Drowning Pool is actively working towards releasing a new studio album, with guitarist C.J. Pierce indicating a target completion before the end of summer 2025. This follows the return of vocalist Ryan McCombs and the release of two new singles, signaling a resurgence for the band.
The recent singles, “Revolution (The Final Amen)” released in September 2024 and “Madness” arriving earlier this year, mark the first new material featuring McCombs since his departure in 2011. Pierce confirmed the positive creative impact of McCombs‘ return in a recent interview with Rock Interview Series.
“It’s been great to write with Ryan McCombs again,” Pierce stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It’s been two years now… since we’ve been rocking out [with Ryan back in the band].”
While the band has been prolific in writing, extensive touring has impacted the album’s finalization timeline. “We’ve been writing a lot of new songs together,” Pierce explained. “It’s just the fact that we’ve been touring so much, we haven’t had that much time to get it together.”
The release of the singles served as an interim measure. “So, we did put out ‘Revolution‘ first, and then we didn’t wanna make people wait too much longer, so we put out ‘Madness‘ now,” Pierce added.
Currently utilizing a break from touring, Pierce is focused on consolidating the new material. “What I’m doing now, I’m home from tour and these next couple of weeks I’m gonna finish putting together all the songs that we have and try to get everything else done so we can get a record out there before the end of the summer,” he detailed. “It’s kind of the goal right now — loosely based goal because life is life and things happen, but I actually have a block of time for the first time in two years to put together all the awesome ideas we’ve been all working on together as a band.”
The upcoming album will be released via SBG Records, an independent label founded by Shan Horan. This move aligns with the band’s decision to become self-managed and take greater control over their career path.
“It’s SBG Records… an independent label. We’ve been slowly working towards being independent. We are self-managed,” Pierce confirmed. “You’ve gotta take a hold of your career, man… we just had to clean house and take control of our career, man.”
Pierce acknowledged the necessary focus on business alongside the creative aspects. “I hate talking business, man, because it’s all about the rock and roll and music, but since we are independently managed, business is on our brain,” he said. “You have to keep an eye on it as well, if you wanna get your music out there and your art out there. And that’s all we wanna do, man — we wanna get our new music out there, we wanna put on shows and hang out with the fans and have a great time.”
Pierce also confirmed that Drowning Pool is planning a 2026 tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Sinner, which went platinum just six weeks after its 2001 release. The album’s lead single, “Bodies,” quickly became one of the most heavily played videos on MTV by a new artist.
“We definitely wanna start [touring] here in the States and do all next year, promoting a lot of that,” the guitarist said. “And hats off to [late Drowning Pool singer] Dave Williams and do him right and do a lot of things that we haven’t done that fans haven’t heard. We have a lot of stuff we’re putting together for the package and a lot of material that we still have with Dave Williams — and, again, respect to him — to get to the hardcore fans that like to hear it, just all that stuff out. So we’re putting that together now. The solid plans haven’t been laid out yet, but we will be doing the anniversary tour next year in the States, and then probably the following year go back to Europe and do it there as well.”
Asked if the band is going to play the entire “Sinner” album for the 25th-anniversary tour, he said: “We’re definitely gonna be doing that, and then more songs on top of that. The last song that we wrote with Dave was a song called ‘Heroes Sleeping’. We’ve been talking about playing that live. We have a song called ‘Break You’, that song on ‘The Scorpion King’ soundtrack and stuff. So there’s different things. We did [a cover of] ‘The Game’ for Triple H, Motörhead‘s ‘The Game’, and it’s something else we hadn’t played live. So things like that that we haven’t been able to do, all Dave Williams-oriented.
The initial plan for McCombs‘ return was less extensive. “It was gonna be a couple of reunion shows,” Pierce recalled. “We had a big show with Pantera May 5th two years ago… And next thing you know, man, everyone’s calling. They want us to play shows and do tours.”
McCombs, who fronted the band on the albums Full Circle (2007) and Drowning Pool”(2010), continues to perform and record with his other band, SOIL, concurrently.
With dedicated production time secured and operating under a new independent structure, Drowning Pool is poised to deliver their first full album with McCombs in over a decade later this year. The band continues to tour, with appearances scheduled for Inkcarceration festival in July and Alcatraz festival in August, followed by a UK/Ireland tour in November.
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