimevision, Volume 1," a DVD culled from footage Dimebag had shot with a camcorder over several years on the road and at home.