by Vitriola » Fri Mar 12, 2004 12:01 pm
Damageplan - The New Found Power
Whenever anybody who listens to metal tells People they listen to metal, People always ask 'Like Anthrax?' or, if they've turned on the tv in the past 10 years instead of 20, 'Like Pantera?'. Well, they're right, sorta. Ok, they're right, unless you want to get pretentious and start talking about Norwegian Black Metal and Polish Death and all that, but right, good ol' American heavy metal is alive and well, and the post-Pantera sideprojects abound. Here's Dimebag and Vinnie's next attempt at regaining the record sales (does anyone even say that anymore?) they enjoyed in the early 90's with that seminal, last-of-the-arena metal band, Pantera. While Superjoint Ritual (Phil Anselmo's project, ex-Pantera vocalist) was more aggressively punk-influenced and enjoyable in concert, the songs were annoyingly short for the ass they kicked and Phil talked more during his inebriated set than he played music. Damageplan, on the other hand, captures the more youth-oriented hardcore rantings that 00's releases like Slayer's 'God Hates Us All' unfortunately thought was a good idea, but also flirts with the southern-inspired balls-out yet languid sound that Pantera, along with side-project Down, had going for it. I didn't realize I missed that until now, and I'm wondering if their style was inspired by their proximity to Louisiana, or if Phil's New Orleans origin did the work inspiring his former bandmates. Pat's vocals are strong, but his range is weak, and he serves more as a cipher to the guitar, drums, and bass.
The title of the album made me look up dictionary.com to see if New Found really should have been one word (yes), and also made me realize that somehow, pop-ups have started appearing on my browser again. So, is there a pun there? Dunno, but it's wasted effort half the time to look for depth in any Pantera-related project. The songs themselves are going all over the place. The first couple tracks were the kind of adolescent railing against nothing in particular, or everything in vaguity, that groups like hardcore band Hatebreed or lots of other nu-metal bands enjoy. Since these people are like 5 years older than me, and I'm almost old enough to have kids that would listen to this, it just seems forced, and like a demographic-targeting gimmick. When has any guy near or in his 30s screeched things like 'You're destroying everything!' in 'Wake Up' and 'You can't take it away!' in 'Breathing New Life'? 'New Found Power' starts to hint at the NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana abbreviation that described an entire genre comprised of bands from the bayou south) sound that's going to appear and fade in the rest of the album, and although it's repetitive in the extreme, the next track 'Pride' brings it home as well as Corrosion of Conformity ever did in their Deliverance-heyday. 'Fuck You' ruins it all by pretending that this is deep lyrical water we're wading in, though 'Reborn' and 'Explode' get less juveniley tedious, but without the punch. 'Save Me' is another surprisingly derivative song, reminiscent of softer southern-rock bands and using clean vocals in a large portion of it. 'Cold Blooded' is almost quite good, and probably could have been a very driving song if either produced a bit differently, or they'd tried a little harder to make it fulfill it's aggressive potential. It has the subtle buildup that 'By Demons Be Driven' had on Pantera's best work 'Vulgar Display of Power', but not the release at the end. 'Crawl' belongs in the setlist of whatever band is playing the Downtrodden Saloon this Friday night, 2-for-1 well drinks, no cover for the ladies, giveaways all night, and 'Blink Of An Eye' is more appropriation of other bands' sounds, this time in the mediocre power metal genre, with a passing attempt at relevant growling. Forgettable. 'Blunt Force Trauma' attempted to revive a seriously flagging album with more gut-rock from the south, and didn't fail miserably, but being a slower, sludgier song anyway, wasn't going to be getting anyone's attention back anytime soon.
Overall, this album could have been good. But what made it good, the NOLA sound seeping into your consciousness and making you suddenly crave sunlight, jasmine, and alligators sidling up to your fishing boat has been done much better by other bands in the genre. The puerile, fist-pumping anthems that we all grew up on, well, that's been done better, too. This album, with a select few highlights, is just mediocre in almost every way. Not annoying, not bad, but nothing special, and a definite disappointment.
