Review Summary: For my first review, I thought I'd cover something I enjoyed; an album that consists of straight forward riffs, powerful vocals, and pounding drums. That album is Believe.
Disturbed was formed in 1996 when guitarist Dan Donegan, bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak, and drummer Mike Wengren hired vocalist David Draiman after only one audition. The newly formed band would go on to record two different EP's to be sent out to different record labels; those EP's contained the songs
"Perfect Insanity" (unreleased), as well as their breakout single,
"Stupify." They inked a deal with Giant Records in 1999, and their debut album,
The Sickness, was released in early 2000. The album has since gone on to sell over 3 million albums worldwide.
Disturbed went on to play Ozzfest in 2001, as well as create the theme music for professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. By this point many had written
Disturbed off as a one hit wonder because of the incredible amount of success they achieved in such a short time. However,
Disturbed created another album in 2002, appropriately titled,
Believe, which once again reached platinum status and proved that
Disturbed could not be written off so easily.
The album kicks off with the first single,
“Prayer.” The song is full of heavy mid-paced riffs, powerful vocals, and simple drum and bass riffs. The song is proof of how well David can use his voice; whether it is a rap like flow, or opening up for the chorus, David pulls it off. The instrumentation of the song is fairly simple and nothing that will make you jump out of your seat, but it is effective nonetheless; the song in its entirety sounds much like
“Stupify”, off of their debut album,
The Sickness. The next track off the album is also the second single,
“Liberate.” The intro of the song has some nice double bass work from Mike, and a nice fast paced riff by Dan and Steve. The vocal work is much more aggressive than on its predecessor, and it fits the music nicely. The song is very reminiscent of an early Pantera-esque “Domination” riff. The next two tracks on the album,
“Awaken” and the title track
“Believe” follow the same blueprint as the first two tracks, heavy mid paced riffs, simple drums and bass, and a mix of powerful and “scat” like vocals. The fifth track, and third single,
“Remember” starts off with a Prayer-like riffage before going into a nice unique verse that breaks away from the traditional 4/4 beat. The vocals on this song are much cleaner than on any of the other tracks. Next comes
“Intoxication”; you will almost instantly notice David’s signature vocal noise; how to describe it, I’m not sure, but if you’ve heard Disturbed you know what I’m talking about. The song is a little faster than any of its predecessors. It’s nothing special, and in comparison to the other tracks on the album, seems a bit filler.
“Rise” is the next track. It is the fastest song on the album, driven by a hard hitting guitar line, and backed by some nice drum work. The vocals aren’t the best, but still manage to add to the song in a positive manner.
“Mistress” and
“Breathe” sport what are possibly the weakest riffs on the album. The guitar work sounds like Dan was trying to hard to be original, and it just comes across as weird. The vocals on these two songs are also the weakest of the album. They both falter when put up next to songs like
“Prayer” and
“Liberate.” “Bound” is the next track, and it is arguably the best track of the album. The guitar, drum, and bass work on this song still isn’t extremely technical or experimental, but is very powerful, kind of like getting kicked in the balls; cliché, yet overly effective.
“Devour” and
“Darkness” are the ballads of the album. The musicianship on
“Devour” falls flat in comparison to the rest of the album.
“Darkness” is a nice acoustic song, featuring only an acoustic guitar, piano, strings, and David. His voice is exceptional on this song, complimenting the music nicely.
The cons of the album would include the fact that Dan Donegan never solos, and rarely ever plays a lead lick. His riffs are powerful, but some of the bridge riffs on
Believe could have benefited from a solo. The drumming also gets slightly repetitive; Mike constantly reverts to playing a simple eighth beat under almost every one of Dan’s riffs. It’s not bad, it is just as I stated, repetitive. The bass is also fairly inaudible for the majority of the album, with rare traces of sound on tracks like
“Liberate” and
“Mistress.” The vocals are a stand out for me, however some listeners may not like how David switched from a very aggressive tone to a clean tone almost instantly in every song.
Individual performance:
David (vocals) - His lyrics are well written and his voice shows off his range very nicely. When he chooses to sing an aggressive tone, he pulls it off nicely, and his clean tone is decent as well. His signature "scat" noise is also well placed in this album, not overused, and adds to the songs it is in.
Dan - His riffs are well put together and well arranged. The only con I can think of is the fact that he does not solo on the album. Some of his riffs do get a little repetetive at times, but he breaks it up with nice unique chord work.
Steve “Fuzz” - There’s not much I can say about him, seeing as the bass is inaudible throughout a majority of the album.
Mike - The drumming compliments the riffs nicely for the most part, however it will become very repetitive after hearing the same eight beat over and over again. His also makes smart use of the double bass as well, using only to accent riffs; it’s tuned a little too high pitched for my liking though.
Track by Track:
Prayer - 8/10
Liberate -9/10
Awaken - 7/10
Believe - 7/10
Remember - 8/10
Intoxication - 7/10
Rise - 8/10
Mistress - 6/10
Breathe - 6/10
Bound - 9/10
Devour - 7/10
Darkness - 7/10
Overall the album is solid; for a sophomore album it is well above average. It isn't loaded with tons of atmosphere and is more straight up hard rock than anything else; however songs like
"Remember" make good use of programmed backrounds, and
"Darkness" brings in a cello to add to the overall tone. After a few listens, some may start to think that it all sounds the same, seeing as there are no solos and just 4 minutes of riffing on every song, but
David tends to break up the monotony of the riffs and drums with his voice. I reccomend this album for any fan of hard rock or nu-metal, and definite for any Disturbed fan.
FINAL RATING: 3.5 mental patients out of 5
