After
their tragic loss of front man Dave Williams, Drowning Pool
could have easily lay to rest any attempts at keeping together
the very band that garnished them a name in the ranks of modern
metal.
With
their newest release "Desensitized," Drowning Pool have put
forth a some what solid effort with a sound so power riff
driven one might think these musicians were students in the
Dime Bag Darrell school of groove. Sadly unlike their past
release "Sinner", " Desensitized" just doesn't seem to hold
the attention that one would hope to expect. Sure, guitarists
C.J. Pierce easily throws out some very solid metallic grooves
and the recent added addition of Jason "Gong" Jones on vocals
seems like a great fit for Drowning Pool to say the least.
Respectfully Jones has a much broader voice then Williams
contributed which in return, easily gives Drowning Pool a
larger musical pallet to work from. The only problem "Desensitized"
seems to have (besides easily the stupidest CD cover in modern
metal this year) is that it so obviously seems to be still
following a dead trend. All thou, with the mixture of Nu-Metal
and the sudden rehash of traditional heavy metal working its
way back into the main stream Drowning Pool seem to have at
least attempted to adjust their sound a bit. Tracks like "Love
and War" and "This Life" give solid efforts of going out on
a limb with stronger song writing and a fair attempt at experimenting
out of the typical nu-metal clichés. Sadly a few cuts are
easily sub-pare filler tracks that easily should have been
left off. Compared to a lot of new acts "Desensitized" is
a notch above with its lead guitar breaks and heavy hitting
metallic sound giving forth a strong effort but sadly Drowning
Pool still fall short in originality.
Now that the death of nu-metal has finally taken many needed
causalities in the music industry Drowning Pool seem to have
made a decent effort that possibly may save them from becoming
one hit wonders. Remember, not all is lost, "Desensitized"
does have its high points including a very killer production
and at loud volumes this is where songs seem to shine. Songs
like "Numb" and "Let Go" easily could easily make rock radio
singles giving Drowning Pool a fighting chance at sticking
around. If you're a metal head and enjoy such acts including
Union Underground, Soil, Black Label Society and other such
artists I highly recommend giving the release a spin but don't
expect any thing to ground breaking.
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