When asked about die-hard metal fans not finding Disturbed heavy enough, Disturbed's frontman David Draiman stated: "We probably have too much melody going on or we're not quite as turbulent or caustic. While I really love that type of music, it's not what we try to do. If we have to place things in context, we're more hard rock than heavy metal these days". This is a pretty appropriate answer. The style to which this band came to after eight years of existence cannot be placed into more definite borders. However such a stylistic vagueness is not a problem for Disturbed. They are one of the most successful heavy acts of today. And judging by their newest album Indestructible there is no reason that could prevent them from being ones. This situation is not an accident. The band keeps on evolving since their very first album each time improving their musicianship and songwriting skills. It would be untrue to say that Disturbed always sound the same. If you will try to compare their first album and the last one you will see how huge the difference is.
However, even if Disturbed move forward it must be said that they do it quite slowly. So you actually cannot expect any drastic changes from their new record. Indestructible, just like their previous disc – is a mainstream album. And it features everything a mainstream is supposed to have. Excellent production, accessible songwriting, trendy gloss and professional delivery. The latter by the way is probably the most noteworthy alteration in Disturbed's sound. At least when it comes to guitar shredding you can't help but notice that the band's guitarist Dan Donegan became much more sophisticated. He plays pretty complex solos almost on every song, which is not quite typical neither for Disturbed nor for Nu Metal on the whole. The same can be said about riffing and instrumentation. Indestructible delivers the most impressive and complex arrangements this band ever produced before. It is not that evident when you start listening to the album, at first it seems that it sounds almost the same like its predecessor – almost identical phrasings, rhythmic, delivery, but somewhere in the middle of the record it becomes clear that the tendency they have specified on Ten Thousand Fists received its continuation. A track called Deceiver sounds really exemplifying in this sense.
Overall Indestructible turned to be more aggressive album. Here and there you can find things that look pretty different from Disturbed's past New Metal efforts. It concerns both the sound and performing manner. For example the main theme on a track called Divide is one of the most aggressive and fast riffs in the history of this band. However, all these changes almost do not touch upon their style. As it was mentioned above, Disturbed still stick to really accessible and plain material, which is based on a usual chorus-refrain-chorus scheme. One of the most exemplifying tracks of the album is Inside The Fire. This is a really bright and memorable song with excellent refrain and enormously catchy chorus. Perhaps it cannot boast with outstanding riffs but the vocal melody and composition sound really great. As a matter of fact, Disturbed's singer was always showing outstanding vocal skills, sometimes outshining his band mates in his one-man show, but now when Disturbed started paying more attention to details the band gained more organic and natural sound. The summary for Indestructible may be as follows. As a matter of fact, the album looks quite similar to its predecessor so if you heard Ten Thousand Fists than you can easily imagine how Indestructible sounds. The difference is that it has more interesting material, more interesting details and more unexpected innovations. Of course, the album has its disadvantages too but on the whole it may be considered as an improved version of Ten Thousand Fists. Good and solid mainstream metal.
The Lost Children
Asylum
Ten Thousand Fists
Graceland 1986
Paul Simon's new collection, Songwriter, has no intention to provide listeners with a selection of the artist's best material. The works has a mission to reflect the musical evolution of this musician who is so fond of experimentation
