Darrell ‘Dimebag’ Abbott (Pantera, Damageplan)

Main years active: 1985-2004

Even if you discounted Pantera’s ace 1994 cover of Sabbath’s ‘Planet Caravan’, you’d still see signs of Iommi’s influence all over Dimebag’s playing. Check his beautiful, melodic solos; his almost painfully accurate downstrokes, as in ‘Walk’ and dozens of other Pantera songs; his commitment to the heaviest sound possible; and perhaps most of all, the huge presence in the mix of the rhythm guitars. Interestingly, Dime appeared to be moving towards a looser, more relaxed picking style with his last band, Damageplan, but we’ll never know where he would have gone with it because he was murdered in 2004.

Pantera ‘Walk’

Total Guitar issue 210 (originally on sale 24 December - 20 January) featured Tony Iommi on the cover and contained 11-pages of Iommi coverage, including an in-depth interview and a complete tab of 'Planet Caravan'.