New Found Power

The vast majority of Pantera's fanbase shits on this album way too much. Most people are too quick to complain about how mainstream this album sounds, how mediocre Lachman's vocals are, and so forth without truly giving this album a chance. Sure, it's not Pantera. It's not fronted by Phil Anselmo with his signature vocals. But this was a killer debut album from a band that had potential, and it's a shame that the band was abruptly ended after Dimebag Darrell's unfortunate death. The whole gist of New Found Power was significantly different for Pantera's standards, but that doesn't automatically make this a lousy album. Pantera progressively got more groovy as they released an album, and this album is a fine example groove metal: speedy, headbang-worthy, and packed with a ton of attitude.

The guitar tone on this album was vastly different from the albums Pantera have released, it isn't something you'd think of when you'd think about Dimebag Darrell. When you think about Dimebag Darrell's guitar tone, you'd typically think about the guitar tone on Cowboys From Hell or Vulgar Display of Power. I personally feel that the guitar tone on this album was badass and brutality at it's finest. It's packed with a lot of punch and crunch, yet it wasn't overly distorted to a point where you can't make out what notes are being played. However, I could say a different statement regarding the bass guitar tone. The palm muted riffs on Dimebag Darrell on this album bring out the crunch in his guitar tone that was fueled by the Randall Warhead amps and the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker equipped guitars that were used. Another aspect of the guitars was the various effects used. The Digitech whammy pedal as well as the Dunlop wah can clearly be heard throughout certain points of this album. The whammy effect can clearly be heard on songs such as "Fuck You" and "Crawl." The guitar tone combined with the effects used and the talents of Dimebag Darrell created a unique atmosphere and sound.

The dynamics on this album were incredible. For example, in the song "Crawl" how it goes from being a raging fast groove metal song in the verse and chorus to a melodic ballad during the bridge, which then goes back to the intense speed afterwards. Each song on this album had a different sound compared to the one before or after it. This exemplifies how Damageplan was more experimental with their music compared to Pantera, which commonly stuck to a singular idea: brutal. Now, don't take that as me shitting on Pantera when that's not my intention. I love both Pantera and Damageplan. I'm just trying to say that experimentation isn't always bad. Another point I want to make about experimentation was the guitar tunings. Drop B and Drop A# are tunings Pantera definitely never used. The lowest Pantera tuned was Drop C on Reinventing the Steel. Tuning the guitars down allowed for some kickass riffs with a ton of groove to be written. Take the title track on this album for example, that song was in Drop A# tuning and the intro riff was arguably the most catchiest riff on this album. The point I'm trying to make is down tuning was an important aspect of Damageplan's uniqueness.

Another aspect of this album that I want to mention: Patrick Lachman's vocals. I can safely say that a significant people will disagree with me when I say that Lachman's vocals weren't that horrible. I can understand why some people complain that he tried too hard to sound like Phil Anselmo, but I like it that Lachman took an Anselmo inspired approach for the vocal style. Lachman's vocal style sounds like a combination of the brutality of Anselmo's vocals on Pantera's last two albums combined with the high screaming of Anselmo's vocals on Cowboys From Hell. Without a doubt, combining two different eras of Anselmo's vocals during his years with Pantera isn't something to underestimate. Another thing I liked about the vocals on this album was the melody. Songs such as "Blink of an Eye" and "Soul Bleed" go to show how Lachman has such a soothing voice when you look past his screaming abilities. Something else regarding Lachman that made this album so different: the lyrics. The lyrics on songs such as "Wake Up" and "Fuck You" do not fail in having that "You're full of shit" idea. Pantera had songs with songs with similar lyrical themes like "Walk" and "5 Minutes Alone" and those songs are some of Pantera's most popular songs. If Pantera had a song with lyrics like those of "Fuck You," it'd be much better received. Hearing "Do you think you're better than me? You better wake up 'cause you know it's a lie" coming from Lachman while his vocals are quiet, yet still full of anger sent chills down my spine upon me hearing it for the first time.

One last thing that I want to bring up about this album is the production. One thing that I could agree on with people is that the production on this album had room for improvement. The vocals and the guitar practically dominated (no pun intended) the bass guitar and drums. The only point in this album where you could clearly hear the bass guitar was the intro to "Crawl" and that's just about it. The only time where the drums stood out on this album was the intro to "Breathing New Life." Unlike the vast majority of Pantera's discography, the drums are bass on this album were pretty much lost in the mix. If you really forced yourself to zero in on the drums and no other instrument, then you'd be able to tell they were there. Other than the production, I don't have any complaints about this album as a whole. I do think that is some songs the music didn't really flow well, but's only a few songs on this album and that's it.

