Full Circle
I have been sitting on this review for a while now, and it's not because I've been contemplating this record heavily; well, not initially. The truth is that I received my copy of DROWNING POOL's
Full Circle a few months before it was released, and the first song that hit me like a brick to the face was "Soldiers". In addition to paying homage to troops fighting overseas, it also marks the band's solid attempt to re-create that anthemic sound they had with "Bodies". The addition of SOIL's Ryan McCombs, who is partially responsible for that band's success with
Redefine (my personal favorite of theirs) to the lineup certainly helps to make this one of the band's most commercial offerings to date. Hell, I liked the song so much, that I hit up bassist Stevie Benton and asked him if we could use it in a
FOUNDRY CAMS video. He happily obliged, and the result was our
FOUNDRY CAMS: This is For the Soldiers video. Now, can one song carry an entire album? No, it usually can't, so they need to follow up with some strong material.
"Enemy", "Shame", and "Reborn" are decent offerings that show that the band has maintained their heavy metal grit, but I think they still need to spend more time writing songs that are going to blow your hair back. They have the talent (McCombs is a strong frontman and he can write, and he can carry a tune, unlike Jason 'Gong' Jones, whose vocals sounded more at home in a death metal outfit). Even the song "Reason I'm Alive" (written by MÖTLEY CRÜE's Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba) could be stronger, despite its strong gjroove.
The cover of BILLY IDOL's "Rebel Yell" was an error in my opinion. It just kind of lays there, and they didn't do much to improve on the original.
Ultimately, I don't know if the band can recapture what they had with Dave Williams, who passed away tragically after their debut disc,
Sinner rocketed them to fame. Drowning Pool has a great musical foundation to build on now with the addition of McCombs, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else they can come up with.
