Damageplan – New Found Power: When the Riffs Make Room

Released: February 10, 2004

Pantera hangs over New Found Power, but that comparison can become a dead end. Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul already sound like themselves. Patrick Lachman is the unknown. Could the brothers change the shape of their writing enough for his voice to alter the songs, or would he spend the album fighting for space inside a rhythmic language built over two decades?

Released by Elektra in the U.S. on February 10, 2004, the album grew from Dimebag solo sessions and became Damageplan’s only studio release. The credited lineup was Lachman on vocals, Dimebag on guitar, Bob Zilla on bass, and Vinnie on drums. Dime and Vinnie produced it, with Lachman and longtime associate Sterling Winfield co-producing. Even the song titles reveal where their heads were. “Breathing New Life,” “Reborn” and “New Found Power” deal in severed ties, self-reliance, and survival. The lyrics are direct, sometimes blunt, and often written for a crowd to shout back.

“Wake Up” shows how naturally the old instincts still work. Vinnie snaps the kick and snare into every guitar stop, while Dime threads pinched squeals through the low main figure. Lachman bites down on the verse rhythm, then lengthens his phrasing across the chorus. “Breathing New Life” pushes the double kick at near-thrash speed before opening into longer power chords under the hook. Bob Zilla seldom gets a separate melodic lane; his bass thickens the bottom of Dime’s guitar while the squeals, slides, and whammy-bar accents occupy the upper space.

That setup works when Lachman becomes another rhythmic instrument. Melody creates a tougher problem. “Pride” brings sequencing into the arrangement alongside muted guitar, then builds toward a cleaner refrain. “Save Me” makes a similar move, shifting from a restrained verse into a wide melodic chorus. In both songs, the band squares off beneath him while the vocal supplies most of the movement. Lachman clearly has the range, though parts of the arrangement sound settled before he arrives.

“Fuck You” offers another solution. Lachman starts the song, Corey Taylor takes the second verse and returns during the breakdown and final chorus. The handoff gives the song a built-in escalation, with the clipped riffing and drums responding to the increasingly frantic vocals. “Reborn” applies the same idea to the guitars. Dime’s sharper bends and abrupt whammy-bar turns lead into Zakk Wylde’s second solo, where his broad vibrato changes the character of the section without breaking the song’s stride.

The album moves outside its main pattern on “Moment of Truth.” A slow, Southern-tinged slide figure sits against low palm-muted chords, giving Lachman nearly seven minutes to move from a worn clean register into a rougher rasp. He has time to develop the vocal instead of switching modes when the chorus arrives.

“Soul Bleed” goes further by removing most of the electric density. Acoustic guitar, a string arrangement, and Zakk’s answering vocals surround Lachman without crowding him. Dime resists filling every gap, Vinnie keeps the drums restrained, and the song moves according to the vocal mood. Here, Lachman changes the entire arrangement simply by singing differently.

The production makes these competing approaches easy to hear. Vinnie’s kick and toms have a short, compact decay, matching Winfield’s account of using a smaller kit during the sessions. Dime’s rhythm guitar sits wide across the mix, the bass runs directly beneath it, and Lachman stays close to the front. Over more than an hour, Damageplan return several times to the churning verse and melodic-chorus design, so the question of where the singer belongs never disappears.

Could Dime and Vinnie reshape their writing around Lachman? Yes, once his voice was allowed to determine pace, texture, and dynamics. “Moment of Truth” and “Soul Bleed” do exactly that: the riffs ease back, the arrangements open up, and Lachman sets the emotional direction. For much of New Found Power, Damageplan are still testing how he fits. By the final song, they have built the music around him.

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