Review Summary: Disturbed's best
I grew up listening to Disturbed, and so, naturally at the tender age of 12, I thought my tastes were developing nicely, listening to a band that was just out of my friends’ comfort zones, (given that they mostly enjoyed artists like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit.)
The Sickness was the first physical album I owned and their tour of said album marked my first concert experience. They played in Detroit, Michigan, and there I was: atop the balcony brandishing my Disturbed hat and smug in their apparel, lucid and transfixed on the center stage. Yeah...It’s safe to say that I was a devoted and loyal fan for quite some time. That said, even with its nostalgic appeal,
The Sickness is likely the definitive ‘poor’ album. But, you see, as much as I find myself hating the band today and every one of their albums proceeding this one, I can’t bring myself to completely write
The Sickness off as utterly atrocious.
Disturbed do virtually nothing to differentiate themselves from other nu-metal/alternative metal groups; their songs follow the very typical: verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus formula, so there isn’t much variance to be found structurally, and furthermore, the lyrical content leaves a lot to be desired. Songs like their radio hit title track are full of misplaced contempt as David Draiman goes off on a tangent, yelling “Never stick your hand in my face again bitch / F
UCK YOU / I don't need this s
hit / you stupid sadistic abusive f
ucking whore”. Given context we can deduce that this formula was not improved upon in future releases - rather, they took the safe route of least resistance and went on to reproduce the same generic tripe, consecutively. Disturbed can most easily be distinguished by David Draiman's trademark vocal style which I can most easily describe in sound as an angsty orgasm.
Since
The Sickness, Disturbed have released four albums, all of which sound relatively similar, which allows me to draw parallels between them and other dross such as Nickelback. Both artists have been doing the same thing since their inception: forcing a relentless wave of destitution onto us. But I’m in the minority here, as this and other releases have been treasured and respected by millions of people. This is the very essence of their misconception, however, they’re writing to appeal to a broad demographic and they’re compromising songwriting in doing so. Songs like Droppin’ Plates show the band at their lowliest. David Draiman takes the album to its lowest point as he announces that Disturbed are ‘in the house’ and they are ‘droppin’ plates on your ass, bitch’. Lyrically one of the worst written songs of all time, musically the most trite nu-metal song you’ll ever hear. The infusing of rap and metal to form nu-metal was a bad idea, for this exact reason. It sounds ridiculously contrived and above all things, fabricated.
Luckily, there are a few cracks through the surface and certain songs can be enjoyable from time-to-time, - few and far between as they may be - such as the Tears For Fears cover of Shout, which is somewhat infectious during the chorus of “Shout, shout, let it all out / these are the things I can do without”, and Numb, strictly because it’s tolerable compared to the rest. As it’s their first album, a lot of this can be excused and dismissed as typical, but repeating this mistake 4 consecutive times is inexcusable, and overall taints my perspective of this album. It’s not a complete loss as some of it is tolerable for background music and it holds nostalgic value, but this could have been a lot better, and it took many years to see it clearly, but Disturbed truly are one of the most derivative bands around.
