PanterA Rawks's blog: "HELLYEAH INFO"

As we all know December the 8th 2004 was a vary sad day indeed for the world of metal with the tragic passing of one of it’s greatest artists, ever since we have wondered what Dime’s brother Vinnie was going to do next in terms or music. In late 2006 those questions were answered with the announcement of a project involving Vinnie, Mudvayne’s Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett, and with Nothingface sadly calling it a day on their career Tom Maxwell and Jerry Montano also had climbed on board to create something that can only be described by one phrase, HellYeah. So what does it sound like when you create a machine powered by Pantera and fuelled by Nothingface piloted by Mudvayne? Well exactly how’d you expect actually, there is a perfect balance between the influence of all three bands, the guitar lines sound distinctly Nothingface, the Melody and vocal lines sound distinctly Mudvayne and with out a doubt Vinnie Paul brings the alcohol soaked southern metal beats to the party. The low riffs and generally the rythem guitar parts are distinctly Nothingface, with those low slung riffs and clean guitar sections, a formula that was seen a lot on their final album ‘Skeletons’ in 2002, and it is safe to assume that lead guitar has as mostly been taken by Mudvayne’s Greg Tribbett as it retains the same sound that your familiar with from him. The title track which has been available on the bands MySpace for sometime more or less sums up the concept and general feel of the band, at least on the heavier end of things. ‘You Wouldn’t Know’ again sounds more Nothingface and any of the other bands with a clean slightly Lacuna Coil like riff for the intro before unleashing the power with distorted bass and powerful drum beats. ‘Matter Of Time’ has a classic Pantera feel to it sounding like something that would of sat well on ‘Vulgar Display Of Power’ minus the patented Dime lead squeals. ‘Waging War’ returns to Nothingface territory sounding familiar to the opening riff of ‘Incarnadine’. One of the highlights of the album is the track that has possibly the best title your likely to hear this year, ‘Alcohaulin’Ass’ has a thick southern country feel, almost Puddle Of Mud like and I sense that it is Vinnie’s ode to his brother and will most definitely become a fan favourite, if there was to be a single taken from this album it will certainly be this track. If you are a big fan of Mudvayne and looking for something with more of their hand on the track you’d do well to check out ‘Star’ which is the most Chad and Co sounding track on the album. Of course nothing needs to be said about musicianship as we already know everyone is on top of their game, and HellYeah is no exception everyone is on top form, with Chad and the Nothingface boys producing probably some of the best work of their careers with the careful guidance of metal veteran Vinnie. Stripped down there isn’t anything new here that we haven’t heard from Pantera, Damageplan or Nothingface, but who the hell cares it fucking rocks. HellYeah keeps to the same ideals that fuelled Damageplan and Pantera, hard drinking hard riffs along with kicking back with a smoke and writing some lighter jams. Stepping away from who is actually in the band, if it were just 5 average Joes putting music of this quality we would have some new metal heroes on our hands, luckily for the rest of the music world they already have that status so it’s not like there is any extra competition