Disturbed – Indestructible
Posted by AlMachine on Monday, June 23, 2008


Everyone's been through a Disturbed phase – these guys may begin to start considering themselves veterans in the metal genre since their original album , `The Sickness` was released all the way back on the dawn of the new millennium, believe it or not. They end a three year silence with `Indestructible`, and promise fans a “ballsier” album packed with signature sounds from the previous three, combining to create their new, more complete sound.

The first track shows us what was meant by the “ballsier” approach, basically they are playing slightly faster than usual, almost pushing them into Metallica, thrash metal territory. Indeed there are the trademark Draiman strained staccato vocals, the epic soundscape, and the aggressive riffs of Dan Donegan, but I`m struggling to see where the evolution of the sound is, it just sounds like Disturbed being played a little faster than it should, until the chorus where it reverts to the correct tempo.

The next two tracks follow this same approach, taking us up to track four, `The Night`. This one slows down a little, and although still not offering anything ground breaking, it does show us more melody, and a more complete sound. Draiman shows us that he can belt them out, and there are no solos, but there are Killswitch Engage sounding hooks which add a lot of depth to the track which seemed to be missing from the first few.

Track five is nothing special, number six, `The Haunted` starts off with some spooky samples, and slowly builds into a rapid riff with some vociferous vocals and demonic drumming. It has more to it than some of the other offerings, and the tempo is thrown around, slowing at the chorus. It also has a vocal breakdown halfway through, reminiscent of some of their first songs. Definitely a step in the right direction.

Track seven, `Enough`, seems to have stolen the drums from `Down with the Sickness`, but the rest of the track fails to offer anything worth noting. It sounds like a poor cover of Metallica's `Battery`, and despite having a catchy chorus, it's too hit and miss, and soon receives the `skip track` treatment.

`The Curse` is a step away from the harsher thrash sounds to a more classic rock feel, but it's all over too soon and easily forgotten. `Torn` and `Criminal` are rather similar. `Divide` is very quick off the mark, even Draiman couldn't keep up, half heartedly shouting “go!” a few seconds after the track has already sped off. Again we see the thrash influence, but this time there is an epic guitar solo that enfolds the rest of the instruments for the last half of the track, quite impressive and one for the live performance definitely.

We finish up with `Facade`, which starts off with a riff similar to that of Soil's `Halo`, and develops into a good serving of metal, it's as if the band have combined the best bits from all of the previous songs into this one for the grand finale, it showcases all their best aspects, good vocals, a solid structure, the industrial sounding samples, they all come together to create a real stand out track amongst an album of averageness. A shame really, they just started to find their form...

6/10

Joe


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