DROWNING POOL has confirmed, after much speculation, that it has tapped singer Jasen Moreno from fellow Texas band THE SUICIDE HOOK to be the band's fourth and newest frontman. Moreno made his live debut as a member of the band on July 8 at a club in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Moreno replaces vocalist Ryan McCombs, who exited the group at the end of 2011 after a six-year stint in the lineup.

In an exclusive interview in the September 2012 issue of Guitar World magazine, guitarist C.J. Pierce explained, "Jasen came up in the same Dallas scene as us... We brought him in to sing, and he nailed it."

Moreno said, "I am extremely happy and very grateful to be a part of the DROWNING POOL family. Everyone's been so welcoming, especially the fans. I can't praise them enough. They've made me feel right at home. This first run of live shows couldn't have gone any better!"

Pierce added, "It's been a pleasure working with Jasen. He's everything we hoped for in a singer and he jumped right in, stepped up to the plate and got straight to work. Jasen has brought not only a new voice but a new fire to the DROWNING POOL sound and we can't wait to share the new music with everyone."

The guitarist told The Pulse Of Radio recently how they ended up recruiting Moreno. "We got a lot of submissions in for singers," he said. "For a minute there, I wasn't sure what we were gonna do. I didn't want to go through this whole singer thing again. And we had a guy walk in, he learned every song off every one of our CDs. He's a really super, super cool guy, and we went in the room and in three months we wrote 17 songs together."

DROWNING POOL's fifth album and their first with Moreno is due out early 2013. The band teamed up with producer Kato Khandwalla at House of Loud Studios in New Jersey earlier this year, and will be finishing the album in Dallas.

Pierce said in an interview conducted last May that the new album "is heavier, there's more metal on it, there's a lot of double bass, a lot of guitar solos . . . stepping up a notch."

The guitarist said late last year that the decision to part with McCombs came about because "[We've] grown apart, especially in the last three years . . . we kind of had it in the back of our heads that [McCombs] may not be in it for the long haul."

McCombs sang on two studio efforts by DROWNING POOL, 2007's "Full Circle" and 2010's self-titled fourth album.

He joined the band in 2005 and provided some stability on the microphone after the group's first two albums featured two different vocalists.

Original frontman Dave Williams died on tour in 2002 after singing on the band's debut, "Sinner". He was replaced by Jason "Gong" Jones, who also contributed to one record, "Desensitized", before being shown the door in 2004.

DROWNING POOL is:

C.J. Pierce - Guitar, Vocals
Stevie Benton - Bass, Vocals
Mike Luce - Drums, Vocals
Jasen Moreno - Vocals