In 1984, Pantera released its second album, Projects in the Jungle, and a year later, I Am the Night was recorded and sold 25,000 copies. Their sound was rooted in glam metal, but was getting heaver with each release. In 1988, Pantera released its first album with new singer Phil Anselmo, entitled Power Metal. It was by far the band's heaviest album, and continued their trend toward thrash metal. Also in 1988, Dime auditioned for Megadeth and was invited to join the band. When Darryl insisted that his brother be included, he lost the gig. After being turned down by every major label, they signed with Atco Records and in 1990, released Cowboys from Hell.

Pantera's unique "groove" style continued to emerge on the breakthrough album, Vulgar Display of Power, which came out in 1992. The album was their first to hit the American charts at number forty-four. Pantera hit their height of popularity on their next cd, Far Beyond Driven debuted at number one in both U.S. and Australia , the first metal album to do so. "I'm Broken", was even nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1995 Grammys. In all, Pantera would sell more than 6 million albums in the U.S. and Dime became a pioneer of heavy-thrash, groove metal guitar.

Dime is best known for playing Dean Guitars. In 2005, Dean Guitars released the Dime Tribute line of ML guitars. These guitars come in various models. In his last few weeks with Dean Guitars, Dime helped design a guitar he called the Razorback. After his death, Dean continued with the Razorback project and dedicated them to his memory. During the height of Dimebag's fame, he also worked together with MXR and Dunlop to produce the MXR Dime Distortion and the Dimebag "Crybaby from Hell" Wah respectively.