LIVE REVIEW: Drowning Pool and Spineshank, The Roadmender 2025

The legendary Drowning Pool grace Northampton’s Roadmender grassroots venue, bringing back the classics tracks we all know and love.

Photo credit: Drowning Pool, Jake Moore

It’s a cold November evening, but none of that matters tonight - as we are in the famous Roadmender venue in Northampton for a night of nostalgia. 90s kids, this one is for you, as we have two heavyweights of the Nu-Metal world with Drowning Pool supported by Spineshank.

Spineshank have a loaded 12-song set, with massive hits such as “New Disease”, “Synthetic” and “Smothered”. The band haven’t released any new material in 13 years so, of course, they rely on the big tracks of their career, but it shows it does not matter to the fans as they were going wild through the whole set.

Sadly, vocalist Jonny Santos could not make the show due to passport issues - so Drowning Pool are up next to headline the night and from start to finish, the fans are partying in the crowd, singing along to every word and moshing. Somehow it has taken me over 20 years of being into Metal for me to see Drowning Pool but it was well worth the wait. Of course my highlight was seeing “Bodies” live. A must see for any fan in our world of music. From hearing it on multiple WWF/WWE shows as a kid, this song was already known to me before I knew anything about Metal and the bands I love today. A very special moment.

The 12-song (and guitar solo) set covers songs from multiple albums in their discography, and who doesn’t want a “Rebel Yell” cover thrown in too? Ryan McCombs has been back in the band a few years now and still delivers his vocals so well. The great thing about this show is whilst for a lot of us, it is nostalgic, there were many younger fans in the crowd too. It shows this music brings generations together and a lot of people went home happy that night.

Photo credit: Drowning Pool, Jake Moore

Reviewer: Keiran Heaffey