DISTURBED — Indestructible (review)

Album · 2008 · Alternative Metal

4.5/5 · 2010-03-16
vivalamainstream

Today Disturbed dropped their Indestructible, their fourth studio album. The band had already promised a heavier, angrier album than anything we've heard from them to date, and in hearing lead singer David Draiman talk about the inspiration for the album (up to an including an old girlfriend's suicide, a fire that burned his garage and motorcycles, among other things), it's understandable where it's coming from. As someone who wasn't blown away by Ten Thousand Fists and still thinks Believe was the best Disturbed CD (and a sorely underappreciated album in general), I was simultaneously curious and excited to see where this darker turn would lead. After being amazed by leadoff single "Inside the Fire" and loving the album artwork, I was prepared to accept whatever else Disturbed offered up for Indestructible.

The album opens up with the title track, whose intro bears an uncanny resemblance to the beginning of Apocalypse Now (more specifically, The Doors' "The End). A rather appropriate way to lead things off. "Indestructible" is exactly the sort of "Eff You" anthem Disturbed likes to get things started off with. From there it goes into "Inside the Fire", which I still think might be the best Disturbed single of their career thus far. It's also one of the most traditionally metal things this band has ever written. Between this song and "Perfect Insanity", Disturbed's transformation from a early 00's nu-metal band into a respectable, true metal band is complete. Dan Donegan's guitar solos are incendiary, and drummer Mike Wengren has come into his own with this album, double-bass pedals and all. A number of times during my first listen of Indestructible, I had to ask myself, "Are these REALLY the same guys who scored a hit off 'Down With the Sickness'?"

That's not to say that Disturbed have totally reinvented themselves. "Criminal" still shows shades of something from The Sickness, and Draiman isn't afraid to go animal on us and unleash that absurd "Monkey from 28 Days Later" scream, only now it's better placed than in the past. Disturbed manage to successfully create an album that, albeit dark and heavy, stops short of being depressing. Overall the music here would fall into the category of metal, but it's not the stereotypical death metal that gets Christian groups all uppity. Think more Ozzy, less Morbid Angel.

(Full disclosure: I had to wikipedia a list of death metal bands to finish that analogy. Seeings how I don't listen to much of any of those, needed some help. Judge me all you want)

Without a doubt the best song on this album is "The Night". This track shows David Draiman at the absolute top of his game, getting into the higher reaches of his voice without it ever losing that raw edge that the song needs. The hooks are brilliant, and while it may not have the best potential for a hit single, is easily the most memorable song on the album behind "Inside the Fire". It, along with most of the rest of this album, would be an amazing experience to hear done live.

Indestructible is a 12-track long freight train of an album that gets its momentum from minute one and rarely stops to refuel. The complaints are in large part negligible, mostly just tracks and lyrics that don't stack up to the rest of the album. I'd like to see Disturbed play a bit more with track length; everything on this album hovers between 3:30 and 4:30, and I would love to see what they did with a quick sub-3 minute ballbuster or perhaps something more epic. But by the time "Facade" comes to its abrupt end to close the LP, Disturbed have done everything they set out to do with Indestructible, and most importantly, they've almost certainly pleased a number of fans.