Drowning Pool

Several groups have taken their name from a novel or a film. The trick is to pick a one that has some relevance or personal meaning.

The film “Drowning Pool” was playing in the background when bassist Steve Benton lost his virginity. It worked out, ‘Drowning Pool’ is a pretty awesome name for a Alt. Metal\Nu Metal band.

Drummer Mike Luce and guitarist C.J. Pierce were playing without much success in their native New Orleans. They eventually moved to the more Rock friendly Dallas and linked up with friend and bassist Benton. The trio held their own but it became apparent that if they were going to go any further they needed a strong frontman. Enter Dallas music vet Dave Williams.

Touring with better known groups sharpened Drowning Pool’s chops and led to the recording of a six-song demo. The demo landed at KEGL-FM in Dallas and the airplay resulted in a deal with Wind-Up Records.

“Sinner” was Drowning Pool’s debut album. Regarding the album’s title Williams said, ” I have nothing against religion, really, I just had organized religion shoved down my throat and I don’t buy it.”

“Sinner” was produced by Papa Roach vet Jay Baumgardner and recorded at Ocean Studios in lovely Burbank, CA.

The set contained the blisteringly intense “Bodies” (as in a mosh pit). 

“CJ came up with the riff, and I thought that was cool and I said, “Let the bodies hit the floor,” and they looked at me and said, “That’s pretty cool,” remembered Williams. “We just built it around that hook and the rest fell in place.”

“Bodies” reached #6 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart. And even though the song became somewhat notorious for being used consistently by interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in ’03 following the 9/11 attacks, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in ’08 and then platinum in ’19 with a million digital copies sold. 

Following “Sinner’s” completion Drowning Pool jumped on the Ozzfest Tour and that’s when Williams was found dead (August 14th, ’02), on the group’s tour bus, from apparent heart failure.

Later that year, the group split with Wind-Up and signed with Eleven Seven Music where they unfurled ’07 effort, “Full Circle.”

While on tour, Benton was hospitalized in Eau Claire, WI, after experiencing paralysis and was diagnosed with the neurological malady Bell’s palsy, a condition that usually is temporary. The group was forced to cancel the remaining stops. “I’m really bummed that . . . we can’t perform this last string of shows,” said Benton.

With Benton healthy again, Drowning Pool resumed touring and issued a live set, “Loudest Common Denominator” in ’09. The collection offered bonus tracks, including acoustic renditions of “37 Stitches” and “Shame.”

Their eponymous fourth set was their first consecutive studio album with the same vocalist.

Within months, McCombs left the band to rejoin SOiL on their European tour to promote the 10th anniversary of their “Scars” album.

So Drowning Pool began the dual task of writing songs for their fifth studio album and finding their fourth vocalist.

During the summer of ‘12 Jasen Moreno, from the Dallas-based band The Suicide Hook, was introduced as the Drowning Pool’s vocalist.

Still, the past still loomed large when on 8/14/12 the group marked the 10th anniversary of Williams’ death by releasing a tribute song, their first recording with Moreno, titled “In Memory Of…” Two additional singles were released, “Saturday Night” and “One Finger And A Fist.”

“Resilience,” dropped the following year. And to celebrate the thirteenth anniversary of “Sinner,” Drowning Pool embarked on a U.S. tour followed by a “Sinner” reissue in ‘14 titled the “Unlucky 13th Anniversary Edition.”

It was six years before “Strike A Nerve” landed making it the longest gap between two studio albums. The ’22 effort also marked the first time in the band’s history that they had recorded three studio albums with the same singer, Moreno, who also appeared on “Hellelujah” and its ’13 predecessor “Resilience.”

In the fall of ’23, just when Moreno seemed locked in as the band’s vocalist, he was gone. “He got pretty — all of us got pretty burned by the music business constantly, beyond burned, and it’s frustrating as well,” explained Pierce. “He was, like, ‘All right. I’m not gonna do this right now.’ And understandably so.” Pierce went on to say McCombs was back in the fold.

“We are inspired by the multiple possibilities for millions of conflicting disputes across many schools of thought and ideals across this world” wrote the band regarding “Madness.” “Embrace the chaos, as it pulls you deeper — where sanity slips and the madness begins!”

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