New Found Power

The fact that New Found Power was the last album completed by Dimebag Darrell means that this is not just a bad album but an inherently tragic one. A man with his legacy and standing deserved to go out on something much better than this piece of filth which makes Reinventing The Steel sound like Arise.

As is the case with seemingly every modern day American band nowadays this labelled as metalcore when in reality it is groove/mallcore with an occasional unspectacular solo. The appearance of Corey Taylor and his trademark lyrical genius ('...Fuck your history, your tragedy, your misery, But most of all...motherfucker fuck you!...') should be a pretty good indication of the type of crowd this album is aimed at. Regular vocalist Patrick Lachman isn't much better though, his range apparently consisting of Anselmo-like barking or Layne Staley crooning and in the end he doesn't measure up to either plus with his beanie and goatee he comes across as little more than a nu-posuer, regardless of whether he once played guitar for Rob Halford or not. Even Dimebag's trademark power-groove riffage is considerably uninspiring here lacking any truly memorable guitar riffs, instead relying more on down-tuned mallcore simplicities than the innovation that he was famous for.

Basically this could only be recommended to the guy out there who has a massive Dimebag tattoo on his back and has turned the spare bedroom of his house into a shrine to the fallen guitar hero. Other than that the only people who could find value in this would those poor souls who think Slipknot and Soulfly are on the cutting edge of modern metal or possibly pro wrestlers looking for new intro music. If you want to pay tribute to Dimebag's memory blast Cowboys From Hell, have a beer and use this as the coaster.