Full Circle

Full Circle indeed....Soil and Drowning Pool are road buddies at the beginning of this decade; then Dave Williams (Drowning Pool's original, one-of-a-kind singer) tragically passes in 2002. Ryan McCombs writes Remember for Dave Williams and records it with Soil on their awesome 2004 release Redefine  Redefine  . Jason 'Gong' Jones joins Drowning Pool with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals  Desensitized  . Ryan leaves Soil for "family reasons", and AJ Cavalier joins Soil with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals  True Self  . Jason Jones leaves Drowning Pool in 2004 almost as fast as he joined, and Ryan McCombs joins Drowning Pool in the summer of 2005 almost as fast as he departed ways with Soil. Six years after it all began we have a "Full Circle". Whew!Full Circle is a good CD. Is Full Circle a classic like Drowning Pool's 2001 debut Sinner  Sinner  ?...No. Is it as good as Soil's Redefine?...Not even. Is it better than Drowning Pool's Desensitized or Soil's True Self?...Way better than both. Full Circle is just not great...like I wanted it to be.Full Circle gets off to a very promising start with a couple of really hard rockers. Track 1 (Full Circle) and Track 2 (Enemy--the best track on the CD) are fist pumpin', foot stompers. Track 6 is the radio-played Soldiers, and most reminiscent of the anthem rockers that both Soil and Drowning Pool built their fan base from. And Tracks 10 (No More) and 11 (Love X2) are a couple of good stand out rockers. But as I gave the disk repeat listens, I became a bit less impressed with Full Circle...not many of the other tracks were really "sticking" with me.The track (Reason I'm Alive) that Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba  The Heroin Diaries  contributed to is fair at best, and even the cover of Billy Idol's Rebel Yell doesn't pack the energy that the original  Rebel Yell  held.Perhaps I built Full Circle up in my mind too much after two long years of anticipation? Full Circle just doesn't reach out of your player and grab you by the neck like DP's Sinner did and Soil's Redefine did. When band members with two great Hard Rock CDs under their belts team up I expect great (classic) things, but I think that I may have set the bar too high.What you have with Full Circle is a very talented singer joining three very talented musicians to try to recreate some magic that was made with their respective original brothers. Of course it works sometimes (Iron Maiden, AC/DC...even Van Hagar), but it mostly fails. Full Circle is by far not a failure. It's good stuff. There were just some very big footsteps to follow leading to some very high expectations.Overall, hard rockers that like clearly sung lyrics and melodic rhythms should give Full Circle a chance.Final word: I'm surprised that CJ Pierce (guitar), Mike Luce (drums) and Stevie Benton (bass) never changed the name of the band (like Rage Against The Machine did when Zack de la Rocha left and Chris Cornell joined). Let's face it...Dave Williams WAS Drowning Pool. Okay, I can see that Soil Pool would definitely not have worked. But after Dave, you really had a brand new band. The problem with Full Circle is it's not really Drowning Pool. So maybe that's part of my problem; they tell me I bought a Drowning Pool CD...but did I really?

When I insert a new CD, the first thing that strikes my ear is the production quality of the disc. Strike #1, in this case, is the absolutely TERRIBLE sound quality of this CD. I just have to wonder what everyone was thinking (or what drugs they were on) when they demo'd this in pre-production. The drums are lifeless, the vocals are muddy, and the guitar sound is both. If a CD isn't sonically decent sounding this day in age, then there is a major problem at the helm for your group. Take for instance Ryan's vocals on the SOil Scars album that was released in 2001. His vocals are powerful and crisp. On "Full Circle," it sounds like he is in a room full of reverb. Basically in a tunnel. I could have even lived with a sub-par guitar and bass sound if the vocals and drums were acceptable sounding, but this is atrocious. The snare and bass drum sound is, next to the vocals, the most important sound to get right on a release and they bludgeoned it. I have a good sound system in my car and with two, 12-inch subs, the bass drum barely hits at all. As for the content, the lyrics are pretty mainstream which is a turn-off, but I would have to say "Reborn" is a quality song as well as "Enemy," "Shame," and "37 Stitches." All I can say about "Rebel Yell" is oh my god. Just terrible. Ryan McCombs definitely makes Drowning Pool a contender in the rock genre, but overall, DP are mediocre at best musicians. I haven't heard the newest release from DP, but it wouldn't be too difficult to improve on this effort. In no way, shape, or form worth the 10 bucks I spent downloading the whole album.