That's just my two cents of New Found Power. Some people may agree with my opinions on this album, and some may disagree. In the end, Damageplan had a lot of potential to release an album that would've lived up to Pantera's standards. I'm still waiting for the alleged unreleased Damageplan demos to be released one of these days. My best guess is that Rita Haney will be the one to release the demos since Vinnie was planning on being the one to release the demos, but he has passed away. Favorite songs off this album: "Save Me" "New Found Power" and "Crawl."

Following the release of their 2000 album “Reinventing the Steel”, Pantera would endure internal disputes and eventually, called it quits around 2003. Being a huge Pantera fan, I was quite bummed. However, I learned that Phil Anselmo would continue on with one of his current side projects, Down (which would recruit Rex Brown after the band’s breakup), as well as another called Superjoint Ritual. Now, I enjoyed both of these bands’ 2002 releases, which, although not Pantera, was still a nice dose of Phil nonetheless. Meanwhile, the Abbott brothers were busy putting together their country metal project, Rebel Meets Rebel, that although seemed to have some success in certain circles, I for one couldn’t get into it as much. At the time, I had hoped that Vinnie and Dimebag would try and get something off the ground that would try and capture the magic they had in the early to mid-90’s, but for a while it seemed like they were content where they were. Then, in 2003, word began to spread that the Abbotts were putting together another band called Damageplan. This act was said to play a heavy slab of groove metal, but would not simply try and recreate the sound of Pantera. Needless to say, I was excited to hear the news. I figured, at worst, this would be a Pantera wannabe and after hearing the single “Breathing New Life”, I was convinced their sound would play along the lines of Pantera lite. Truth be told, I was okay with that and was ready to give their debut, “New Found Power” a spin.

Let me begin by saying, I wanted to enjoy this album. I really did. In fact, I listened to it a few times to simply try and force myself, perhaps through some use of subliminal hypnotizing, to enjoy the album, but at the end of the day, I was left disappointed. I figured with the Abbott brothers and Patrick Lachman (although he was on vocals, but played guitar in Halford) on board, the album would get at least a passable grade. So what went wrong?

Well, for starters, this was slated to be a slab of thick, groove metal, which I and many others figured would be in vain of Pantera. What is considered groove on this album is actually, Nu metal, albeit with some groovy influences. Now, I know most metal heads balk at the name of Nu metal, but I grew up in the era of its dominance and enjoyed a number of bands during that time, so I could care less that they dipped into the genre. The problem here is three fold.

One, the Nu metal sound had already begun to decline in 2002, so steeping your sound in such a genre in 2004 seemed past its prime. Two, even if Nu metal wasn’t well received as a whole, just as every genre of music, there solid efforts and crap releases. If you’re going to immerse your sound into a genre that is already considered the fat free version of metal, you need to at least produce the best tasting Nu metal sound possible. I mean, ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ is not the real deal, but it’s a pretty close alternative. “New Found Power” gave us a vegan version of fake butter (no offense to the vegans out there), resembling nothing even close to the best sounding Nu metal, let alone heavy metal. Finally, the third and most likely reason this album failed in my eyes, was that, it seemed to be built on the principle of trends rather than the music. The trend of Nu metal (albeit fading) combined with accessible and radio friendly tunes, was just about as trendy as you could get in the early to mid-00s, which to me, was more shilling out than anything else. This much is evident in both the songwriting and musicianship heard on the album. The name "New Found Power" is literally ironic, as there is much power to be had on this album.

The riffing anarchy and soloing madness that I had come to admire from Dimebag is simply nonexistent. Again, I had hoped at best, this would be Pantera-esque chugging grooves that would at least try and capture the magic of the 90’s groove giants. Instead, the majority of the album is spent playing one or two chord riffs, that even for Nu metal, tend to sound uninspired and boring. Some of the songs, like “Breathing New Life” and “Crawl” do mix in an extra pinch of groove metal to their sound, but other than that, the album as a whole leaves a lot to be desired from the leads. As for the rhythms, or lack there or I should say, the scant solos that are present sound tacked on for the sake of simply having solos. None leave much on an impression and worse, the don’t exactly flow with the sound of the songs. They just seem to be there, rather than serve a purpose.

Over to the drums. Vinnie Paul has always been one of my favorite, but much like Dimebag, his sound of old is missing. The drums here simply play along with the guitars, hammering away with a mid-paced tempo and few alternating beat patterns that although not horrible, create nothing that stands out in the least. The man is capable of much more than a garage band drummer, but unfortunately, the overall sound of the album called for essentially the bare bones version of rhythms and power, which is what we get from the percussion.

As for “Bobzilla” on bass, well, all I can say is they should have put more time incorporating the bass guitar rather than working on his nickname. For the most part, the bass is almost inaudible unless you try and seek out its sound and even if you managed to catch it, it won’t leave an impression. For a groove metal outfit, the bass can often provide some excellent crunchy and reverberating sounds to help amplify the leads and rhythms (like Rex Brown did in Pantera), but they are no go here.

