"Full circle" CD by Drowning Pool

by Tuomas Valtanen (04.07.2007) After the surprising cardiac death of their original frontman, Dave Williams and the 2005-split of his successor, Jason "Gong" Jones, the exceptional Texan Alternative-Metallers present their third album with their third singer: Ryan McCombs, known for his chord maltreats in the quite style-related Soil. His voice perfectly fits the bull-like sound of the band. In both the aggressive hitters, like the title track or the gloomy grooving "No more" and the calmer, more epic songs, like "Reborn" and the atmospheric "Reason I'm alive", McCombs can absolutely convince with his variable performance. Often enough, and supported by the instrumental arrangements close to the Seattle-legends, his recitals are quite reminiscent to the changing vocals of Alice In Chains' Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell. The only weakness of this more than satisfying album is the uninspired and in contrast to the rest of the material quite pale cover version of the Billy Idol-hit, "Rebel yell".