Band:	Damageplan
Album:	New Found Power
Style:	Groove metal
Release date:	February 10, 2004
Guest review by:	vezzy

01. Wake Up
02. Breathing New Life
03. New Found Power
04. Pride
05. Fuck You [feat. Corey Taylor]
06. Reborn [feat. Zakk Wylde]
07. Explode
08. Save Me
09. Cold Blooded
10. Crawl
11. Blink Of An Eye
12. Blunt Force Trauma
13. Moment Of Truth
14. Soul Bleed [feat. Zakk Wylde]
15. Ashes To Ashes [feat. Jerry Cantrell] [Japanese bonus]

Following the conflicts between the members of Pantera, particularly Phil Anselmo and Dimebag/Vinnie which led to their breakup, the two still wanted to record and perform music, and so New Found Power was born. A demo of "Crawl" was sent to ex-Halford guitarist Pat Lachman who became their vocalist and tattoo artist Robert "Bob Zilla" Kakaha. Later, they changed their name to Damageplan and New Found Power was instead chosen as the title of their first and only album.

Sadly, the music isn't as good as what would be expected from this lineup. Okay, so Pat actually does a decent job at vocals, mixing clean and shouting vocals and even managing to create a vibrato. Although not living up to Phil Anselmo, he's good. Bob's bass lines are inaudible at times but overall they don't possess much technicality, even still it flows with the music.

Now, on to Dimebag, he's a skilled and respected guitarist in the metal community, and for a good reason but in this album he relies on more smoothed out, muffled groove riffs with a so-and-so solo here and there, as well as some typical chugging. There's actually nothing memorable from him here, although his riffs do turn out to be catchy at times ("Save Me" and "Blunt Force Trauma"). Vinnie's drumming in this one is nothing spectacular either, but there are some good patterns. So, even though there are some good groove parts, the instrumentals fall short.

The album includes vocal contributions from Zakk Wylde ("Reborn", "Soul Bleed"), Corey Taylor ("Fuck You") and Jerry Cantrell ("Ashes to Ashes"). Cantrell actually does a good job in this, giving the song a somewhat Alice in Chains-esque feel. This, "Breathing New Life", "Save Me" and "Blunt Force Trauma" are the most noteworthy tracks from the album.

In conclusion, Damageplan's effort is weak in comparison to Pantera's catalog and wasn't a good final album from an otherwise skilled guitarist, Dimebag Darrell, who would later be fatally shot in a concert at Columbus, Ohio in December 2004.