On April 9, Texas metallers Drowning Pool will drop album number five, “Resilience.” This week Metalholic sat down with guitarist C.J. Pierce to talk about the new record, the band’s current tour with Flyleaf, and new singer Jasen Moreno.
Banged up and bloody, Pierce was nursing tour-earned wounds, and playing merch master and temporary tour manager the day we spoke. The band’s regular tour manager had to leave the band for a couple of days to handle other issues. They managed to juggle it all and still throw down an amazing performance which included two tracks from the forthcoming album, “Resilience”.
“Resilience” marks a new chapter for the band, marking the fourth singer of the band’s 17 year career, which began in 1996. Formed by Pierce, drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton, original singer Dave Williams joined in 1999. Williams performed on Drowning Pool’s 2001 debut “Sinner” but died in 2002 at only 30 years old of cardiomyopathy. Thus began the band’s almost Spinal Tap-ish revolving door of vocalists.
The changing of a constant position in any band is generally unremarkable when it’s an instrumental performer, but with each change at frontman/vocalist a band’s sound alters, and fan perception can change.
Jason Jones replaced the vacancy left by the loss of Williams. He lasted just one album, 2004’s “Desensitized”. His departure was tagged with the usual, “irreconcilable differences.” Former Soil vocalist Ryan McCombs joined in 2006 and the band finally regained its footing releasing 2007’s “Full Circle” and 2010’s self-titled effort. McCombs left in 2011 to rejoin Soil.
Pierce admitted to feeling frustrated at looking for yet another vocalist and offered that they considered some excellent options, thanking them all, but it was local Dallas singer, Jasen Moreno who nailed the gig.
Having witnessed Moreno perform with Drowning Pool I can state unequivocally that they have found the voice to replace original vocalist Williams. He can hit the higher and lower registers while bringing his own unique energy, style and enthusiasm to the stage. The band is so excited they are already writing material for the next album and “Resilience” has yet to hit stores.
“Resilience” is perhaps the perfect title to describe the band at this stage, and the tone and feel of the album comes out swinging: An attitude that everyone in the band can get behind and embrace. The band is currently performing the singles “Saturday Night” and “One Finger and a Fist” on the current tour, but Pierce says the band is changing it up every night as they cover tracks from all five albums. The band even performed an unplugged version of Aerosmith‘s “Dream On” for the local radio station before the show. Moreno and company made it their own.
Watch the full video interview with C.J. below, and get ready for “Resilience”, April 9. Europe can catch the band on tour with Fozzy this spring.
Music is the universal language: Speak it loudly!
Rustyn Rose is a veteran music journalist who owns and operates Metalholic Magazine and Metalholic Radio.
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