It’s hard to believe that Dime has been gone for five years, but December 8 will be the anniversary of one of metal’s bleakest moments. To cash-in on commemorate the event, Metal Hammer have enlisted a bunch of well-known acts to record Pantera covers (but not Damageplan covers, because, y’know, let’s get real here) for a CD that will come with the magazine. Metal Hammer has done this a few times in the past – I remember they had they entire Master of Puppets album re-recorded by various bands, including Mastodon, Machine Head, Chimaira and Trivium when that album reached its twentieth anniversary, and some of it was pretty good.

Get the complete track list for Metal Hammer’s Dime tribute disc after the jump, along with my thoughts in bold.

1. Zakk Wylde – “Suicide Note Pt. 1″ – Fuck’s the difference between a Zakk Wylde solo track and a Black Label Society track? In any case, Zakk is an obvious choice to appear here, being Dime’s pal n’ all, and I’m sure he’ll do the song justice – in fact, hearing him play something that doesn’t sound exactly like every other song he’s been playing for twenty years could be refreshing. Unless he adds a bunch of pinched harmonics all over the place. In which case, y’know, fuck him.
2. Machine Head – “Fucking Hostile” – Sure, why not?
3. Malefice – “I’m Broken” – I don’t really know Malefice, should I?
4. Avenged Sevenfold – “Walk” – This is cheating – A7X actually recorded this for a different magazine comp – it might have even been Kerrang! – a few years back. In any case, I’m sure this will piss a lot of people off just because it’s A7X, even though it’s actually a fairly decent, if totally uninteresting, cover.
5. Evile – “Cemetery Gates” – I’m actually really curious to hear this. I have no doubt that Ol Drake can pull off all the crazy guitar solos, but can Matt Drake hit those high notes? You hafta kinda wonder why “Ripper” Owens or someone like that wasn’t enlisted. Also, this might be one of the last recordings we ever get to hear with the late Mike Alexander…
6. Five Finger Death Punch – “A New Level” – I won’t be listening to this, and unless you hate yourself, neither should you.
7. Biohazard – “Mouth For War” - In case you’ve ever wondered what Pantera would sound like with rapping…
8. Sylosis – “Strength Beyond Strength” - This could be interesting; I have nothing really funny to say about it. Sorry.
9. Chimaira – “Slaughtered” – It will shock no one that this is the cover I’m most optimistic about. I might be the only person in the world who loves Far Beyond Driven most above all other Pantera albums, and the brutal nature of the track, plus the staccato riffs, should fit Chimaira well. Bonus: no way in fuck Mark Hunter tries to sound like Phil Anselmo. He’s just gonna do his thing, I’d wager, like he did on that Puppets tribute I mentioned.
10. Unearth – “Sandblasted Skin” – I’ll be kinda curious to hear this, too. I love this song. Unearth might have some fun with it.
11. Throwdown – “Becoming” – I predict that very few people will be able to tell the difference between this cover and the original. Because it will sound exactly alike.
12. Kiuas – “This Love” – Who the fucking fuck are Kiuas???
13. This is Hell – “Rise” – As a Lambgoat reader might say, “No care ever.”

Blabbermouth says that the magazine and CD will hit news stands in the U.K. on December 16; I imagine it will take a little longer to get to us here in the States… unless someone just puts the CD up on torrent sites or whatever, which is not unimaginable…

-AR