That leaves, Patrick Lachman, who I thought did a decent job playing guitar with Halford, but he would be handling vocals on “New Found Power”. I will say that, if he vocals on “Breathing New Life” and “Crawl” (which sound like Phil Anselmo lite) were simply emulated for the entire album, that alone would have brought the score up a few notches. But, like everything else, they become stale and do not carry much power or intensity whatsoever. Even the crappiest Nu metal outfit generally had someone screaming or yelling with emotionally fueled aggression, that although may not have sounded great, at least had some balls. Not so much for Lachman here.

I also much mention the guest appearances of Corey Taylor and Zakk Wylde. Being a big Slipknot fan, I was intrigued to see what Taylor would add to the album. He indeed adds a heavy dose of Nu metal shouting and his version of clean vocals to the song “Fuck You”, but the song is completely out of place compared to the rest of the album. If the whole album sounded like that one song and had Taylor guest star, then it would have made sense, but this was like having a Slipknot song appear on an Edge of Sanity album. It stuck out like a sore thumb. And what about Zakk Wylde? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m asking you what was his role was. I mean I saw his name in the credits, but nothing on the track “Soul Bleed” which he provided backup vocals or “Reborn” where is apparently plays guitar, resembles anything that of his long and successful career. Another swing and a miss. I assume adding their names to the sticker that had the name PANTERA in bold letter on the front cover helped sell a few extra copies, but other than that, it provided little to the overall experiment.

For me, Damageplan’s “New Found Power” was a huge let down. Not just because the former groove brothers had fallen into the Nu metal trend, but rather because the album as a whole simple lacked any creativity or ingenuity. I would have been okay with a Nu metal album as long as is it actually seem inspired or genuine. This on the other hand, sounds like a bunch of guys had some beers while randomly playing some tunes in a studio that happened to be recording at the time. From there they decided, what the hell, it’s already recorded, let’s add a few songs and slap the Abbott name onto it and watch it sell. To be fair, given my Pantera love, I was willing to give the band one more attempt in hopes that maybe they would alter their sound, but sadly Dimebag was murdered shortly after the release of the album. With that being said, Damageplan would come to an abrupt end and hopeful fans of the return of the Dimebag of old would be forever lost, leaving us with this bitter taste on our pallets.

Highlights: “Breathing New Life” “Crawl”

Into the Abyss of Oblivion

So after the death of the commercial metal titans Pantera with their final release 'Reinventing the Steel' all the members split ways to join (or focus on) various different projects. Phil Anslemo and Rex Brown would go on to use Pantera's left over momentum and build a brand new hit and miss brand of 'southern metal' actually pumping out some decent material with Down and Superjoint Ritual. After taking in this success one might say the Abbott brothers got the short end of the stick because they wound up making... this.

I mean first of all when I find a vocalist as bad as Fred Durst you know things have hit the fan. This guy, Patrick Lachman is crap. His harsh vocals sound like the harsh vocals from Slipknot but with less enthusiasm and energy but even more tough guy posturing (and we even have Corey Taylor on the record to compare him to). This is even before factoring in his clean vocals which have a grating quality to his voice which makes for an uneasy listen. I was actually excited by the idea that at least this guy wouldn't start rapping. He didn't, that might be a plus, problem is I have no idea if he's good at it or not without hearing it so that might have been the only thing they could have going for them.

Now for a large part of the album the songs focus on being about new beginnings and starting fresh, which is a nice sentiment, but I only bring it up because , they uhm, well if that's what they're going to preach then they should actually practice it. Despite all this wonderful talk of new beginnings the Abbots are still holding a grudge against Anselmo as it also includes a 'diss track' which strangely seems to contain more reason to hate Damageplan than to hate its intended victim. I mean if you're going to take Hatebreed's whole shtick of making hard music that encourages you to improve yourself, you should at least be consistent. The theme was the best thing here and it they left it feeling hollow.

Then of course we have Dimebag's guitar work. I mean hey Dimebag has some pretty cool solos and occasionally his groove style leads to some pretty cool riffs, well except for here, but perhaps that's because theres so little of it. More than half the guitar work has been consumed by midpaced downtuned chugging and riffs that are little more than a couple guitar effects thrown together ad nauseum. Then what's left sounds like Dimebag's typical style and still yields very little results. I mean its moderately heavy, certainly on par with any of his previous work with Pantera but really its just monotonous. Any riffs on here that are of interest get played out more than they should until your glad to see them go. The solos are implemented far less here and seem pretty copy and paste from his work with Anthrax and that's about all I have to say about them.

