Though they might not have the same level of mainstream exposure as in their earlier days, Drowning Pool has continued to find that sweet spot between hard rock and alternative/groove metal over their six-album discography. If you still mainly know them from their Sinner or Desensitizeddays, a lot has changed since and they’ve had a solid decade of lineup stability. The band’s fourth singer Jasen Moreno joined on 2013’s Resilience and pushed Drowning Pool back towards full-on metal territory after some dips into more of a pure hard rock sound. Album number seven, Strike a Nerve, comes six years after predecessor Hellelujah and finds the band capturing the intensity and groove-laden hooks of their previous discography while also expanding into heavier and mellower territory than before. There remains a few lulls, but this is still a strong effort from front to back and a great reintroduction for those who haven’t heard this band in some time.
The majority of Drowning Pool’s discography has been on the shorter side, with only two of their albums running past the forty-five-minute mark. Strike a Nerve continues this brevity and is better for it, as at eleven tracks and thirty-seven-minutes it feels like the group has only let the best material make it onto the recording. There’s a lot of variety from front to back, as early cuts like “Hate Against Hate” and “Stay and Bleed” find a balance between punchier hard rock riffs, metallic grooves, and Southern swagger. It’s noticeably heavier than I remember from some of their mid-period discography and is sure to have plenty of crossover appeal when it comes to the rock and metal crowds. As you make your way further into Strike a Nerve the instrumentals take some time to pivot in the opposite direction, embracing introspective melodies that have a bit more of a post grunge and radio rock tone on “Racing to a Redlight” and “Everything But You”. The transitions between these mellow and scorching heavier riffs is seamless, and as a whole the album has a great flow with hook after hook. Admittedly not every moment sticks the landing, as “Everything But You” comes across as a bit too sappy and forgettable for me while the title track drags a bit before it reaches its conclusion. Yet the number of songs that continue to stick with me after repeat listens is higher than I expected going in, and I’ve found myself coming back for the anthemic melodic build-up of “Racing to a Redlight” and the groove/Southern metal swagger on the likes of “Choke” and “Mind Right”.
Considering that Drowning Pool is on singer number four, it must feel nice to be able to have had the same lineup for a decade and have some consistency. Jasen Moreno has been a strong addition too, and if you missed the previous two albums he’s been on you may be surprised at just how much variety he brings to the table. This is another area where the band finds that sweet spot between rock and metal, as Moreno hits some very distorted and raw sounding screams/yells when the instrumentals get heavier, but also heads into anthemic territory with much softer singing when the situation demands it. There are a few of the cleaner pitches that sound slightly off and aren’t quite as strong performance wise, but they never derail the experience and I still appreciate that Moreno is trying so many different things. The lyrics may also get a little too simplistic for some, but it does fit with the territory Drowning Pool is covering here and some of these result in choruses that’ll get stuck in your head whether you want them or not.
It has been hard for a lot of the bands that occupied the space between rock and metal that dominated radio airwaves in the 2000s to capture the same level of intensity and hooks they had early on, and I went into this album unsure if Drowning Pool would succumb to the same issues. But it’s clear they’ve put a lot of focus into this material while also trying to naturally branch out, and the results are a high note in their discography. Where a lot of bands sound tired seven albums in Drowning Pool sounds re-energized and ready to grow their listener base, and with the backing of T-Boy Records/Universal Music this time they may do just that.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg