Review Summary: Presenting their very best to the world, Believe has been beautifully arranged and features the constant presence of emotion. Raw and real in every way.
Create equilibrium over anything and you've got something special.
Believe is the follow-up to the hit debut album from Disturbed, entitled
The Sickness. The band returns (with their second studio effort) with something that is clear in their mind: the formation of a balanced album. This is a difficult task for many bands. It's easy to write radio-friendly songs that are set-up to top the charts, but it has always been a difficult task to make an album that is solid all around.
Believe has equilibrium.
Songwriting is key in this album and Draiman sings the written words like a voice erupting from the skies above. There is a sense of importance to each song on the album, there are single words that are repeated to great effect and power. For example:
Remember immediately recalls
Believe with the strong "And try to believe" line, while the word "darkness" begins to make an appearance in various tracks and helps lead to the masterful closer. Simplicity is key and Disturbed make the most of it with words that they can easily wrap meaning and story around.
The album has been arranged perfectly and that's where the true strength of it lies. The single words of each song name connect each song together and make the album feel more like a story and less like a random compilation of tracks. I had a major problem with their third album,
Ten Thousand Fists, feeling like a random compilation. You could differ between songs that were obvious "filler" material and songs that were written from the heart (majority being used as singles to promote the album). With
Believe, it's extremely difficult to find a song that "feels" like a generic single.
The songs bring various moods to the table. There is anger presented within the roots of
Intoxication, which is resolved beautifully with a confrontation of sorts.
Awaken feels like the classic predecessor to
Ten Thousand Fist's power-packed
Stricken. Great intensity arises in
Rise, as
Remember is all about careful reflection and is absolutely sweeping during its chorus.
There is nothing overly political about this album (alike there was in
Ten Thousand Fists with
Deify), it presents dark and mature themes to its audience and is energized with raw and real emotion. Anger, confrontation, intensity, reflection, they all arise throughout the experience.
Believe is an experience. Never is there a moment that doesn't feel true to the members. There is always the growing sense of solitude within the tracks,
Darkness bookends the theme perfectly with the words "on my own" and leaves you heart-broken within an album that will linger long in your mind.