There's also Vinnie of course, he plays at a midpaced tempo to match Dimebag and never really experiments, just uses some simple drumming patterns. There is also our bass player who was usually mixed out, I'm just going to say if your in a nu-metal band and you want to cut out the bass then you have already failed. When he is in the mix though it doesn't matter much, he just adds some groove lines (more groovy than Dimebag's work here actually) in a fuzzy bass tone, these parts are still amongst the best on the album however.

Final opinion, just don't pick this up. Unless you're a die hard fan of either or both of the Abbots or maybe a completionist trying to grab anything affiliated with any former members of Pantera then I just wouldn't grab it. I just don't see the appeal in it, I mean maybe if your a nu-metal fan than you might take a look on it but even then you would make better use of your time poking into another band's work.

At the time of Damageplan's formation the future of Pantera was unclear, with Philip and Rex jumping ship to other side projects leaving the Abbott brothers with no certain musical future. From this uncertainty came the creation of Damageplan, which as we all know eventually lead to the mindless slaughter of Dimebag and other innocent people in December 2004.

To further explain my title, I believe this album to be weakened by the circumstances around it for many reasons. The Abbott brothers could have easily created an identical Pantera clone without Phil and Rex, but I believe they chose to change their sound to avoid being labelled as a weak Pantera clone. This proved to be no easy task for two musicians that had been perfecting their sound for decades, the result is an obvious attempt at watering-down their old style and taking a more experimental approach to their song writing. A second circumstantial reason for this album's weakness could be the Abbott brother's choice of vocalist and bassist. Dime and Vinnie had been writing and performing with Phil and Rex for years at this point, to begin afresh with new musical contributors would cause a change in sound and how the material was written.

Onto the actual material within this album, there are some very strong tracks to be found here. We have the strong tracks such as "Breathing New Life", "New Found Power" and "Crawl", the first two standouts represent about half the material on this cd. These heavier tracks are what Pantera fans listening to this album will be expecting to hear, bludgeoning grooves with injections of speed and aggressive vocals. There are some very good ideas to be found on these two tracks, take the main riff to "Breathing New Life", being a simple yet effective mid-tempo riff. The title track also has its moments (the riff at 1.38 for example) this track being another personal highlight of the album.

Another standout track "Crawl" represents the more versatile material to be found on "New Found Power", mixing heavy and clean sections effectively with some very nice clean guitar lparts Dimebag was famous for ( the melody introduced at 2.45 for example). However other tracks with this more experimental style of song writing are weaker filler tracks. For example "Blink Of An Eye" has some interesting ideas but overall lacks focus and contains a worryingly generic chorus. One track of this more experimental nature worth mentioning is the song "Pride", which like "Crawl" merges these two approaches to song-writing well with a strong and memorable performance from the vocalist Pat Lachman.

This brings me onto the vocals on this album , the vocalist Pat Lachman has had much abuse for his vocals on this release. I do not think he is the greatest singer or that he can match Phil Anselmo's vocal capabilities but he still gives a strong performance on this album. It is worth noting he had never been a lead singer before, so for a debut performance he has a fairly strong aggressive vocal style, and can also sing pretty well. However the vocals bring this album down when they begin to sound worryingly similar to nu-metal rapping (in "Reborn" for example). This aside I believe Pat Lachman to be a suitable vocalist for this album. I have read online that Pat Lachman and the Abbott brothers had argued over playing Pantera material within Damageplan, if this is true then it could be another cause of Dime and Vinnie experimenting with new musical styles. Anyway, the bassist on this album is almost completely drowned out (save the intro to "Crawl"), so it is very hard to analyse his contributions to his album, but he must be a capable player in order to follow Dimebag’s guitar-work.

The Abbott brother's performance on this album is solid, if a little tame. As I previously mentioned they were forced to change sound, a sound they had been perfecting for years. This leads to a major flaw with this album I am yet to understand, where are the blazing guitar solos Dime was famous for? there is very little lead guitar work to be found here, why Dimebag chose not to include leads I will never understand and unfortunately when they do appear, they are nothing spectacular. In regards to Vinnie, his drum work here is solid, but he is capable of more creative playing that was seen throughout his playing in Pantera.

One further criticism I have of “New Found Power” is its lyrical content. Most of these tracks seem to be bashing Philip Anslemo and the demise of Pantera. An obvious example of this is the track “Fuck You”. Now, I don’t judge albums by their lyrical content alone, but the lyrics on “New Found Power” can lower the quality of the music. For example “Fuck You” is seriously damaged by its pathetic lyrical content and the endless repetition of “fuck” in the lyrics, if the song had better lyrics it could easily be one of the finest tracks this album has too offer. If you ignore the terrible lyrics on this track you are left with a fast, aggressive and memorable track not dissimilar to Pantera’s faster and shorter tracks such as “Fucking Hostile” from “Vulgar Display Of Power”. On the subject of bashing Phil Anselmo lyrically, I do not blame Phil for a single thing related to Pantera’s break up , for it takes more than one member to split up a band.

