Album Review: Disturbed - 'Immortalized'

Another Disturbed album means yet another chart-topping success for the Chicago nu-metal/hard rock four-piece. ‘Immortalized’, which has a cover that would best suit the next Transformers movie (seriously, I can’t be the only one who sees a resemblance to Megatron, can I?), is 13 songs of pure, unadulterated Disturbed. Chunky riffs and huge tight grooves, David Draiman‘s signature vocals, you know: run-of-the-mill Disturbed. And that is both this album’s biggest achievement and also its biggest downfall.

This album is such a give and take listen. The title track and lead single ‘The Vengeful One’ (arguably the best song on the album) kicks things off, following the barely mentionable brief intro of ‘The Eye Of The Storm’, and they’re the monolithic rocking songs that fans and haters alike will expect from Disturbed. For all of the clichéd elements of the band’s more “typical” songs, like ‘The Vengeful One’, ‘What Are You Waiting For’, ‘Save Our Last Goodbye’, and ‘Who‘, they’re still bangers in their own right, and they really dig their hooks into your ears.

Yet songs like the cringe-worthy, mid-tempo ‘Fire It Up’, a dive into the mind of the band’s frontman and his love of da Ganga man, the poppy, melodic ballad of ‘The Light‘, as well as the over-produced ‘You’re Mine’ are where the record falls flat on its giant, bloated face. This reviewer really is glad that the band is trying something a little different but goddamn, this is just sad to see. Plus, some songs are just downright boring and don’t go anywhere, like the numbingly dull ‘Open Your Eyes’. The gunshot to commence the race has gone off but some of these songs just stand awkwardly still, hoping no one notices that they’re stagnant as all fuck.

However, there is one real odd-ball track, and that’s their rather grand and dynamic cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’, complete with piano, strings and acoustic guitar. It’s definitely a weird choice for a band like Disturbed to cover, but it shows that they really are capable of more than just the generic rock hits they’re mainly known for offering up.

Five years since their last effort, 'Immortalized' reveals that perhaps Disturbed peaked with 'Indestructible', and are now trying to retain that achievement. This is 13 songs that are really, really for the fans, but even then, these are some of the dullest songs and prior to their four year hiatus, this reviewer would never have thought that possible of a band like Disturbed. Call it quits or blow people's expectations out of the water with the next record? The balls in your court, Disturbed.

1. The Eye Of The Storm

2. Immortalized

3. The Vengeful One

4. Open Your Eyes

5. The Light

6. What Are You Waiting For

7. You’re Mine

8. Who

9. Save Our Last Goodbye

10. Fire It Up

11. The Sound Of Silence

12. Never Wrong

13. Who Taught You How To Hate