"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's death happened way too untimely. He was a guitar hero, who created his own style. When Pantera called it a day, I felt shitty. When Dimebag and his drumming brother Vinnie Paul Abbott returned with the new band Damageplan, its simplistic groove metal didn't do much for me. Then, Dimebag was gone...

In February 2006 Hellyeah was unleashed. Vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and bassist Jerry Montano joined Vinnie Paul to unleash some "Southern metal". Yeah right... Mudvayne fellas came from Illinois and Mr. Maxwell from Washington DC. Truly fucking Southern, eh?! Well, wearing cowboy hats can work miracles, right? No.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag made magic in Pantera. Simple as that. They both complemented each other musically, even though the instruments weren't same. Hellyeah is a completely different story. Guitarwise, there are helluva lot of power chords and quite some lead bits. Dimebag's lovely guitar torture was like a nail hit through the balls, but this is more like a slap on a cheek. The songs are so goddamn simple! And that's why Vinnie Paul's playing is the same, and heavily triggered bass drum sound is more than annoying. Sure, the bass is loud. At times the band manage to get it rollin' well and throw some catchy choruses and stuff. Just don't expect to get anything technical here. Southern country booze-up 'Alcohaulin' Ass' nicely cuts the simply heaviness for a moment, but 'Star' is just pop played in nu-metal way. 'Thank You' is a slow song dedicated to Dimebag, but not such a tear-jerker as 'Hollow', not even close.

If the guitars aren't nothing like Dimebag's, then the vocals of Chad Gray are at times very close to Philip Anselmo's. Just listen to those screams and bellowing on 'Goddamn' and 'One Thing'. Surely, Chad's trademark characteristic clean singing can be heard, and anything between it and more aggro styles. Definitely an okay vocalist. His (?) lyrics are just nothing to write home about. A lot of swearing and with attitude of 16 year old kids who wanna drink and fight!

For a big part, Hellyeah's self-titled debut album is, for my liking, too lobotomized heavy rock with some metal music elements. Nu-metal? Perhaps just it, because I've hardly heard any nu-metal that actually is metal. But I've heard much worse stuff from US of A, because this goes in the background and works better under a heavy lobotomy by alcohol than anything too technical anyways. Okay, Hellyeah was a therapy band for Vinnie Paul, but it also feels like "let's write enough songs to make an album" kind of cash in thingy. Therefore it's a bit one-sided.

Rating: 5 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/22/2010 17:55