Overall, It saddens me to pick apart an album made by some very talented musicians, but there are flaws here that cannot be overlooked. I do however believe that people are too harsh on this release. People are constantly labelling it as a worthless sell-out from the Abbott brothers even though it does contain some very strong material. In my mind this album was a one-off for the Abbott brothers. I believe Damageplan was intended to keep them busy until Pantera could re-unite and create some new material. Either way, If Damageplan was created with the intention to be a long term thing I believe they could have made much stronger and focused material if the band had not dissolved in such tragedy. With time they could have perfected their new sound, thrown in more solos, aggression and become the new Pantera. But as we all know, a schizophrenic and troubled individual stopped any chance of this happening. So here we have it, an album crippled by circumstance.

R.I.P Dimebag Darrell and all the other individuals that lost their lives in 2004.

Standouts - "Breathing New Life" , "Crawl", "New Found Power" and "Pride".

When Pantera finally ended after years of internal hostilities in 2002, the members themselves went their separate ways into two different camps. Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown jumped on the New Orleans metal movement, becoming involved in bands like Crowbar, Superjoint Ritual, and most importantly, Down. The Abbotts, having invested most of their time into Pantera over the last two decades, were hung out to dry without much of a future to look forward to. A year later, this changed when the brothers picked up "Bobzilla" and Pat Lachman to form Damageplan.

What lies on the band's debut album in "New Found Power" is something that is both mystifying and disappointing, though more of the latter than anything else. The music itself is very restrained, an obvious nod to Dime's obsession with mid-tempo downtuned chugging on this album. It was usually there in Pantera, but there also other things going on that kept that band interesting from time to time. Even Dime's soloing, always a highlight in Pantera, short changes the listener here as you're given something that is more standard than anything else. Vinnie Paul isn't much of a different story, he offers little from behind the drum kit, a double disappointment from this band's two more talented musicians. Yet even with that, they remain the two better men in Damageplan.

The two at the bottom end of the totem pole in Damageplan are "Bobzilla" and Pat Lachman. I cannot comment much on "Bobzilla" (what a name) because he is sometimes inaudible and other times simply uninteresting. The only thing noteworthy about him is his obvious tough guy posturing in the photography. Given the music, this guy might as well tried to be Mr. Tuff Man in a ballerina outfit cause I'm not buying it. Still, he isn't the worst man in the band. That title would belong to Pat Lachman. For whatever unholy reason, the Abbotts assumed he'd work fine in the studio. Given his ability to defile the vocal works of singers like Layne Staley, Phil Anselmo, John Bush, and Rob Flynn, its a wonder he was even picked at all. Its not so much his vocals are unbearable, but he comes so damn comical when trying to be a tough guy that its hard to take him or this band serious. The fact also is that Lachman chooses to rap on some of these songs, which is just hysterical unless you actually paid money to hear this album.

Even without the music, we're given the ingredients to one smelly shit sandwhich. Even with that, Damageplan do manage to break down into halfway decent groove metal at times, but this is far from anything fans of the genre should immediately look into. "Breathing New Life" is the easiest song not to hate, as you can take it fairly seriously, aside from all that repetitive chugging nonsense at play. The title track is a similiar story, as is the more accessible and obvious radio pandering of "Pride" and "Save Me." These all boil down to watered down groove and radio rock, two forms of music I usually detest but here they stand out as the better songs. The song "Explode" would have also been applicable here, thanks mostly to Dime's solo in the song, but Lachman ruins it completely thanks to his abominable rapping style that rears its ugly head. The exact same principles apply to "Cold Blooded," again ruined by Lachman.

Some of the album's worst moments come from attempts to keep it from sucking something awful. "Reborn" is downright comical from the mallcore inspired riffs to the spoken word parts that are a form of third rate comedy. "Crawl" starts off with a nice little bass line then meanders for several minutes, winding up in territory that reminds me of Mudvayne's "L.D. 50." That album would have been most welcome at this point, like using shoe cleaner to rub the taste of shit out of your mouth. If this weren't bad enough, Corey Taylor steps away from homeboyin' it up with Slipknot long enough to lend his talents on "Fuck You." With a title like that, you're assured it will be bad. It was originally meant to be a "diss" track to Phil Anselmo, but considering the word "fuck" appears eighteen times in three minutes the joke is on Damageplan as that song is completely terrible.

The Abbotts fell a long way here, as this album spews forth raw suckage like a busted sewer line. I am completely baffled as to why this album turned out the way it did, unless it was apparent pandering to trends. Everything here screams "trendy" from the downtuned mallcore nonsense to the rapping to the obvious lack of ideas, its all here. Considering nu-metal began fading in 2002, Damageplan were a bit late coming with this two years later. Dimebag Darrell is still sorely missed in my book, though I must admit this was a horrible way to end his musical contributions. I can't recommend this to anyone, even to the simple minded fans who can't get enough of Slipknot or Korn's legions of wretched clones. Even with mallcore there are better things out there, and its best just to let this wither away unnoticed by those of us who have better things to listen to.

