Damageplan - New FoundPower

Tue 30th Mar, 2004 in Music Reviews

Pantera’s demise came at no surprise a few years ago. Too many side projects from vocalist Phil Anselmo and the impression that he simply didn’t care anymore, sent the mighty Pantera to its grave. With Phil taking ex-Pantera bass player Rex Brown to play in Down, naturally, everyone expected the remaining Pantera members, the Abbot brothers, guitarist Dimebag Darrel and drummer Vinnie Paul, to come up with something new and interesting. They had a plan, a Damageplan in fact, and recruited former Halford guitarist Patrick Lachman on vocals, and the unknown Bob Zilla on bass.

“New Found Power” is simply a metal record with glimpses of melodic elements. Vocalist Patrick Lachman is a straight forward metal singer; he can growl, yell, scream and sing, however, he seems to be trying to live up to the standards of Phil Anselmo. He tries, but doesn’t quite get there, with a sense that he is being over-shadowed by the Abbot brothers. He simply does not have enough personality to be in a band with legends such as Dimebag Darrel and Vinnie Paul.

The album is full of the classic Pantera riffs we’ve all become accustomed too, which could be a good or a bad thing. “Breathing New Life” is definitely a stand-out track with chunky guitars and huge vocals that sound very similar to Anselmo’s, remind me very much of Pantera. Cory Taylor of Slipknot surprises us in the track “Fuck You” and adds a bit of flavour to the song.

Tracks like “Save Me”, the new single, show another side of Damageplan. Soft melodic verses and a catchy chorus might throw some listeners off expecting only metal, however, CD sales are everything these days and this must be Damageplan’s attempt to crossover to radio.

Album closer “Soul Bleed” is nearly all acoustic, and is very refreshing. It features Zakk Wylde and sounds as if its been pulled out of the Alice In Chains back catalogue.

The production on the album is also no where as good as you would expect and at times it is even hard to hear the vocals.

Damageplan sound as if they could’ve been a very versatile band and could have possibly  released an awesome, fresh album. Unfortunately, it sounds like they have locked themselves into to the mindset of simply impressing Pantera fans and not attempting to be more innovative and challenge themselves. “New Found Power” breathes nothing new and is a quite boring, lacklustre effort, that you will listen to a few times and throw into the pile with all the other generic metal bands you listen to once and forget about. The album is just not as good as you would hope for. There are simply too many fillers and too little thrillers.

If this band didn’t feature Dimebag Darrel and Vinnie Paul, no one would take any notice of this release. Hopefully they have a better plan next time…