, so I couldn't very well turn down listening to their latest.Maybe I should have.
The album is in the power metal influenced alt-metal style the band has favored ever since their sophomore release
. But they haven't been this ballad-heavy since that album--the only track that can't fairly be called a ballad is the title track, which, coming less than three minutes into the album, is easily the highlight. It's all downhill from there.To be fair, there are moments that the ballads are listenable. "Never Again" and "Innocence" could make the cut. But the vast majority of it is the weak side of Disturbed.
Worst of all, they did a cover of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", a disgustingly overrated song by a criminally overrated band led by a complete douchebag. This version is only a slight improvement over the original.
I started to wonder whether I remembered their past albums fairly, so I went back to listen to a bit. Even Indestructible
and Ten Thousand Fists
were much more muscular than this.The Verdict: It's 7 good minutes followed by 40 that aren't worthwhile. This is easily the band's weakest album, and I give it 2 out of 5 stars. I don't think I can consider myself a fan anymore.
I haven't considered myself a fan of this band since they released the second album. I didn't even give the last two the time of day. That cover sounds atrocious.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first found out this album was coming out, I shocked myself with my response. I wasn't excited at all, and considering they were--at one time several years ago--one of my ten favorite bands, that surprised me. But I thought I'd give it a chance anyway.
ReplyDeleteI remember feeling like that with a few different bands. That was the second indication that I was getting away from nu-metal. The first was when I realized that I needed to skip several tracks on albums I previously enjoyed in order to even listen to them. I suddenly stopped being able to listen to groups like Korn all the way through their albums.
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