How Pantera producer Terry Date captured Dimebag Darrell’s six-string mastery on tape

BY NICK BOWCOTT

Terry Date speaks at an event in Nice, Illinois, August 18, 2016

BARRY BRECHEISEN/WIREIMAGE FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY

WORLD-RENOWNED METAL PRODUCER and engineer Terry Date hasn’t just amassed a profoundly impressive discography (Soundgarden, Deftones, Prong, White Zombie, Slipknot, Dream Theater, Limp Bizkit); he was also the man behind the desk for Pantera’s first four major-label albums — Cowboys from Hell (1990), Vulgar Display of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994) and The Great Southern Trendkill (2000).

How quick was Dimebag in the recording studio?

He was incredibly fast. “Walk” is a really good example of the way he worked in the studio. Once we were done with Vinnie’s drums, Dime laid down his first rhythm track really quickly; I mean, he probably did it in about half an hour. Then it took us the rest of the day to do the double and then the triple of it. We spent massive amounts of time making sure the double was the same as the first one. All the attacks were exactly on time, and all the palm-mutes on the back of that main riff were also dead on time. This way, when you listen to that riff, the thump when he palm-muted the strings at the end of it almost becomes three-dimensional. In fact, if you’re sitting in the right spot, you could almost hear it behind your head. We spent hours making sure that was exactly right, and then we had the triple to do on top of that. And then Rex came in and basically quadrupled that riff on the bass. [Laughs] That song took a whole day to do the rhythm guitars and bass, I believe.