Arrived early! This album was with the Singer from Soil, just after the death of Drowning Pools original Singer. He has a powerful voice and really hits deep with His vocals...great album!!💯

Having been a fan of Drowning Pool and also a big fan of Soil, I can't find anything wrong with this CD. I must admit, when Ryan McCombs left Soil, I was not happy. But then I later heard that he was picked up by DP and that made things a lot better.This first collaberation is a great CD. It tends to be a bit dark in it's content. It seems that a majority of the songs are about love gone wrong. In that regard, kind of depressing, but the music is great.I can't wait to hear their future efforts as their jelling as band mates should just get better with time. I am biased by both of these groups so I give it five stars.

LOVE THE CD IN GREAT CONDITION

This is my second CD to purchase from Drowning Pool. This one was listed as an autographed copy, which I have no way to prove these guys actually signed it, but it did prompt me to purchase it along with a reasonable price. Again my purchase was delivered in perfect condition and sooner than expected. Keep up the good work.

I gotta say this is one of my all time favorite albums. It never gets old. It has a metal and classic grundge feel to it that I love. Such a classic sound to it. Sorry to all the original Drowning Pool fans but this is their best album yet, by far.

a

This is a superb album! I like the band SOIL and was pleased when Drowning Pool chose Ryan McCombs as there new lead singer for this record. This album sees the band mature musically and features acoustic guitars and solos that adds greatly to the sound of the band. The acoustic driven songs 'Reborn' and 'Paralysed' are good examples of this new direction the band took as this listener really enjoys the sound. But fear not as the usual Drowning Pool guitar riff heavy tracks are present on this album like album opener 'Full Circle', the single 'Enemy' the riff tastic 'Shame' the angsty 'No More' and the heavy rockers 'Love' and 'Duet'.The Alice In Chains influences are also present on this album such as on the album highlight 'Up Side Down', the acoustic driven 'Paralysed' and the ballad 'Reason im Alive'. The power ballad '37 stitches' (released as a single) is another track that this listener also enjoyed. The only track i'm a bit indifferent too is 'Soldiers' although I appreciate the sentiment and it is an excellent tribute to the bravery that the armed forces go through every day to protect our freedom etc. The album closes with a cover of 'Rebel yell' which, while a good track, is a slightly dissapointing close to the album.Lyrically its good too, mostly dealing with relationships, standing up against others and standing strong in the face of adversity, all inspiring themes especially if you have had a bad day etc. Ryan McCombs is a fantastic vocalist and he adds much more range and depth than on past Soil releases and is superb fronting Drowning Pool, and C.J Piece (an underated guitarist) provides some subtle guitar solos, great riffs and nice acoustic sounds on this record.So overall, a much more mature sounding album from this band, gone are the days of Nu- metal and less post-grunge then previous releases, this is a solid hard rock album that should be listened to by all rock lovers.

I used to like Drowning Pool as just another cool band and I expected more of the same with this album, but for my surprise it isn't.There's no denying that there is a massive jump in musical quality between the previous albums and Full Circle. It keeps a good tempo and as the previous reviewer said, the tracks will hook you. The more I listen to it the more I feel compelled to do it again.I'm afraid that the old Drowning Pool (a medium-level metal band with the odd good songs) is gone, but I'm happy to see that the new one is a massive jump in quality. Great!

This drowning pool album picks up pretty much where Soil left off with 'Redefine'. Although I listen to drowning pools earlier work, I bought this album solely because it contains Soils ex front man Ryan Mccombs, and it was well worth the investment!If you ever liked 'soil' but were disappointed with their choice of new front man then BUY THIS ALBUM! It is a great nu-metal high energy affair. Stand out track is probably the cover of Billy Idols 'Rebel Yell'

Have been listening on repeat for a while. It is getting me through my dissertation quite nicely. Really love 'full circle, enemy, soldiers' to name few

Good lp and excellent group . I would highly recommend this and all drowning pool LPs . the price is spot on. And delivery as usual was speedy .