I have not come to praise Dimebag, but to bury his last and most horrid of nu-metal, groove metal, alternative metal, grunge metal, or otherwise mallcore piece of garbage creations. It’s been nearly 5 years since his career and life came to an unfortunate end, and the time for politeness is over. Love him or hate him, gifted shredder and former Pantera axe man Darrel Abbott was an instrumental figure in the procreation of the diarrhea steeped bile that was nu-metal, and worse still, one that encouraged spreading it to a wide group of formerly respectable 80s metal bands. But in spite of his association with this inferior art form, his work with Pantera always managed to edge its way above most of the others in said style, at least until he took his game to this one album disaster of a project otherwise known as Damageplan.

“New Found Power” listens like a decrepit cesspool of every dry, tired, played out cliché that had been poured out of every radio speaker of mainstream musical media since the early 90s like Stalinist propaganda. The guitars pound out the dumb assed, 3 note, hypnotic chug-a-chug riffs in drop D tuning like it’s the only way to play guitar. Mix this in with half-assed Phil Anselmo, Layne Staley and John Bush circa “Sound Of White Noise” vocal plagiarism, a near inaudible bass that mirrors the distorted, drowsy droning buffoonery of the guitars and very little variety from Vinnie from behind the kit, but still we are constantly assured that this is a metal album. Then again, we have a nice little fit of Baboon inspired retarded nu-metal whining on the album’s lone semi-fast song “Fuck You” from none other than Slipknot’s own Corey Taylor, as if a really bad version of “Fucking Hostile” wasn’t torture enough.

The only somewhat redeeming factor at play here within this mess of vapid grooves and generic choruses is Dimebag’s lead work, which largely functions as a somewhat pleasant bit of Victorian window dressing on what is essentially a cardboard shanty. Most of them are shot bursts that last for about 10 or 15 seconds, rely pretty heavily on sound effects in addition to the muddy distortion present in 90% of this album, utilize simplistic harmonies and scream harmonics often, and showcase a pretty restrained version of what the player is capable of. The best comparison that could be made to previous efforts in this area would be his guest slots on Anthrax’s “Stomp 442” and “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real”, both of which were inferior to most of his solo work in Pantera but still fairly impressive. Nevertheless, it comes nowhere near making it worth any self-respecting metal fan’s while to listen through more than an hour of pointless “Vulgar Display Of Power” worship that could probably only stand above the short-lived and largely forgotten joke of a Pantera tribute project Archie Bunker.

The most viciously negative review could never hope to shit on Dimebag’s legacy as much as this album had already done when it was first put out for public consumption. Despite my being somewhat lukewarm towards Anselmo’s various other projects, at least he had gotten over the slavish devotion to a past better forgotten that this album embodies. In 2004 this debuted in the Billboard top 40 at number 38, just recently Behemoth’s “Evangelion” debuted at number 55, so it is a relatively safe assumption that the musical mainstream in America is making some progress in its understanding of good metal versus garbage. Vinnie has stated that there could be another Damageplan album to come, built off of leftovers from the songwriting sessions that produced this pile of crud. It may or may not fully resemble this if and when it gets recorded, but it can probably be safely assumed that like this, it will suck something awful.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on August 27, 2009.

For Damageplan, comparison to Pantera is inevitable, no matter how much you try to separate the two bands. At first, it may seem such a comparison is unfair to Damageplan. But ultimately, this is something Damageplan brings it upon itself, because they failed to fully distinguish themselves from Pantera like Phil Anselmo did with his bands, even though they (ahem, Dimebag and Vinnie Paul) were supposed to. Here's the breakdown of Damageplan's one-and-only album.

1. Vocals

Pat Lachman, who handles guitar for Rob Halford's solo band, sings here. Frankly, I think Pat is a suitable vocalist for the Abbott brothers' hard-hitting music. Tracks like "Pride" and "Blink of An Eye" are good examples of Pat's mean vocals, where he can hit accurate pitches and hold them for a while, even adding some vibratos at times. He sometimes sings, sometimes screams (a-la Pantera), and can do both well. But while physical skills of being vocalist is fine, Pat stands inferior to Phil Anselmo when it comes to lyrical skills. There is not a single lyric that is imaginative or creative. The worst cases of such are "Explode" and "Fuck You," with the latter also noteworthy of having a pathetic song title.

