Upon walking through the front doors, the first thing you notice tonight is just how young looking 90% of the 300 strong crowd is inside the aircraft hanger like Cockpit. In the days where Nu-Metal is now a bona-fide mainstream product, it seems that any American band that steps over the pond is greeted to the UK by a devoted following of youthful disciples hoping to find the next Slip-Korn-Papa-Park. Recent magazine coverage certainly suggests that Drowning Pool, moody and mean looking with obligatory tattoos/piercings, are set to be the next saviours of the genre, but, interestingly, not a lot has been made of their music. So having never heard the band, I line up the criticisms and await their arrival.
Before any of my fears can be confirmed, we have to endure opening band TORNA-K. Having just received the demo of the month award in Metal Hammer, my expectations are high as this virtually unknown band walk onstage to an incredibly warm reception, proving the crowd are going to enjoy themselves no matter how good the band is.
Just as well really, as TORNA-K instantly lock into a generic, Nu-Metal groove matched with seemingly melody free vocals and no sign of a song. Although all the musicians seem at ease with their instruments (the drummer being especially tight) and the vocalist isn’t wildly out of tune, there is no substance or life in their music and you find the steady stream of bodies flying on and off stage the only thing keeping your interest after the first couple of songs. After half an hour of un-penetrable noise, TORNA-K walk off stage beaming and knowing they’ve done their job perfectly as a warm up band, but it’s unlikely they’ll ever be anything more.
As the anticipation in the crowd reaches fever pitch, Drowning Pool take the stage with little fuss or fanfare and after a quick hello launch straight into the religion baiting title track from their debut album “Sinner”.
It’s hard not to be impressed by just how good this band sound, the drums kick deep into your chest whilst the guitars cut above perfectly, all underpinned by the powerful bass lines and the Anselmo-inspired screams and croons from frontman Dave Williams. As tight as you’d expect a hard touring band (who just two days ago were mid way up the bill on the Ozzfest main stage) to be, Williams works the crowd well (at one point, genuinely surprised he remarks “wow, you guys look young!”) who in turn dutifully sing back chorus after chorus as more cuts from “Sinner” are aired.
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So far, so good. The drummer plays with flair as well as power and neither guitarist nor bassist flinch whilst dispersing riff after riff. However, aside from new single “Tear Away” (which is refreshingly melodic and is certainly a very good song) and a promising new tune, the rest of the set seems to blend in as one, openly showing the lack of diversity within the music and delivery. The band, who blatantly enjoy themselves as much as the crowd (William’s especially, he really does seem to model himself on Pantera’s Phil Anselmo’s stage persona along with sounding uncannily like him), leave after an hour of hard to differentiate songs, only to wander back on seconds later, interestingly looking slightly embarrassed, to whip the crowd into the biggest frenzy of the night with their breakthrough hit both sides of the Atlantic, “Bodies”. Musically, this is the definitive low point of the night, a chest beating heap of chug-a-long nonsense that only serves to lump Drowning Pool in with the other mass of tuneless drivel from this genre, which is a shame as earlier they had shown that they had at least grasped the idea of how to write a something resembling a song.
But, the crowd leave sweaty and euphoric and Drowning Pool have certainly done nothing to damage their growing popularity tonight. It’ll be interesting to see if they can incorporate some variety within their music to achieve the much sought after staying power that’ll ensure they’ll still be around in years to come. On the response tonight though, surely it’ll be the last time these shores see Drowning Pool in such intimate surroundings
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