Tiger Weekly - Serving Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Drowning Pool back on top, back at Varsity

By Kaiya Morrison

A decade has passed since Drowning Pool began work on its first album, and over three years have gone by since recording the latest and first album with new vocalist Ryan McCombs.

The Dallas-based hard rock/metal band will return to Baton Rouge on Thursday, February 18 at the Varsity Theatre for the first stop on their first tour since taking time off to record a new album.

"We finished up touring on Crue Fest [a summer festival created and headlined by Motley Crue] and had a very small break before we started recording," Stevie Benton, bass player for Drowning Pool, said when discussing the new album. "We spent nine weeks working on the album at House of Loud in New Jersey.

"We went over every song with a fine tooth comb and didn't finish any song until it was great. We had a great producer, Kato Khandwala, helping us get to that point," Benton continued to say. "Anytime you have four guys in a band, two guys are going to go one way and two are going to go the other way, so it really helps to have a fifth person to be the objective one and break the tie, or else nothing would ever get done."

The album will be Drowning Pool's fourth release, but it will be the first that is self-titled.

"We self-titled the album because this is just us now. This is Drowning Pool," Benton explained. "Either you're going to like it, or not. No fancy name, no art work, and no concept, is going to change that fact. We don't want to hook people with a trick; we just want the band to speak for itself."

For their Varsity performance, Drowning Pool will be armed with new, unreleased tunes and the same tenacious spirit that propelled the group through the darkest days. However, for the first time in the band's history, they will not have a new vocalist.

"A lot of people are going to be shocked by this, but Ryan has been the singer in Drowning Pool longer than any other singer we've had," Benton offered.

Drowning Pool has run the course of highs-and-lows. In just six weeks their debut album, Sinner, went platinum and Drowning Pool was at the top of the charts. The next year, while touring to support the album, lead vocalist Dave Williams passed away due to natural causes.

"Dave's death was the lowest point," Benton mournfully reminisced. "After that, we knew that that was going to be the worst thing that could ever happen, and it was probably the only point in time when we really thought about giving it up."

Recovering from the tragedy would prove more difficult than first imagined. Drowning Pool regrouped with Jason Jones as the new vocalist, Benton, and remaining original members, C.J. Pierce (guitar) and Mike Luce (drums). Desensitized, the second album, was released in 2004.

"There were flashes on that record that were good, and there were some collectively good songs, but on some, the vibe just wasn't there," Benton admitted when talking about Desensitized. "Listening back to the album now, I can tell how I was feeling and that I just wasn't into it. We should have waited to record it, but we were all trying so hard to recover and get past all the issues that we ended up rushing it."

Jones left Drowning Pool a year later and McCombs, the former lead vocalist for Soil, took his place in 2005. Seven years after the single, "Bodies," propelled the band into the national spotlight, Drowning Pool made it back to the top of Billboard with the single "37 Stitches" off of their third studio release, Full Circle.

"To finally have a song in the top five again made everything we have gone through worth it," Benton said with a relieved sigh. "To go through everything we've been through, pulling off another top five songs was certainly something that was difficult to accomplish, but we felt very vindicated when it happened."

The new album will retain all the rock elements fans have become accustomed to hearing from their high energy performance, along with a few old and new surprises.

"We were doing an interview for Fuse and someone was bagging on C.J. because he used some effects on Sinner that he hasn't used on the last couple of records," Benton recalled. "To get called out about that on TV really inspired him to bring it on this record, so he put a lot of time and effort into his parts."

As for the new, Benton revealed there will be a softer side, too.

"There's one song called 'Alcohol Blind' that's a completely different direction than what we've done before," said Benton. "It's a slow and bluesy song, which is something we haven't done before, so it adds another element to the record."

Drowning Pool will perform some of their new songs and all of their classic hits alongside co-headliner Sevendust.

Tickets to the show are $26 and doors open at 7 p.m.

For more information about Drowning Pool, visit www.drowningpool.com.

Originally Published: February 17, 2010

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