DIMEVISION

"Lately I've been living way too damn fast. This successful life I'm leading is bound to kick my ass."

Visionary words from a man who lived those fateful lyrics harder than most. It wasn't this prophetic introspection Dimebag Darrell wrote on a solo song, "Twisted", that spelled his end. Yet for the violent way Dime left this life, there's something equally cryptic listening to the man take a hard look in the mirror and realize death could be around the corner at any time. It's something to take heed of while watching the second installment of the "Dimevision" video remembrances, "Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over", because a perpetual season of inebriation is a certain way to meet the Reaper. Horribly ironic when the scythe is instead swung by evil external hands.

It's been 11 years since "Dimevision: That's the Fun I Have", and now Dimebag Darrell fans have even deeper access into the man's hilarious, party-minded daily do, including a lot of footage from the "Power Metal" years and recent "Dimebash" tribute gigs. Perhaps only MANOWAR could match Dime and PANTERA's boozed and sexed-out road shenanigans (Dime called it all "gaiety") on the group's four "Hell On Earth" video documents. Yet in Dime's funky world, even he boldly stated he lived as if this moment was the last, one to "get'cha pull on that jewel", even if that means someone has a video camera catching your nuts drooping out of your boxers while rigging a pretty badass mailbox touring totem.

"Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over" has a big-time bonus feature for Dimebag fans: an accompanying five song EP of archive tracks upon which Darrell left some of his personal impressions. You heard some of these teased on "That's the Fun I Have", and they're scattered, mostly in full, throughout this video. The same EP was dropped in a 4,000 copy vinyl run titled "The Hitz" for this year's Black Friday Record Store Day and features "Twisted" along with "Ain't No Struggle" (if that isn't Doug Pinnick on vocals here, Pinnick had best start looking over his shoulder),"True", "Let's Go" and "Whiskey Road".

In the video, expect lots of bro-down drinking (often in the company of Zakk Wylde, amongst other metal figureheads),some puking, a little flatulence, and, of course, a ton of mischief and material carnage. This amidst clips of awning destruction, garden crashing, helmet-crowned diving into light fixtures, loveseat surfing down the stairs, and painting himself silver as a goony Elvis clone. A montage is reserved just for bottle rocket pranks alone.

"Dimevision Vol. 2" is minutely tamer than what you might have seen in the past, for example, there's the jaw-slacking merriment of Dime dumping chili into a $125 pair of imitation leather pumps (apparently from a purported "guest" tagging along on the road and having offended Dime somehow) then microwaving it. Amongst other "lacing" episodes are dumping chicken wings in between bunk mattresses and slipping crawdads into jeans pockets.

On the more serious side, we see a lengthy Randy Rhoads tribute, Dime-style from 1988, his wild, poofy mane slinging like a liberated lion. This is all now naturally bittersweet—it being a tribute from one late guitarist to another. Other guitar footage captures Dime jamming on the "Reinventing the Steel" tour, in the studio with his brother, Vinnie Paul, and how can you not bust a gut watching a younger Darrell shred on a city sidewalk, just to dick with passersby? In one segment, Zakk Wylde jokingly fans and serves Dime onstage during a solo before joining in for a jam. In a ghost whisper, we hear Dime mutter, "Dude, I should be plucking the fiddle right now," as prelude to a stream of guitar-solo footage spanning his entire career.

A treasure trove of Dime's life wheels through intimate unpublished photos to the tune of "It Ain't No Struggle", and an extended tableau of Dime-inspired fan tattoos spools along. The Ride for Dime / Dimebash portion provides a heartwarming moment with Sebastian Bach emceeing and a blur of big-name performers including Tom Morello, Ace Frehley, Scott Ian, Pearl Aday, Geezer Butler, Dave Lombardo, John Bush, Joey Jordison, Tony Campos, John 5, Doug Pinnick, Nick Bowcott (who co-wrote articles with Dime for Guitar World magazine, called "Riffer Madness") and the C.O.C. guys. Mike Muir drops an affecting message attesting to the power of music before ripping into PANTERA's "Fucking Hostile". After that, Phil Anselmo himself emerges with Dave Grohl and Rob Trujillo to perform a ralphing, bass-crushing cover of MOTÖRHEAD's "Iron Fist".

Dimebag Darrell's life was so debauched and goofily fascinating that a reality series most certainly would've been on the horizon had he lived. With all the video footage we've seen over the years, including here, it's apparent that a video or stationary camera was around him so damned much—mostly from longtime videographer Daryl"Bobby Tongs"Arnberger—as to capture a life full of demented fun as well as a nearly blind zeal for life. "Dimevision" was intended as a proposed series, this means documenting everything, from Dimebag getting a pedicure to a pool party incident (slung bit-by-bit throughout the video and left to the viewer's discretion) in which "surprisingly no one went to jail".

We see one of Dime's heroes, David Alan Coe, work out a song backstage, and we see Darrell himself improbably showing up as a guest at a suit and tie sales seminar. Ever the class clown and equating everything to the merits of Viagra while pitching DAMAGEPLAN to the most un-metal recipients you could expect, their laughter is condescending. Had they been witness to the same guy with a shroud of hair peeling off smarmy vocals and guitars on a song called "P*S*T*88" (aka "Pussy Tight"),you might imagine the flabbergasted facades exceeding that of the seminar host.

The biggest note to take from "Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over" is in the end credits, where nearly everyone associated has a nickname. Dimebag Darrell's "funky world" was as serious a prospect as the president singing "Let it Go" at a White House holiday ball. Yet, for all those close to him, his brother and the PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN contingencies, they were family.