New Found Power is the first album the Grove/Nu metal band Damageplan released. The producers, Dimebag Darrell and Vinie Paul, also known as the Abbott brothers and the co-producers on this album, are Pat Lachman and Sterling Winfield. This album would be released on Feb. 10, 2004, and sell 44,676 copies within the first week released.
The band Damageplan is a traditional four-piece band founded by Dimebag Darrel and Vinie Paul. They inherited the groove metal sound of Pantera combined with subgenres of Nu metal and metalcore, which were becoming very popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This band was formed in 2003 due to the Band Pantera breaking up due to the vocalist being difficult to work with and a few more factors. The Abbott brothers would form this band with the same passion to make new music to inspire fans and just have a good time. Dimebag Darrel former guitarist of Pantera was shredding at the age of 12 was inspired by Ace Frehley and Eddie Van Halen, Dime was known for his high gain tone, squeals with his Floyd Rose, pinch harmonics, amazing soloing skills, and his crushing heavy riffs known as one of the most inspiration and best metal guitarist in metal history. Vinnie Pau, the drummer, is also the brother of the guitarist, the brothers started by just playing Smoke on the Water together, and their music careers took off from there, Vinie is known for being one of the best metal drummers and the iconic sound of the double kick drums and amazing groove. Pat Latchman is an amazing metal vocalist known for his deep, dirty vocals that fit this band perfectly. Robert Kakaha, also known as Bob Zilla, was the bassist in Damageplan, he met the Abbot brothers through tattooing them. This lineup was legendary and the bandmates’ energy was perfect. But the same year they were doing the New Found Power tour, one of the biggest metal tragedies occurred. December 8, 2004, Damageplan was in a Columbus, Ohio nightclub opening with the song, Breathing New Life, and about thirty seconds later 25-year-old Nathan Gale runs on stage shooting Dimebag Darrel five times and wounding a few other people with a 9mm Beretta. This brought the New Found Power tour and Damageplan to its end, leaving every metalhead, guitarist, and friend of Dime devastated. If this tragedy had never happened, Damage Plan would still have been turning the metal community upside down with creativity.
New Found Power is a staple of how creative the Abbott brothers are compared to the Pantera sound they have had for the past 20 years, yet still hearing a Pantera influence from their playing styles. Something special to this was the dark, clean riffs, then throwing you into crazy high gain riffs to headbang to. And you can’t forget the legends featured on this album being Cory Taylor, Zakk Wylde, and Jerry Cantrell. This album is one hour worth of 14 songs crammed into an album, but still packing a crazy punch like no other. Breathing New Life starts with double kick drums into a heavy chromatic riff reminding me of the Pantera song A New Level, this song makes you want to headbang within seconds. Moving to something with some dark clean tones is Soul Bleed with Zakk Wylde on vocals, it’s a more sad song and I think it’s reflecting on the situation with Pantera, and the Abbott brothers are upset to lose their band of 20 years. Pride is another amazing song thats has a brighter sound, not as dark sounding, another song that switches between clean and heavy throughout the song and it ending with a guitar solo that makes the guitar scream, the song is about betrayal and having the pride to turn away from it and keep living life unbothered. Ashes To Ashes is featured on the 2004 Punisher soundtrack, this sludge-like riff on the intro kicks off the song to a great start and is the best song and band for this show’s soundtrack, to make the song even better Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains sings the chorus going well with the sludge like song that Jerry had experience with Alice in Chains. Overall, this album was very different for the Abbott brothers, with lower tunings, new effects, and a new genre, but it just shows the skill of these brothers and band as a whole that will never be matched again.
If you want to listen to a metal masterpiece, you need to check out this album. If metal isn’t your favorite genre, check out songs like Soul Bleed, Save Me, or Pride. The creativity, energy, and music is an experience of Damageplan I recommend to anyone.
