I am a greedy little girl.

I probably have the mentality of a two-year-old when I don't get something I want and/or if I get something that turns out to be really crummy. I've probably been called every variation of the term 'spoiled brat' in the universe, and I still get gritted-teeth-glares all the time for it.

When it comes to bands I love, this greed emerges fully and more insane than ever. I have high expectations for stuff that involves Disturbed. So even when I got this lame-looking little "interview CD" by the name of Maximum Disturbed, I wanted it to be GOOD. I wanted to actually learn stuff about the band that I didn't know previously. I mean, hello? maximum = most = a lot = good. Sigh. Hello, Bad Purchase #32,028.

I knew that Maximum Disturbed was unauthorized and didn't contain music by the band or anything like that. I do read before buying, but I still assumed this would be a worthwhile purchase. This belief was even heightened when I saw the attractive bold print that read "FREE MINI-POSTER!" on the outside. Of course, I was not about to pass up a chance to plaster yet another David Draiman on my wall -- besides, I was still making the assumption that this would be a COOL interview CD. My stupidity truly amazes me sometimes.

One of Maximum Disturbed's finer points is the description of the band inside. It's not like I needed another spoon-fed, generic biography, but I truly enjoy the way that Michael Sumsion (the writer of this 'documentary') described Disturbed's sound: "Disturbed weld breakneck speedbursts to unerringly infectious melodies carried by the vocals of David Draiman, who often sounds as if he's gargled battery acid before each take." I love that description. The little bio-description thing in the liner booklet thing isn't too long, but I totally like it.

As for the audio, ahem. Maximum Disturbed has 10 little "interview" tracks, which are unfortunately mostly comprised of Brad Shaw's annoying dialogue -- and honestly, it's quite obvious the dude doesn't give two flying spoons about Disturbed -- and STUPID techno music to divide the little segments. The good parts are very few. Most of David's "interview" parts are three seconds long, and Maximum Disturbed instead opts to focus on narrator Shaw's obnoxious intonations, rambling on and on about the same stuff that any Disturbed fan, even a casual one, has heard fifty thousand times before.

There are a few glittering little moments though that made me temporarily happy. In the segment titled Giant Steps, David, ever the outspoken Disturbed vocalist, insists, "What people call 'evil' is just another word for interesting." Not only that, listening to this CD on headphones makes it kinda feel like you're on the phone with David... but most of the time, Brad Shaw intercepts with his ANNOYING, monotonous, narration, so it kinda kills the bliss...but one can dream. In Diagnosing the Sickness, we get a tiny, tiny clip of David and Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan discussing how a fan got them to sign his prosthetic leg at one memorable autograph signing. I knew of this previously, but it's still kind of a nice treat to hear them talk about it.

Keep on Keeping On gives us an insight on David's view on pain, life experiences, and weakness. Contrary to what one might initially think of Disturbed as a band, David is actually extremely intelligent, well-spoken and sounds like he knows he's talking about. So it's really nice to hear him actually TALK for a moment - but then we're sucked back into the narration, in which we find out nothing new. The Beat Goes On surprisingly gives us a David interview clip longer than 5 seconds -- he talks about his greatest concert experience, at a Black Sabbath show -- "...and they were playing Black Sabbath. All you could hear was the bell - it was silent, eerily silent." Predictably enough, though, things dive immediately back into the narration. Color me redundant, but uh, this claims to be "The Full Story WITH INTERVIEWS". Three-second clips every random once in a while, I don't consider an interview. Do you?

Maximum Disturbed claims to be a detailed recording that gives detailed, interesting background on the band and is supposedly loaded with interview footage. The 10 segments on this compact disc clock in anywhere from 2:45 to 15:18, and the listener is stuck listening to Brad Shaw droning on and on about the basic history of Disturbed that anyone knows -- with "interview clips" that are actually from the band only showing up for 3 to 10 seconds, every once in a while. Deceptive, possibly. Maybe it was just a stupid purchase on my part, but at least now I can give a huge warning to other Disturbed fans: Stay away from this, as it is NOT a necessity to your Disturbed collection - if you're that in need of interview footage, there are plenty extensive *gasp* detailed *gasp* interviews with ALL FOUR *gasp* Disturbed members ALL over the good ol' World Wide Web. Ahhhh.

More Disturbed:

The Sickness
Stupify [single]
Believe
M.O.L.
Music As A Weapon II






Recommended: No