 | Tracklist:
1. Hell
2. A Welcome Burden
3. This Moment
4. Old Friend
5. Monster
6. Run
7. Leave It Alone
8. Two Worlds
9. God of the Mind
10. Sickened
11. Mime
12. Parasite
13. Dehumanized
14. 3
15. Midlife Crisis
16. Living After Midnight
Release Date: 11/08/2011 | |
|
On 2 Lists
|
| Summary: Quick! Which Disturbed album is the song “Bound” from? |
13 of 13 thought this review was well written
If you’re like me, and had to look up the answer to the above question, then Disturbed’s announcement from earlier this year that they would go on hiatus for the entirety of 2012 probably managed to slip clean underneath your radar. And the absolute banality of the question above just about explains why: despite having four of their five studio albums debut at number-one on the Billboard 200 in the past decade, the Chicago outfit simply hasn’t been far-sighted or ambitious enough to create an oeuvre whose demise (albeit temporary) could both warrant and deserve overwrought shows of concern. To their own detriment, the band has primarily been a singles act, and while this necessarily makes them capable of putting together a handful of good tunes on each of their records, it has also resulted in them pumping out albums that are completely bereft of an identity or a unifying theme – qualities that are so often needed if a record and its parent band are to stand the test of time.
To that end, The Lost Children, Disturbed’s first collection of rarities and B-sides, certainly feels like the next release in the band’s discography. While this can be argued to be a mostly-happy development – if only because it means that none of the tracks on here sound like they were strip-mined from a scrap heap of third-grade rejects – it also means that, like any of their previous five studio albums, The Lost Children is hardly earth-shattering as a whole. Album opener “Hell” hits hardest, with vocalist David Draiman scaling his usual visceral heights as the trademark sonics of Dan Donegan’s guitar run roughshod in the background. “3”, the single which was released digitally on the band’s website to benefit the West Memphis Three, is also included here, which – while good news for the Disturbed completist – is honestly a bit of a shame as the social message that the band was initially trying to deliver ultimately ends up finding itself buried beneath an hour’s worth of accompanying music. Elsewhere, “Leave It Alone” verges on overcorrection, with Disturbed engineering the song’s hook to revolve solely around Draiman’s memorable titular refrain, whilst the only completely new track present on the compilation, “Mine”, is perfectly okay – even if it resorts to far too many genre clichés (media samples and haunting electro synths are all the rage here) to get the job done.
However, the most interesting tracks on here are – tellingly – those that are not Disturbed’s own. The band’s covers of Faith No More’s “Midlife Crisis” and Judas Priest’s “Living after Midnight”, which previously could only be found on the A Revolution in Sound and the British Steel Vol. 1 compilations, bookend this record and add a dash of class to proceedings. The former draws out some serious tonality from Draiman and recalls the sizzling, livewire feel of The Sickness-era Disturbed, while the latter in turn may yet be the best cover that the band has ever cut to tape, with the four-piece producing a well-balanced effort that thoroughly does justice to the Judas Priest original. Although these two pieces easily make for the kind of thoroughly-satisfying coda that makes one feel like there aren’t any truly bad pieces on The Lost Children, the ease at which Disturbed emerge from the shadows of these former greats can’t help but make one feel like the band could really get out of their own very quickly, if only they could muster up the courage to do so.
|
| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 3
Answer: Believe.
Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless | | |
Well I knew the answer to that.
Digging: Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide Digging: Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide
| | | Album Rating: 3
Then I feel sorry for you ;)
| | |
That's what happens when you really like Believe.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I was gonna review this and then realised I have practically nothing to say about it
This Moment is their best song though
Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music | | |
I thought people stopped caring for this band after the release of 10k fists.
Digging: Hellfucked - Gods Of Negativity Digging: Hellfucked - Gods Of Negativity
| | |
I almost reviewed this and then realized I had better things to do like clip my toe nails
Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories
| | |
Nice review Irving, covered everything that needed to be said in a good, brief fashion. I unashamedly like most of Disturbed's back catalogue, but now, in 2011, I feel tired of their sound, and even though I know quite a few of the songs present on this compilation (and also know that they happen to be better than about half of the stuff they put on their full studio records), I don't think I actually want to check the whole thing out.
Digging: Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites Digging: Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites
| | | Album Rating: 3
Thanks for reading Metalstyles. I was initially worried the relative brevity of the review would take away somewhat from the quality of the overall writing, but I'm glad to see that you apparently managed to take away from the writing the exact thoughts that I wanted to get across. This makes me happy =)
And yeah I hear you on the exhaustion with Disturbed's insistence at aping themselves again and again. What really bugs me is the fact that they're so obviously talented, yet insist on writing about the same stuff with the same song structure again and again and again. If Draiman also sounded like a moose in heat we'd be calling this the Nickelback of heavy alt rock for sure.
| | | Album Rating: 3
@ Sowing and AnarchistFish: LOL. I initially had that problem too, but I decided to really bunker down this evening and do justice to my Contributor tag lol.
@ dammets: Fair enough. To each his own =) (my personal fave is Indestructible. "Inside The Fire" just gets me going, every time.
| | | Album Rating: 3
Oh, and thank you HSThomas! =)
PS - Hardly anyone calls me that (Tan Zhi Mian). It's quite strange for me to be addressed that way - on an anonymous internet site no less! Haha!
| | |
Nice review. Band is painfully mediocre.
Digging: fun. - Some Nights Digging: fun. - Some Nights
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I still really like Disturbed...
| | |
Sweet, now I don't have to review this!
| | | Album Rating: 3
Oh noes! I didn't know you were going to do this Pizz! Now I feel bad =/ =/ =/
| | |
Jeez learn how to use the contrib thread guyzz
| | |
haha it's alright, I couldn't come up with anything anyway.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
This is better than their last album
Digging: Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards The Daylight Digging: Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards The Daylight | | | Album Rating: 2.5
all I could think of was "um yeah, all the songs sound the same. This Moment is cool though"
| | |
great write-up Irv. this sounds like a disturbed album that I don't want to listen to, sorta like all the other disturbed albums.
Digging: Spraynard - Funtitled Digging: Spraynard - Funtitled
| | | |
|
|
Stumble
Digg
Twitter
Del.icio.us
