Disturbed have followed up their big debut The Sickness with Believe, a strong sophomore release, which achieves that often hard-to-reach balance: continuing with the sound that made them big without merely repeating their previous work. I think the band has really grown musically with this album, but it is familiar enough so that anyone who liked the last album will still enjoy this one.

Hopefully with Believe the band will stop being grouped in with the whole “new metal,” or “nu” or “gnu” or however you spell it, scene. Disturbed’s sound is straight up metal. I think what confuses a lot of people is that the vocals are often somewhere in between singing and rapping but not really either. Dave Draiman’s voice is very unique in the way he drones, screams, and grunts his way through songs. There’s no mistaking his voice for anyone else’s, and there shouldn’t be any mistaking it for rap-metal.

This album definitely has more singing than the last one. Draiman’s vocal range is taken to all extremes on Believe. He gives us some of the old deep, gritty screams like before, but he goes surprisingly soft on the last track, Darkness. There’s a lot less crazy grunts than before, but some are still scattered throughout. Most of the album is spent in more of a medium tone, which is good in that it shows Draiman is about more than just crazy grunts – he can actually sing.

Prayer, the opening track and first single, is the same hard, screaming Disturbed we know and love but with a bit more of a melodic nature. I think this song has some great lyrics: “Another dream that will never come true/ Just to compliment your sorrow/ … Another nightmare about to come true/ Will manifest tomorrow.” They add to that sinister feel that comes out in a lot of the band’s songs.

The album’s closer will come as a total shock. As I mentioned earlier, Darkness is a very slow and sad song. As recognizable as Draiman’s voice is, you would never know it’s him. It’s softer and higher than any line I’ve ever heard him sing before. Excellent acoustic guitar playing by Dan Donegan, and Alison Chesley’s cello adds to the haunting atmosphere. This is totally different but a great way to end the album.

Some other standout tracks are Liberate, Rise, and Intoxication. These are some of the heavier ones. As is the case with most of the album, the music and vocals are fast and heavy but melodic, and the lyrics are pretty cool too.

Instead of lyrics about violence, demons, abuse, and madness, Disturbed have penned more spiritually driven lines this time. They mention God and how “penance can’t absolve your sin.” The most positive lines come from Liberate, a song about tolerance: “Liberate your mind/ You motherf*cker/ You’re so narrow-minded.” The majority of the lyrics, however, are their usual gothic, somewhat cryptic lines, which are not spectacular but certainly better than most lyrics of the recent metal scene.

I guess my only real con for this album would be that it’s not The Sickness. Some people found the grunts annoying, but I felt they were an interesting characteristic of the band’s sound, and I wish there were more here. There’s plenty of hard stuff on Believe, but I was hoping for more of the aggression and insanity that was on their last album. Oh well, I can’t complain too much because this is still a very good album that exhibits a surprising amount of growth for Disturbed.

If you don’t see the music itself as a sign of growth, then you need to read the paragraph that runs down the middle of the lyric sheet. Inspired by September 11, the band wrote this uplifting message that urges everyone to never abandon hope, even in this age of destruction.

The band that once told us to “get down with the sickness” is now telling us to “believe.” Now that’s growth. I do miss the sickness, though.


Also from Disturbed:

Indestructible



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving

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