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Drowning Pool - Sinner review



Reviewer:
3.0

111 users:
7.53
Band: Drowning Pool
Album: Sinner
Style: Alternative metal
Release date: June 05, 2001
A review by: omne metallum


01. Sinner
02. Bodies
03. Tear Away
04. All Over Me
05. Reminded
06. Pity
07. Mute
08. I Am
09. Follow
10. Told You So
11. Sermon

Chances are you remember Drowning Pool for one of two things, being the band that produced "Bodies" and for featuring Ryan McCombs from SOiL at one stage in their career. Deciding to delve deeper and learn more about the band, I gave Sinner a go and now I know why these two facts are the sole reminders left, because there certainly isn't much else of merit on this album.

Contrary to what you would think from hearing "Bodies", Drowning Pool are more the post-grunge style of nu metal than the jock jam style. In and of itself it is not a bad thing but do they pull it off poorly; as someone who likes nu metal to an extent, Sinner has to rank among some of the worst I've heard in the genre.

Much of the album is cookie cutter tracks that are so similar to each other that it's only when the chorus plays that you are able to differentiate between them; even then, that's only because the shouted lyrics of every chorus are different. Whereas some bands succeed at producing similar tracks, it is because the songs are catchy and good; Drowning Pool do not pull this off.

The constant repetition of the loud quiet motif mixed in with bland bar chords means the album limps between songs at snails' pace. Once "Bodies" finishes the album drops into a low gear and stays there; from the boring "Tear Away" to the false dawn that is "Sermon", the album settles into a comfort zone that goes nowhere. "Sermon" picks up your ears with a nice intro riff that is quickly dropped before reproducing the same bland verse riffing that is copy and pasted in every track. Whereas most nu metal bands could rely on angsty energy or melancholy melody to carry the album to an average finish, Sinner doesn't even have that to fall back on.

Dave Williams (R.I.P.) is the only member who really gets to show any personality in the music; he has a good voice and it is a shame he didn't have better material to work with. While the lyrics are clearly personal and come from a place of emotion, they are poorly written and typify the stereotypical nu metal sound at the time. The rest of the band aren't bad, but they just play such similar and basic music (even for nu metal) that it feels like the audio equivalent of old cartoons when the same background would repeat as the characters run through them.

With all that said, there are two tracks on here that aren't bad, "Sinner" isn't anything amazing but it doesn't bore me like the rest of the album; given the dearth of quality that should at least count in the band's defense. Then there is "Bodies": sure, some label it stupid and insipid but I challenge you to put it on in front of a metal crowd and see if you don't get a response. As bad as Sinner is, I can't deny it has one hell of classic on it; it's just a shame the rest of the album isn't of the same level of quality.

I didn't go into this album looking to hate it, but I can't come out the other end as anything other than bored. As the chorus in "Mute" says "there is nothing left here to talk about"


Rating breakdown
Performance: 4
Songwriting: 3
Originality: 3
Production: 7





Written on 29.06.2020 by Just because I don't care doesn't mean I'm not listening.


Comments

Comments: 7   Visited by: 48 users
29.06.2020 - 12:03
Rating: 10
Big-Al
Let this review hit the floor
let this review hit the floor
let this review hit the FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR
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I drink moosepiss
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05.07.2020 - 07:07
Kennoth
Why do people insist on reviewing music they don't like? I might have to do a counter-review, as I have this album in high regard.
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*insert something deep and profound*
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05.07.2020 - 13:57
musclassia
Staff
Written by Kennoth on 05.07.2020 at 07:07

Why do people insist on reviewing music they don't like? I might have to do a counter-review, as I have this album in high regard.

Without having an opinion on this album in particular (I've heard Bodies and that's it), I don't think "Why do people review music they don't like?" is a productive mindset. A world in which there are only positive reviews is a world in which reviews become meaningless. If everything only receives positive reviews, then there's no way to differentiate what are actually great releases, which means that reviews become pretty redundant in terms of guiding people towards albums they may enjoy. Additionally, if negative reviews aren't written, then there's no way for people to determine what the potential issues are with the albums that don't receive positive reviews, and whether they are dealbreakers or not; the only thing that can inform a potential listener about the record is the absence of positive feedback.

If you like this album, then go ahead and give it a counter-review; it's good to have contrasting opinions on a record. However, negative criticism is an important part of criticism as a whole, as its absence dilutes positive criticism; a world in which people aren't allowed to rate an album below 3* or 6/10 is one in which those scores now become the lowest possible rating, and 3* becomes a damning indictment of a record instead of being indicative of a meritable but flawed album.
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05.07.2020 - 17:05
omne metallum
Contributor
Written by Kennoth on 05.07.2020 at 07:07

Why do people insist on reviewing music they don't like? I might have to do a counter-review, as I have this album in high regard.

As I said in the conclusion, I didn't go into this album to be negative, I'd only heard "Bodies" prior to the rest of the album so was expecting to enjoy it at first.

EDIT: Musclassia summed it up better.
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Just because I'm not listening doesn't mean I don't care
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05.07.2020 - 19:51
Rating: 6
Cynic Metalhead
Ambrish Saxena
Written by musclassia on 05.07.2020 at 13:57

Written by Kennoth on 05.07.2020 at 07:07

Why do people insist on reviewing music they don't like? I might have to do a counter-review, as I have this album in high regard.

However, negative criticism is an important part of criticism as a whole, as its absence dilutes positive criticism;

I don't think intolerance towards negative reviews wasn't prevalent 5-10 years back in MS. Back in the day, some of my negative reviews received fairly well here.

Folks now get unrest seeing their fav band's new albums tore apart - see new Nightwish.
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06.07.2020 - 00:30
Oracles
I have no problem with anybody rating this album poorly for repetition, but Slayer's entire career suffers from the exact same problems. Just insanely repetitive songs. If you like it, then you'll love either Drowning Pool or Slayer, if not, it rates quite poorly.
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29.08.2022 - 01:15
VikinkiQc
This is an album (and genre) that doesn't aged well so reviewing it 20 years later and give it a bad score have no point ! So many things was different in 2001, the state of music, politics...etc...and of course our taste personal and knowledge of music ! If I've reviewed it back in the days I've probably give it a 7.0 ! Not great but not bad either !
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