Review Summary: Disturbed hasn't changed everything that made their first album so jarringly inconsistent, but in general the Chicago foursome has made a powerful, classic-metal inspired record that improves on the flaws of The Sickness.
Disturbed's debut, The Sickness, sold plenty of copies, but musically it was very unsteady. Tracks like "The Game" and "Down With The Sickness" are some of the best songs to come out of the nu-metal feeding frenzy following Korn's three-year hiatus, if not two of the best metal songs of the decade. But it was hard to take Disturbed seriously as the brutally heavy juggernaut they were when they seemed incapable of writing enough such great material to sustain more than a third of an album. Filler tracks like "Violence Fetish" and "Want" showed the band's inability to sustain their undeniable power for more than a few tracks, and "Droppin' Plates" was just a pitiful attempt by Disturbed to test the waters of rap-metal in case the fans liked it better. To a certain extent, this is a good thing. Haven't you ever heard a CD that had potential to be good, but never really had a moment of power where you realized that the band could go somewhere? Disturbed concentrated the majority of their songwriting skill into the better tracks on their CD, crafting a number of awesome singles and neglecting the rest. But can you really call a band skilled if they only have enough of it to make four tracks on a twelve-track album worthwhile?
Well, I wouldn't really think so. Many seemed to think similarly. A lot of people wrote Disturbed off as a flash-in-the-pan metal band that had given us a few great songs before fading into obscurity. Disturbed had no such intentions. On Believe, they changed their sound to make a more consistent record that clearly showed a more assured and comfortable band than the sometimes stilted sections of The Sickness. The only problem I have with this was that they sacrificed their ability to write a downright amazing track. There is nothing on this CD quite as good as "The Game." However, there are plenty of great songs that show a more matured and confident band than we saw before on anything BUT those powerhouse tracks on the debut.
From the opening riff of "Prayer," we know that Disturbed is intent on a heavy record, one inspired more by Pantera and Metallica than Korn and White Zombie. The trouble is that Disturbed seems to know this, and play its heavy riffs a little more than they warrant to be. Songs like "Intoxicate" and "Mistress" start out with a only decent riff and play it to the point where you start thinking you've heard it somewhere before. Every song, with the exception of the jarringly different "Darkness," starts out with a powerful riff and usually finishes with a variation on that same riff. Except for "Breathe," this doesn't get to the point where the song relies exclusively on the riff to sustain itself (or, as I like to call it, the Godsmackian effect), usually because of the presence of drums and bass that actually sound like they're adding something to the music (uncommon these days in this kind of metal), but the insistence on having the main riff of each song be played palm-muted under the verses most of the time does get a bit grating. Disturbed, you never heard Metallica play the iconic riff from "Master of Puppets" under the vocals for a good reason.
Thankfully, the presence of a strong vocal hook redeems much of the album, albeit without the savage growls and scatting that we remember from the debut. Draiman sings not only melodically on pretty much the whole album, but nearly all the verses contain his clear, plaintive voice that appeared only sparingly before on songs like "Numb" and "Down With The Sickness." There are exceptions, but they don't consistently make the album better or worse. "Liberate" is a welcome dose of the more thunderous Disturbed even only two tracks into the album, but the growling on "Intoxication" simply sounds rote and tiresome. Draiman rarely crosses the line between "emotive" and "emo," but a more forceful presence would be welcome. Luckily he would hit upon this formula with success with his more forceful singing on Ten Thousand Fists, but for now, the tuneful wail works just fine.
Another downside to the consistency of this record is the fact that the tracks start to sound fairly similar after "Remember." The guitars are given a very uniform sort of production that makes them sound different from Disturbed's contemporaries, but a little too similar to each other. The constant use of palm-muting during the verses also makes it hard to distinguish one song musically from another without repeated listens. Few of the songs feature different structures or even seem much better than the others. You can pick the best two or three songs on the CD, and the worst two or three, but then in the middle it's difficult to figure out what makes one song superior or inferior to another.
Luckily, Disturbed keeps rolling on one or two tempos and time signatures, which covers up the repetition with a heavy assortment of riffs that propel the album to its lovely close. "Darkness," despite being totally out of left field, is a great song if you look at it by itself. It doesn't seem like the obligatory "soft" song- Disturbed would have been happy to finish the album on a vicious note, a la "Meaning Of Life." You can tell that the band had a good idea and ran with it. This was the perfect album to do this on, as the more brutal side of Disturbed appears much less than on the other records and we are already used to Draiman's quiet vocals. The instrumentation is tastefully sparse, but not minimal, painting a touching backdrop for the affecting lyrical story that is created through nothing but a few evocative phrases and a haunting vocal line.
This leads me into the lyrics of the album. They deal fairly consistently with similar themes of disappointment and frustration throughout, but not only are the lyrics well-done enough to excuse this homogeneity, they deviate fairly frequently. "Liberate" is a rant about religion, but it rarely points the finger at God as Dream Theater or Metallica would have been all too happy to do- instead, it condemns the people who twist the mainly positive influence of religion to suit their own narrow-minded agenda. "Prayer" deals with Draiman's relationship with his grandfather, to whom this record is dedicated, and "Believe" deals with similar religious themes. The title appears simply like a typical generic album title when you first listen, but further listens reveal an intriguing concept running throughout- not surprisingly, the theme of belief. Whether it be in religion, a person, oneself, or the absence of belief, the album doesn't say, but the more overt tracks reveal nothing for certain. Even references to a "modern Messiah" and quotes from the Bible from "Liberate" seem more metaphorical than strictly religious.
Overall, Believe is an impressive album that shows a mature decision by the band not to play to its strengths on a few songs and leave album buyers disappointed with the rest. Power is eschewed in favor of consistency, but the band still packs a punch and crafts a few great moments for every time we wish that there was something more. Disturbed would learn to combine its jackhammer brutality with a consistent album on Ten Thousand Fists, but this isn't just a vaguely interesting step in Disturbed's musical journey- it's a well-made metal album in its own right that makes few concessions even if it touches your heart more than it goes for your jugular. Believe is certainly part of the cream of the alt-metal crop despite its flaws, and anybody who liked Ten Thousand Fists or The Sickness will probably find this a rewarding listen.
