Following the announcement of their first record in six years, Strike A Nerve, out September 30 via T-BOY/UMe, and the release of the lead single, "Mind Right," Texas hard rock stalwarts, Drowning Pool, have announced their follow-up; the melodic and heavy "Choke". Though they incorporate cleaner vocals on "Choke", the band doesn't let the addition of melody stop the track from being a metallic banger.
“'Choke' is another one of my favorite songs off Strike A Nerve,” says guitarist CJ Pierce. "Musically, we really wanted to push ourselves to extremes on this album and venture outside our musical comfort zone with some of the songwriting and playing - like you hear on ‘Mind Right’ - but ‘Choke' is a perfect mix of the more traditional Drowning Pool style and the foundation we laid on the Sinner record, and the ever-evolving band that we have become with Jasen Moreno. Lyrically, ‘Choke' comes from a place where many of us have been before. It’s about when someone has given up on you, put you down, and speaks nothing but words of negativity and hate. But like we always do, we fight through, we persevere, and we ultimately overcome. We’re still here, we’re still thriving, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re strong, and we hope you choke on your words!"
Strike A Nerve will be released on CD, 180-gram vinyl and digital on September 30 via T-BOY/UMe and is available for pre-order here.
Drowning Pool have long been hailed as champions of blue-collar hard rock and metal, not just because of their consistently incendiary live shows and vastly impressive catalog, but because of the trials and tribulations that have marked their career. They aren’t unique in that regard. What they are is resilient, their everyman, working-class ethos and stubborn perseverance creating a bond few bands ever realize.
Strike A Nerve was inspired by wearing life’s battle scars on our sleeves. Those bumps and bruises got magnified during the worldwide COVID lockdowns; lockdowns that started mere months after Drowning Pool completed recording, mixing and mastering Strike A Nerve, an 11-song tour-de-force through the torn and battered psyche of a band. Written and recorded before the pandemic that halted the world in its tracks for more than two years, Strike A Nerve became more poignant with its time on the shelf.
The title track and “Racing To A Red Light” are mid-tempo burners like we haven’t heard from Drowning Pool before, the band’s heightened sense of melody coupling with white hot hooks and irresistible choruses. “Can you hear an empty stage, can you hear tomorrow rage… I can’t go forward because I can’t be heard,” Moreno testifies on “Strike A Nerve” – again, a song written and recorded years before the world careened into its current state. “Stay And Bleed” and “Down In The Dirt” are instant Drowning Pool classics, their punishing grooves making the jarring and somber ballad “Everything But You” even more impactful: “I hate everyone and everything, but you…” From the softest song the band has ever recorded, to their heaviest in album closer “Mind Right,” an homage to their hometown friends and brothers Pantera.
Tracklisting:
"Doing Time In Hell"
"Hate Against Hate"
"Stay And Bleed "
"Strike A Nerve"
"Racing To A Red Light"
"Choke"
"Everything But You"
"Down In The Dirt"
"Rope"
"A Devil More Damned"
"Mind Right"
"Mind Right":
Formed by Pierce, Benton and Luce in Dallas, TX in 1996, Drowning Pool began as an instrumental trio, named after the 1975 film The Drowning Pool. The group enlisted singer Dave Williams to join their fold three years later and the band signed with Wind-up Records which released Sinner in 2001. Williams died tragically on tour August 14, 2002, stricken by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an undiagnosed heart condition. Sinner stands as his only studio album with Drowning Pool.
Drowning Pool is:
Jasen Moreno (Vocals)
CJ Pierce (Guitar)
Stevie Benton (Bass)
Mike Luce (Drums)
