Disturbed
Asylum

Release Date: 2010 | Tracklist

’Solid’ is the name of the game for both Asylum and Disturbed as a whole. Since 2002’s Believe, the band has been putting out good records back to back. While keeping the core of their sound the same, Disturbed have gradually been working on the little details and have improved with each record, with Asylum’s predecessor Indestructible being their greatest work so far. Taking into account the band's constant improvement in the past, Asylum could have turned out as the band’s best work to date. Well, let me tell you right now that it isn’t.

Asylum is the first Disturbed album that visibly has no new features (except the two and a half minute instrumental at the start of the disc). Donegan's guitar work is very reminiscent of Indestructible (good rhythmic riffs and excellent solos), the lyrics are in typical Disturbed fashion, being akin to Believe and Indestructible, and the overall feel of Asylum is very much alike to its predecessor, too. Not much has changed for Disturbed during the last two years. So what does this lack of progression result in? Nothing new really, just another good Disturbed album.

Even though the general reception for Asylum has been fairly positive so far, I’ve already read some reviews that are criticizing Disturbed for the lack of said progression, and are labeling Asylum as "watered down" and "recycled". In all honesty, I can't see this being neither. Even though the core sound of Disturbed, as mentioned above, has remained the same since Believe, the band has never stopped progressing (until now); never have the members taken the back seat and stopped working on the little things. Songwriting, Donegan’s guitar work, Wengren's drumming, Draiman's vocals - they have all improved with each album. With that in mind, my guess is that since Indestructible turned out so well, and the band was so content with the result, the members thought they’ll have another crack at that same formula. Does that necessarily make them lazy and unmotivated? No, that just means they wanted to make an album as good as the previous one.

You can’t really bag a band for trying to reproduce their best work - in this case Indestructible – in order to achieve a result as good. Yes, Asylum is mainly Indestructible vol. 2 and yes, it is inferior, but to call it watered down or just plain bad doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you liked the band’s last outing (and it also makes no sense to do the exact opposite). Asylum features most of the qualities that made Indestructible so good: catchy, rhythmic guitar work, Donegan's constant efforts to spice up the guitar section by adding more prominent leads and solos, Draiman’s commanding vocals and presence, a somewhat dark undercurrent etc. All this brings us to the conclusion that Asylum is nothing more than an album for the band’s fans. Those who liked Disturbed before will also like this, and those who disliked them before are going to hate this.

If we look into the band members' individual performance on Asylum, we will find that there aren’t any big differences compared to their last release. The only big aberrance that catches the ear, or more appropriately, doesn’t, is Wengren’s drumming, which to this point had become more and more commanding with each new album Disturbed put out. Even though he does a good enough job on keeping the pace and adding decent fills on Asylum, it all sounds a bit safe by his standards and you don't notice him nearly as much as on Indestructible. This is where the bad thankfully ends though. Draiman is as good as ever, displaying some of the best melodic singing he has ever done, Donegan is at exactly the same good level he was on Indestructible, belting out enjoyable guitar lines in almost every song, and Moyer does a good job of being exactly as unremarkable as always. He’s not bad, just nothing special either, but hey, at least he’s good at being consistent.

The songs themselves on Asylum are divided between great and decent but nothing special (like on every other Disturbed record). Thankfully the tracklist is pretty cleverly done, so the more run of the mill cuts, like "Never Again", "Sacrifice" and "My Child", don’t bring the overall quality down too much. The tracklisting is also good in the sense that both the first and the second half of the album have an almost equal amount of good tracks, meaning that despite a few weaker cuts, Asylum should be able to hold the listener's attention throughout its runtime.

With the great tracks bringing us catchy, rhythmic metal tunes with good vox, and the weaker ones being decently played, if somewhat underwhelming cuts, there isn’t a whole lot more to say about Asylum then I already have. Disturbed are still Disturbed – you’ll either love them or completely hate them, like it always has been, like it always will be. Fact is Asylum is a Disturbed record through and through; it has its enjoyable parts, it has its boring parts, but as a whole, it is another solid outing from a rare commercial metal band that is actually good.

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2.8 good

Rank: #0 for 2010