Drowning Pool Loudest Common Denominator
by Deb Rao
Staff Writer
One of the hardest working bands in music today, Drowning Pool has unleashed their first ever live album with singer Ryan McCombs entitled Loudest Common Denominator. This album features Drowning Pool at their best live, ferocious and raw recorded in San Diego. By the huge audience response in the intro of the album, you can tell Drowning Pool is back with a vengeance.
In 2007 Drowning Pool released Full Circle with new singer Ryan McCombs. It is exhilarating to see how much Ryan’s vocals have done for the band since his debut. His powerful grunge style fits ever so well with the post-grunge sound of Drowning Pool. On Loudest Common Denominator, Drowning Pool find themselves at the top of their game, unleashing fast and furious riffs over the war driven lyrics that surround the state of our nation today.
Over the past year, Drowning Pool has done so much for our Veterans and has lived the pain of war. Bassist Stevie Benton father, who is a Veteran knows the pain that war inflicts on its soldiers everyday. Drowning Pool has taken great pride in reaching out to the families and fans, who have been affected by the war in Iraq, visiting the country and also making a special stop at Capital Hill in order to get legislature to listen to their cause they hold ever so dear in their hearts for the many men and women who have served our country.
Loudest Common Denominator features several tracks off of the war-laden Full Circle. Highlight tracks included the “Full Circle”, “Shame”, “Soldiers”, which features an erie battlefield sound, and their first hit single the hard driving, “Bodies”.
This album reflects the band in their best form, raw and unpretentious. The rhythm section of Stevie Benton, and drummer Mike Luce roar, the vocals of Ryan MCcombs are powerful and fit so well with the heavy hard sound of Drowning Pool. Ryan doesn’t pretend to copy the sound of the past vocalists of the band, but breathes new life into a band that has so much to offer picking up the pieces where Dave Williams left off. They say third time is the charm, and with third singer Ryan McCombs on the current live Drowning Pool release, that theory holds true.
Guitarist C.J. Pierce unleashes some of the most razor sharp riffs and after one listen, it is clear to see that Drowning Pool is back. It is has been a long steady climb to the top once again, but with record label Eleven Seven Music behind them, Drowning Pool is well on their well to performing to the masses once again.
Also, the CD features two bonus acoustic tracks which include,”37 Stitches,” and “Shame” acoustic. These are rare gems that feature the prowlness guitar picking of C.J. Pierce, and melodic emotion filled vocals of singer Ryan McCombs.
I had the opportunity to discuss with bassist Stevie Benton at one of their shows, the state of the band today. Stevie comments, “We are never going to forget where we came from. We are never going to forget what an important part Dave is going to be to us. We are never going to turn our back and forgot about that. ‘Enemy’ is just realizing that we have all been through difficult times, but we all just really kept it together. Now, we are having a great time. We got to make a record that we love. It is just a realization, looking back at all the crap that we have been through, it was all worth it. No one is ever going to take Dave’s place. We are always going to consider him part of the band. He was a great guy. It is just great to have Ryan in the band who really understood him. He knew Dave, and was friends with Dave. Ryan understands what the guy meant to all of us and to a lot of people.”
Pick up a copy of Loudest Common Denominator today and get ready to witness the fury of one of Rock’s premiere bands today.
Label: Eleven Seven Music
Track Listing
l “Sinner”
2. “Full Circle”
3. “Enemy”
4. “Step Up”
5. “Shame”
6. “Reminded”
7. “Soldiers”
8. “Reborn”
9. “Pity”
10.”Bodies”
11. “Tear Away”
12. “37 Stitches (Acoustic)”
13. “Shame (Acoustic)”
HRH Rating: 8/10