Review Summary: What we have here is a typical modern rock record with nothing new, or inspiring to offer but some decent listens that should keep fan-boys listening for months, and the rest of us listening for a week or so...
It is the year 2000, Disturbed releases their debut album "The Sickness" which went triple platinum and gave the band their most played smash hit to date "Down With the Sickness". Rock radio has been playing this classic nu-metal anthem for 8 years now, etching Disturbed as a memorable artist in recent rock. Since The Sickness, Believe was released, bearing even more fruit for radio to sink it's teeth into (even though Believe was by-far the weakest Disturbed album yet). 2 years ago, "Ten Thousand Fists" was released which, to me, was Disturbed's finest and most polished work. In fact, it was the only album besides the Sickness that i've actually bought! Needless to say, i'm not the biggest Disturbed fan to ever walk the Earth but have enjoyed their works and given them all a careful listen.
Which brings us to "Indestructible"...1stly, Indestructible? Couldn't they have spent more than like 10 minutes coming up with a title? Does this poor title really reflect the quality of the music? Well, no actually. Admitedly I wasn't expecting much from Disturbed this time around. I'd heard "Inside the Fire" and "Perfect Insanity" before the album dropped and wasn't overly impressed. Sure their catchy tracks and probably stronger than the majority of the rest of the album but Disturbed put so much effort into their last album that it kinda overshadows what they've done on Indestructible. What we have here is a typical modern rock record with nothing new, or inspiring to offer but some decent listens that should keep fan-boys listening for months, and the rest of us listening for a week or so...
The album opens with the title track
"Indestructible". The first thing we hear is the war-sounds similar to Metallica's "One" or Slipknot's "Pulse of the Maggots". After about 30 seconds were given the typical Disturbed riffing and David's voice coming in shortly after. The biggest tiff I have about this track is that it's your typical American soldier anthem about the conflict in the Middle Seas and its a bandwagon that more and more bands seem to be jumping on. If you want a conparison just listen to Drowning Pool's "Soldiers". At least this is better than anything Drowning Pool's ever done...but I digress. Next we move into
"Inside the Fire" which is a song David Draiman wrote about suicide. If you watch the video its kinda hard not to laugh because they kinda turn it into a public-service announcement and in the end just kinda comes off as cheesy. However the guitar work in this track is what makes it a standout on the album. I can honestly say the solo in this song is rather impressive for Disturbed.
"Deceiver" gives us a cool guitar/drum intro and Draiman's enraged voice growling: "you've been caught in a lie!/you can't deny it!". This song is catchy and has a great chorus but like the rest of the album, offers nothing that will give it much replay value.
"The Night" has a great intro of guitars from Mr. Dan Donegan with Draiman's voice hauntingly whining a verse and giving a chorus that offers a glimmer of power.
"Perfect Insanity" is a remake of an old Disturbed song that I suppose was never officially released until now. It is by-far one of the best the album has to offer giving you a sense of classic Disturbed that we had on their debut. The drum opener is cool and the guitar riffing, while repetitive which seems to be Disturbed's style, is cool and crisp. This song is just pleasing from begining to end.
"Haunted" is one of my favorite songs on the entire release and seems to bring back what was given on Ten Thousand Fists. The verse seems desperate, and the chorus is hopeful as Draiman sings of a world that is forcing him under. The drums in this song only add to it's intensity as Mike Wengren double-kicks over the majority of the track. After Haunted the record only seems to go downhill...tracks like
"Enough", and
"Torn" had potential to be great but Draiman, as well as the rest of the group, seems to be trying too hard at this point to keep things interesting.
"The Curse" and
"Criminal" are pretty decent tracks and basically are the only thing keeping the record alive at this point (though Criminal's lyrics are almost laughably bad: "Now you want to know/You want a name/You want to call me motherf**ker") and as we move into the final two tracks:
"Divide" offers some old school "Droppin' Plates" style rap verse with a chorus that screams teenage angst and a pretty impressive guitar solo.
"Facade" is a pretty bland end for this record as was "Avarice" on Ten Thousand Fists which adds little but boredom and repetition to the album.
In the end, Indestructible delivers exactly what it set out to be to a certain degree: a decent rock release to keep the fans listening. It is however the exact same sh*t we've been hearing since their debut and to me their sound is getting kinda old and repetive. After 4 albums, and the death of the nu-metal genre, perhaps its time to either switch their style up a bit, or throw in the towel?
