Drowning Pool
Drowning Pool

THE REVIEW

Following the 1986 release by the Roman label Viva Records (which deserves credit for introducing us to the little-known Californian trance scene of the '80s and early '90s), the Los Angeles-based Drowning Pool outdo their already excellent debut. Released in 1987 under their own label, Scarface Charley, the "Green Album" takes us to dark and rugged places, where perception necessarily changes in these sound labyrinths that unleash ancient questions and primal fears. Andrew Crane's metaphonic singing and the dreamlike musical interweavings float in an interference zone between an earthly world and the real world of the invisible, and thus the spiral staircase on the cover serves as a bridge for the transition into a fluid with amniotic precursors from that Ritual Regeneration/Toy Soldiers of the "Bloody Boy LP." Here, it goes further, every semblance of materiality is abandoned for subtle components to come into play; this peculiarity is then indirectly confirmed by guitarist Adam Elesh who states that these tracks "were never meant to be songs but as a well-defined atmosphere in mind, rather than just catchy melodies." Physics has long demonstrated that 95% of existing things are not visible; we perceive only 5% of what truly exists. The fact remains that through a play of interpenetration, unknown and unactivated energies coexist within us, and thus the album addresses this issue of hearing the invisible. Acceleration and deceleration of the sounds adapt the timeless reality to the normal flow of time to create a higher cohesion, through new codes, and send a signal hoping for someone to catch it. The entity invoked from the beyond can materialize objects from nothing that refer to its past life; in this light, we can also consider this album as a contribution that demonstrates a possibility to bring light to the darkness.

"Undeniably viewed it your paradise found never will last." from the last track, enough.