Dimebag Darrell’s Studio Swan Song
A look back at Damageplan’s sole effort New Found Power
The demise of Pantera was an inevitability in the wake of their final album, 2000’s Reinventing the Steel.
Between bad blood amongst its members and singer Phil Anselmo’s focus on side projects like Down (with bassist Rex Brown) and Superjoint Ritual, everyone had other places to be. In the case of the brothers Abbott, guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul, that next step was the formation of Damageplan and the creation of their sole album, New Found Power.
Originally released 20 years ago on February 10, 2004 to mixed reviews, Damageplan’s sole effort was supposed to be a new start for the brothers and their collaborators. Listening to Damageplan required some degree of suspension of disbelief: At the time, you had to make peace with the fact that this was something other than Pantera, regardless of era. You also had to compare what the Abbott brothers had cooked up to what Anselmo was doing with Superjoint Ritual, or even the second Down album.
Two decades later, both Abbott brothers are dead—Dimebag tragically killed onstage in 2004 and Vinnie Paul succumbing to a heart attack in 2018—and New Found Power remains the sole proof of Damageplan’s existence. In the time after Dimebag’s death, Vinnie Paul played with supergroup Hellyeah until his own passing; bassist Bob “Bobzilla” Kakaha also joined up for a number of years, in addition to his other projects. Singer Patrick Lachman (ex-Halford) remains active as well, though Damageplan was his last time in the mainstream spotlight.
Anselmo and Brown were essential parts of Pantera’s success, but Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul were the heart and soul of the band. As such, it follows that New Found Power takes its cues from Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power; Damageplan’s groovy low-end and Darrell’s instantly recognizable guitar tone were staples of Pantera’s sound and Lachman is doing his best Anselmo impersonation throughout the record.
At their best, Damageplan make this formula work pretty well. The title track starts with a deep groove, one that feels fittingly nü for its era, and Lachman flexes his versatility, screaming and singing in balance. Opener “Wake Up” sounds like it could be a “Cowboys From Hell” remix, updated for the 2000s. “Breathing New Life” is a pretty blatant ripoff of “Becoming,” short and to the point. “Save Me” sounds like it was written for Godsmack, but it’s one of the album’s better written songs. “Moment of Truth” also shows off the band’s rock side, incorporating classic and southern rock-esque pick slides and melodic angles. Both of these songs are pretty far from the Pantera formula, and indicate that Damageplan could’ve successfully gone in a commercial rock direction.
Unfortunately, New Found Power also feels like a bit of an identity crisis at times. “Pride” is another attempt to craft a radio rock tune but ends up playing against Damageplan’s strengths—Dimebag’s guitar playing and the band’s rhythm section—but does feature a great solo. “Fuck You” suffers from the Slipknot effect that every metal band in the 2000s was subject to, aping the masked nonet’s sound in an attempt to appear contemporary. In the case of “Fuck You,” Damageplan even recruited Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, taking a crack something inspired by Iowa.
“Reborn” and “Explode” fall into the category of Pantera remakes, failing to capture the same intensity of “Breathing New Life.” “Crawl” and “Blink of an Eye” both exist between heavy and mainstream, but fall short of sticking to the execution as well as “Save Me” or “Moment of Truth.”
New Found Power closes out with the acoustic ballad “Soul Bleed,” another track that hints at the potential Damageplan’s future had. Featuring vocal harmonies from future Pantera guitarist Zakk Wylde, it’s a tonal shift from the rest of the record that suggests once again that the Abbott brothers may have gone in a more melodic direction.
Allegedly, Damageplan recorded songs for a second LP. As the years go by, it seems less and less likely that those songs will be heard in the future, making New Found Power the first and final LP from this fated quartet.
For those still mourning the loss of the Abbott brothers,—or those who dispute the trueness of a Pantera reunion without them—New Found Power is an interesting, if uneven, suggestion of where they might have gone.
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