Drowning Pool
Resilience

I’m one of those people who loved the band’s debut album back in 2001 and have been judgmental of all their attempts after that. As a result, before listening to their latest album entitled “Resilience”, I was convinced it wouldn’t be any good. However, I realize it is a mistake to compare this album to “Sinner”. Anyway, to my surprise this is nothing like any other album released by Drowning Pool in the past mainly vocals-wise, since Jasen Moreno’s vocals are slightly higher pitched.

The album kicks off with “Anytime Anyplace”, which is fast, groovy and very consistent to the band’s previous attempts. I really think the second track, entitled “Die For Nothing”, lacks inspiration lyrics-wise. “Live for something, die for nothing…”? I mean, come oooon! What is this; a reverse version of Rambo’s punch line? For those of you who don’t remember or are too young to remember, Rambo’s punch line was “Live for nothing or die for something!”. Anyway, moving on, the third track entitled “One Finger And A Fist” is one of my personal favorites. I love the aggressive lyrics and the fact that the melodic parts even though very short, they are dark and beautiful. Also, there is a nice guitar solo a little after the second minute in the track that I enjoyed.

On “Digging The Holes” I really like the guitars, while “Saturday Night” I unfortunately didn’t enjoy as much. I’m not trying to be mean, but honestly I got the feeling that something like this would come out if you were to put Drowning Pool and LMFAO in a studio together! Moving on the sixth track of the album, “Low Crawl” felt like a kick in the face with a superb drum work and fast tempo and pretty much the same applies for “Life Of Misery”.

My second favorite track of this album is “Broken Again”; the aggressive sound and mind blowing guitars give a nostalgic feeling to it, reminding me of the early Drowning Pool days! “Understand” is a decent track, but I believe the melodic parts do not fit it and therefore they’re making the whole song a little incoherent and sloppy. And like every metal album, “Resilience” needed a ballad-like song somewhere in there and “Bleed With You” serves this role perfectly. “Skip To The End” is one of the weakest tracks, while “In Memory Of” is a magnificent power ballad that I could listen to over and over! The closing track is entitled “Blindfold” and is solid proof that if anything, Drowning Pool can still write good music!

“Resilience” has many ups and downs. Honestly, if you’re expecting to find songs like “Bodies” there, then I’m sorry but you will be a little disappointed, since the band’s style has changed slightly. However, overall this is a very good album! Enjoy!