### Disturbed: The sickness

#### 07/05/06 || Statik Majik

I already reviewed one album from Korn, so I might as well review more releases with the similar style. Ok, Disturbed isn’t a Korn-clone, but they sure as hell listened to a good dose of Rage Against The Machine and Korn when they formed back in… I actually don’t know. Or care. Nevertheless, the influences are there. So, you could label these fuckers nu-metal, if you like. I won’t. For me it’s just… well, good music. ( Note by The Lord:: A little tipsy again, are we? )

Metal, even. ( Note by The Lord: No, not tipsy. Completely fucken pissdrunk beyond comprehension it is, I see it now. )

The first time I heard Shitsturbed, I wondered what the hell was wrong with the singer. Seriously, there’s something stuck in David’s throat. A cactus maybe? Please, go see a doctor, that doesn’t sound very healthy, you know. The coughing sounds worst on “Down with the sickness”, which can be extremely painful to listen to before you get used to it. Otherwise I think he does a pretty fucken good job. Little less coughing and weird noises and a little more “normal” singing and it would be even better. Sure, he gets close to rap-like vocals sometimes, but it suits the songs. Yeah, there’s also the angst needed for this kind of music. And just enough (which is anything more than one) swearing words to get the “Parental advisory” sticker on the cover. I’m impressed. Really, I am. No sarcasm intended.

Right…

“The sickness” has loads of catchy tunes. One could say “catchy” to the point of irritation even. “Shout”, and especially “The game”, are perfect examples of this. “Voices” and “Stupify” are nearly as good too. Fortunately there’s not many weaker efforts on this fucker, “Want” is the only one that comes into my mind. “Meaning of life” might be a tad too experimental to some with all the samples and whatnot, but I’m not complaining.

Generally the guitars sound heavy, which is nice. The drummer does a decent job and so forth. Musicwise there’s nothing spectacular here, but it works. Fucken well, I might add.

Damn, I don’t know what else to say about this mofo of an album except that it’s entertaining. I like it. And it’s even better when you listen to it when you’re drunk. Or getting drunk. ( Note by The Lord: Which means you love this album 24/7. ) Yeah, most metal is. But the thing is, 95% of the times I’ve listened to this album was when I drank a few frosty ones with a good friend of mine. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is one of the few albums he’s willing to listen to from my cd-collection. He has a hard on for “Droppin’ plates”, which explains why I’m just a bit fed up with that one.

7,5 /10

PS. I do have some greetings to Disturbed’s label: I fucken hate when there’s a gazillion of different versions of one album and you fucken suck for being one of those companies who releases such things. How many versions did you do for “The sickness”? Three, I’m sure of, and even that’s two too many. That’s the reason why I used the “official” tracklisting for this release. Bonustracks up yer ass, bitch.

- Information
- Released: 2000
- Label: Giant
- Website: www.disturbed1.com
- Band
- David Draiman: vocals
- Dan Donegan: guitar
- Steve Kmak: bass
- Mike Wengren: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Voices
- 02. The game
- 03. Stupify
- 04. Down with the sickness
- 05. Violence fetish
- 06. Fear
- 07. Numb
- 08. Want
- 09. Conflict
- 10. Shout 2000
- 11. Droppin’ plates
- 12. Meaning of life