2.5 out of 5 clown shoes.
Damageplan - The New Found Power
Whenever anybody who listens to metal tells People they listen to metal, People always ask 'Like Anthrax?' or, if they've turned on the tv in the past 10 years instead of 20, 'Like Pantera?'. Well, they're right, sorta. Ok, they're right, unless you want to get pretentious and start talking about Norwegian Black Metal and Polish Death and all that, but right, good ol' American heavy metal is alive and well, and the post-Pantera sideprojects abound. Here's Dimebag and Vinnie's next attempt at regaining the record sales (does anyone even say that anymore?) they enjoyed in the early 90's with that seminal, last-of-the-arena metal band, Pantera. While Superjoint Ritual (Phil Anselmo's project, ex-Pantera vocalist) was more aggressively punk-influenced and enjoyable in concert, the songs were annoyingly short for the ass they kicked and Phil talked more during his inebriated set than he played music. Damageplan, on the other hand, captures the more youth-oriented hardcore rantings that 00's releases like Slayer's 'God Hates Us All' unfortunately thought was a good idea, but also flirts with the southern-inspired balls-out yet languid sound that Pantera, along with side-project Down, had going for it. I didn't realize I missed that until now, and I'm wondering if their style was inspired by their proximity to Louisiana, or if Phil's New Orleans origin did the work inspiring his former bandmates. Pat's vocals are strong, but his range is weak, and he serves more as a cipher to the guitar, drums, and bass.
The title of the album made me look up dictionary.com to see if New Found really should have been one word (yes), and also made me realize that somehow, pop-ups have started appearing on my browser again. So, is there a pun there? Dunno, but it's wasted effort half the time to look for depth in any Pantera-related project. The songs themselves are going all over the place. The first couple tracks were the kind of adolescent railing against nothing in particular, or everything in vaguity, that groups like hardcore band Hatebreed or lots of other nu-metal bands enjoy. Since these people are like 5 years older than me, and I'm almost old enough to have kids that would listen to this, it just seems forced, and like a demographic-targeting gimmick. When has any guy near or in his 30s screeched things like 'You're destroying everything!' in 'Wake Up' and 'You can't take it away!' in 'Breathing New Life'? 'New Found Power' starts to hint at the NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana abbreviation that described an entire genre comprised of bands from the bayou south) sound that's going to appear and fade in the rest of the album, and although it's repetitive in the extreme, the next track 'Pride' brings it home as well as Corrosion of Conformity ever did in their Deliverance-heyday. 'Fuck You' ruins it all by pretending that this is deep lyrical water we're wading in, though 'Reborn' and 'Explode' get less juveniley tedious, but without the punch. 'Save Me' is another surprisingly derivative song, reminiscent of softer southern-rock bands and using clean vocals in a large portion of it. 'Cold Blooded' is almost quite good, and probably could have been a very driving song if either produced a bit differently, or they'd tried a little harder to make it fulfill it's aggressive potential. It has the subtle buildup that 'By Demons Be Driven' had on Pantera's best work 'Vulgar Display of Power', but not the release at the end. 'Crawl' belongs in the setlist of whatever band is playing the Downtrodden Saloon this Friday night, 2-for-1 well drinks, no cover for the ladies, giveaways all night, and 'Blink Of An Eye' is more appropriation of other bands' sounds, this time in the mediocre power metal genre, with a passing attempt at relevant growling. Forgettable. 'Blunt Force Trauma' attempted to revive a seriously flagging album with more gut-rock from the south, and didn't fail miserably, but being a slower, sludgier song anyway, wasn't going to be getting anyone's attention back anytime soon.
Overall, this album could have been good. But what made it good, the NOLA sound seeping into your consciousness and making you suddenly crave sunlight, jasmine, and alligators sidling up to your fishing boat has been done much better by other bands in the genre. The puerile, fist-pumping anthems that we all grew up on, well, that's been done better, too. This album, with a select few highlights, is just mediocre in almost every way. Not annoying, not bad, but nothing special, and a definite disappointment.
2.5 out of 5 clown shoes.