Drowning Pool
Resilience

May 2013
Released: 2013, Eleven Seven Music
Rating: 2.0/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

For some time now Drowning Pool have seemed a little all at sea, and far from making shore. Every now and then they grab onto something that looks like it floats, but then it’s never quite the buoyancy aid it’s hoped. Primarily I’m talking about the attempts by the band to find a singer that sticks after the untimely death of original frontman Dave Williams back in 2002, but perhaps the same analogy would go for the band’s nu-metal tinged style.



Coming up for air again with album five Resilience, the band must be hoping that mo-hawked capped new voice Jasen Moreno will stop them having to spit out lungfuls of the wet stuff. Well unfortunately, Drowning Pool are still clinging to a lot of their old luggage, and that makes it very hard to keep treading water, especially against the tides of change which seem to be happening all around them. It’s a shame that that they don’t just let go of it all and see where those waters take them.



With 15 tracks, including bonuses, Drowning Pool are clearly throwing everything they have at Resilience - and they’ve shined them all up a treat in the process. Actual substance though is a bit more lacking, with ‘Low Crawl’ and ‘Life Of Misery’ attempting to rage, but in a fashion that most high-school kids have grown out of. And if ‘Saturday Night’ is representative of your party mentality then you’d maybe be better off staying in and having the news as a soundtrack, because you need to expand your mind beyond the clichéd. You know that trying-to-sound-like-we’re-having-more-fun-than-we-are-because-we-think-that-is-necessary style.



Actually the first half of the album is the strongest - ‘Anytime Anyplace’ and ‘Die For Nothing’ making a stab at least to open things under some momentum, whereas the second half are all so much within the same rut that even standing on top of each other they’d struggle to peek over the top. If it’s any consolation to Jasen, his vocals seem perfectly suited to the musical direction so I’d say he was a fairly good choice - it’s just unfortunate that Resilience as a launch pad is facing the wrong way.



Drowning Pool have proved remarkably resilient to keep going all this time, but being able to overcome adversity is no good if you’re not going to do anything worthwhile at the end of it. If you like what’s come before then Resilience will be another release to add to your potentially questioning music collection. Meanwhile I’ll rally Hasselhoff and a strong line cause Drowning Pool may need pulling in to shore.



Review by Kirsty Birkett-Stubbs