Damageplan: New Found Power

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”

Rating: 1.5