Guest review by:

ProjectEndgame

No introduction. You know who Dimebag Darrell Abbott is. You know he kicks harder ass than almost every other metal guitarist who ever lived. You know he loves to drink more than your local bar drunk multiplied by four. This is where you get to find out everything about him from start to finish, and with a name like Black Tooth Grin, I think it couldn't make Dime anymore prouder than before... that is, if he were alive...

With a big, unfortunate disappointment of Dimebag being dead, Zac Crain was on his own to a certain extent because of the lack of help from the Abbott family (keep in mind, Crain was also responsible for taking a couple of cheap shots at the Abbott's famous strip club and The Great Southern Trendkill, which he apologized for), but nonetheless, it at least wasn't a half-ass job from him. A good extra to note is that the table of contents is labeled like an eight-track or a record and all the chapter names are either Pantera songs, Damageplan songs or music that related to Dime somehow. With extras such as bonus tracks, talking about some of the things Dimebag did on his spare time or how it showed his true free-spirited personality (best example would be his constant Halloween parties). The footnotes were also a nice touch as well.

For this being the first of many Dimebag biographies to come, I say it was a good read but at fewer than 300 pages, it was somewhat disappointing to read a 200-something book on someone so influential. Often or not, he describes Dime's guitar playing as so inspiring or fantastic, but never really talks about how he did it/techniques/tricks. It was like a compliment fest without much supporting evidence or new evidence of his playing. While I'm at it, take into note that it talks too much about how he can party or how he can be such an angel to others. As much as I love reading this kind of stuff, I think it could have been worked on a bit more, even if Crain is a well known writer.

I'll admit it; I got a kick out of this. It was very amusing to learn about Dimebag's personality, but for a book about a guitarist like him, it could have been worked on a bit more. Nonetheless, a good enough read.