2. Bass

I have never seen Damageplan live, but based on what is recorded here, it is hard to judge Bob Zilla's technical prowess as a bassist. However, one cannot help but to feel that he is inferior to Rex Brown in terms of creativity. Rex was able to create grooves and riffs that served as a great contrast to Dimebag's always-center-of-the-attention riffs and was a valuable foundation to the music along with Vinnie Paul - ultimately, he was as irreplaceable member of Pantera as the other three. On the other hand Bob Zilla offers nothing of the sort. Even as I am listening to the album while I type this, I cannot think of one song that has a memorable bassline. True, the album is produced in a clean-cut manner that makes the bass seem nonexistent, but Bob Zilla is no Jason Newsted either - there is a limit to how much you can blame on the production for lack of Bob's presence in the music.

3. Abbott Brothers

Those two folks fall flat here, compared to the rest of their works - not just Pantera but also Rebel Meets Rebel (which was released after Damageplan but recorded long before).

To be fair, they have done some things right. When they announced the end of Pantera, they had to create another band that is not a Pantera clone - for the instrumental core of Pantera, that basically meant they had to reinvent themselves. That's a big task for people that spent an entire decade perfecting their sound.

Based on the results presented here, it seems like reinventing themselves was harder than reinventing the steel, or heavy metal in general. Both the guitar and drums sacrificed much of the technical and mechanical intensity of Pantera for more smoothed-out, easy-to-play groove. But unfortunately, somewhere along their self-reinventing process, they lost originality. Groove that is emphasized on this album is generally listenable (unless you hate numetal or sounds similar to it) but by the time "Blunt Force Trauma" comes around, it's no longer fresh nor interesting, and the album overstays its welcome and suddenly becomes an exhausting listen. Sonically, the music DOES sound like Dimebag is playing guitar and drums sound like Vinnie, but if someone told you that __insert__a__numetal__musician's__name__ wrote the music and that Dimebag and Vinnie just played them, you would probably believe it. It's rather unfortunate, because it feels like that Dime and Vinnie kept the rhythmical punctuality of Pantera and tried to merge it with a sense of fluidity within their riffs, which backfired on them and made them sound polished and manufactured rather than organic. I will say that Dimebag's solos, when it does happen, are still hot and inspired.

The result:

There is no "if" in history, but back when Dimebag was still alive, this album suggested that they had potential to grow more and find their individuality as a band, and they really may have. Damageplan had talent, no doubt at all about that. With this album, the disappointments are too easy to point (like I did), but it still gets your head banging for a while anyway. This is why, 5 years after its release, I continue to listen to it once in a while, and have cared to write a review for it.

You give it a try, and see what you think.

...but I don't think this poor album's gotten a good review yet-- so why the fuck should I not continue the trend?

At least for the moment, I am still a numetal/ mallcore fan. As such, I believe that some numetal is good, and some is bad. For example:
Mushroomhead-- good; Slipknot-- bad.
Demon Hunter-- good; Devildriver-- bad.
Static-X-- good; Korn-- bad.

Damageplan is on the bad list.

Up until listening to this album, I honestly thought that numetal was such a diverse genre with such a huge multitude of influences, that no two bands could ever sound alike. Damageplan actually comes very close to sounding like some other groups, such as No One (the mallcore band of that name, not the band on this site, if there still is one). Damageplan is the final result, the apex of people playing numetal for as long as they have. It's time that those people just give the fuck up so I don't feel like a fucking dinosaur when I open my CD case.

But... I believe very strongly in being fair, so I will give this album a fair review just like the other albums I've reviewed.

Possibly the best part of New Found Power would probably be the guitars. Or maybe it was the drums, so I'll put them in the same paragraph. The guitars, as per any "good" groove "metal" (Damageplan, to me, is hard rock with screams and double bass), there are some decent groove riffs. If I were an idiot, I would say they were "thrashy," but only in an incredibly vague sense. However, the two or three good riffs throughout the album often do exact a price on the listener's ears, for they are so fucking downtuned that sometimes the tone seems inaudible. Maybe that's just me and my hearing problems, but I think I now see why people complain about downtuning in numetal.

Did I say drums would be in the same paragraph? I guess I lied. The drums are the only other remotely shining points on this record, simply because throughout the CD there are a couple really cool midtempo sections which are accented by the aforementioned mildly amusing pseudo-thrash groove riffs. These sections seem to be very popular in groove and numetal, but they are also found in real metal as well. The drums, too, though, are a double edged sword-- for they are nothing spectacular. Granted, I have heard simpler, less involved drum patterns from other artists (maybe from the 70's or 80's!) but as I delve further into extreme metal, I'm starting to get really bored with anything that isn't spectacular. So except for a scant couple good tracks, nothing special here.

Vocals leave something to be desired as well. They're very numetal sounding, not surprisingly. I may like numetal, but I think the only really good numetal vocalists are in Mushroomhead and Demon Hunter. Whoever this guy is, I'm never good with names, is not necessarily bad, but he's nothing I haven't heard before. Also, there is a near total absence of clean sung vocals, which I've always thought of as a requirement for being "metalcore." I could always be wrong. Also, the lyrics are pretty stereoypical for numetal, especially the track "Fuck You," or whatever it's called. I've heard the themes presented on this album so many times that it's aggravating.

