Final ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott Track to be Released

If you're not a reader of Metal Hammer magazine, you might want to reconsider this month. That's because contained inside this month's issue is a track from late Pantera and Damageplan guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott, which was recently unearthed by Dime's former girlfriend, Rita Haney.

Of course, it's surprising that its taken this long for posthumous Dimebag material to surface, what with the estates of Tupac Shakur and Jimi Hendrix releasing material consistently since both artists perished. But this may be the last unreleased gem from Dime, and it's being billed as the final recording from Abbott.

Produced by Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, the unnamed track appears on a compilation disc with tracks from Soulfly, Cancer Bats, Bleeding Through and Dillinger Escape Plan. According to Lombardo, he "got the track and put it into Pro Tools and trimmed the edges and made it shine a bit, but the true producer and engineer was Dime. The sounds you hear are the ones he recorded, I just cleaned it up."

Lombardo says he's never done "anything like this and it was an honor to work on something that no one has ever heard and to be one of the first to listen to it. Rita told me about the song, about Zakk [Wylde] and the whole the story about them getting together and ending up drunk. It's really cool. Rita fills me in and all the stories are so great. They had such a nice life. I've come know more about him and his impact later in life than I did at the time. You really appreciate his art and what he contributes to metal."

Dimebag was gunned down on stage during a Damageplan gig in Ohio on Dec. 8, 2004, by crazed fan Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot five times, three others were killed, and seven others were injured before Officer James D. Niggemeyer, the first cop on the scene, took Gale down with a single shotgun blast.