Drowning Pool: Sinner : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On Sinner, the debut album from Dallas' Drowning Pool, the music never once challenges the formula birthed years ago by bands like Pantera and Anthrax. Sinner's songs all begin with singer Dave Williams bringing tuneful dark life to lyrics that explore his many issues (spiritual emptiness, failed relationships, despair). Then Drowning Pool pump up the volume, and Williams growls and shouts out the choruses. It's an approach that lands somewhere between the radio-friendly Papa Roach and the darker sounds of Sevendust. What makes it all work is that Drowning Pool keep the energy high throughout Sinner. There is little filler on this disc; songs like the title track, "Bodies" and "All Over Me" are - at under four minutes each - all tightly packed and polished adrenaline. Guitarist C.J. Pierce gets special props for shamelessly pilfering Tom Morello's toolbox. On the standout "Bodies," Williams screams, "Let the bodies hit the floor!" while the band flails away - it is Drowning Pool's finest moment on the disc and may well provide another rallying cry for alienated new-metal fans this summer.

RICHARD ABOWITZ
(RS 873 - July 19, 2001)