Finally, the bass. My ears are not very well attuned to hearing bass most of the time, but what I do hear is the stereoypical "mallcore bass." Even as I am a mallcore fan, I do not enjoy mallcore bass. I prefer the bass guitar sound that is found in death and black metal.

Also, on a completely different note, there were some electronics on one song in an intro, and I thought that was totally pretentious given the nature of the rest of the album.

The final verdict: this pretty much sucks, even by numetal standards. This is not more "metal" than "core," in fact, it's neither. It just another example of a numetal band that thinks it's metalcore because they have screaming and maybe some breakdowns. In my opinion, this is not even worthy of being on this site; it's only here because it counts as a non-metal side project of Dimebag Darrell, and if it was just an Average Joe band, it would have been turned away quicker than that guy who said that Devildriver is "death/ black metal" (which is total fucking bullshit!). Now, because I like this kind of stuff, it's fairly all right with me, but I'm trying to warn the rest of you: IF YOU DO NOT ABSOLUTELY ADORE NUMETAL/ MALLCORE, DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM-- YOU WILL FUCKING HATE IT!!!

Upon listening to this album I was most likely like every other person here basically basing its success or how good it is in comparison to Pantera. Is it helpful? Not really. Is it going to stop me even though its not entirely fair? heck no! Will this ever touch Vulgar Display or the majority of there work? God no!!! But if I were to say this was an enjoyable listen I would say easily yes. It has its songs at least(which arent too many in my opinion)

Vocally it gets occasionally irritating when Lachman tries to emulate Anselmo. The vocals are strong nonetheless but nothing that hasn't been topped dozens of times already. Musically is the biggest disappointment as well as well as lyrics. "F**k you" in particular. Fitting Corey Taylor helped with the song. This might as well be a Slipknot outtake and I hate them with an undying passion. No other lyrics really stand out and the music is headbangable but for Dimebag I think its safe to say its a disappointment. I've read mallcore influences and possible nu metal influences in this album to the point of selling out.

Damageplan sounds very modernized or mainstream you could say. The riffs are much more simplified yet still heavy(not a thrash heavy either) with lots of groove. The drumming screams AVERAGE or possibly lower throughout every song in this reviewers opinion as well. The other main issue is what with the solo's? They are solid but I expected much more from that axe player!!! Taking it easy for the masses? Bleh! Anyhow the songs are not that consistent. I would say there is the occasional filler here and a certain urge to skip certain tracks. If you can barely tolerate Pantera and despise the mainstream sound, I would say there is next to no chance you will like this music. For those of you that can tolerate a bit of nu influence give it a shot. I dont think its worth buying and its nowhere near Pantera's level but its not bad. Decent and disappointed. If you like your metal(semi) modernized, give it a shot.

Favorite tracks: Reborn, Breathing New Life, title track.

Welcome to yet another of GrimAndFrostbitten's self-torture rituals. Today, we look at Damageplan, who are probably the most mallcore band, from their genesis at least, on the entire Metal Archives site.

Though there are some metal riffs and even a few solos, some of them from the overrated realm of Zakk Wylde, and some hearkenings to Pantera and southern sludge, it's mostly full of Drop-D, chugga chugga mallcore. Most of the guitar work sounds like it came directly out of a Korn, Slipknot, or Drowning Pool album, relying mostly on distortion. The vocals are weak and could also have been taken right out of a Korn or Slipknot album, and sometimes an Alice in Chains or Tool album when done cleanly on songs like "Pride" or "Save Me," yet don't accomplish it. Mr. Slipknot himself, Corey Taylor, even shows up in one of the many insightful and creative songs on this album, "Fuck You," which is the "fast" song on the album that's mostly made to seem so through drum beats alone. However, there's not too much hard-rhyming/rapping as you might expect, and fortunately none of the "muthafukka" ebonics stuff that I can remember even with the "new found power" lyrical themes.

Also, the songwriting is bland and bad. The songs vary in pace and form, usually at about Far Beyond Driven pace with some fast parts like in "Fuck You" and "Crawl," though a lot of it often falls into the realm of ennui. There's still a very, very diluted metal basis at the bottom of this, but the vast majority is putrid and "modernistic" with fecal chunks of mallcore swimming around. The people sway in the borderlines between mallcore like Slipknot, bad metal like Pantera, bad metalcore like Hatebreed, think Metallica's returning to their roots with St. Anger, and so on will eat this lowest common denominator garbage up. Welcome to the future of metal.

Verdict? Tripe. However, I feel generous today, so I'll give it a 6%.