Disturbed Indestructible CD

Disturbed: David Draiman (vocals); Dan Donegan (guitar, electronics); John Moyer (bass guitar); Mike Wengren (drums).
Audio Mixer: Neal Avron.
Recording information: Groovemaster, Chicago, IL.
Photographer: Joey Lawrence.
Disturbed is one of the few bands that can be uncompromisingly cynical and captivatingly inspirational at the same time. If 2005's TEN THOUSAND FISTS was a call to arms, then INDESTRUCTIBLE is a rampaging battle cry. Disturbed enters the melee with all guns blazing and refuses to grant mercy up until the very last track.The band seems to abhor the notion of "filler," so each track on INDESTRUCTIBLE was crafted with forceful purpose. The simple chord changes are brutal, lucid, and infectious; the production is crisp and the vocal arrangements venomous, beating the listener into pleasurable submission.
Disturbed's fourth full-length offering announces its arrival with an air-raid siren. It's an appropriate gesture for the popular Chicago-based metal collective, whose rapid ascension from buzzed-about Ozzfest highlight to commercial hard rock juggernaut has been as divisive as it has been impressive. While Indestructible doesn't meddle with the melodic hard-hitting Pantera-inspired formula that fueled its predecessors, the dreaded nu-metal tag that followed the band out of the turn of the century seems wholly eradicated. If anything, Disturbed owe more to early-'90s Metallica and Brian Johnson-era AC/DC than they do Tool or Korn, as each staccato, tech-heavy riff is balanced out by some truly artful soloing and frontman David Draiman's mean and melodious pipes. Standout cuts like "Inside the Fire," "Deceiver, " "The Curse," and the skull-cracking title track, even though they could have appeared on any of the group's first three records, still manage to fire on every cylinder. Like its closest contemporary, Godsmack, this is a band that favors reliability over experimentation, and each piece of Indestructible, whether it's the pseudo-horror/fantasy artwork, the drop-D riffing, or the obligatory "shout-outs" in the liner notes to the purveyors of each member's gear endorsement deals, fits together like the world's most obvious puzzle. That said, there's a reason each of the group's previous albums bested the million mark, and with metal growing increasingly self-aware and divided between hardcore and hard rock, a new Disturbed record seems like a solid foundation on which to duke it out. ~ James Christopher MongerKerrang (Magazine) (p.46) - "[D]elivered in Draiman's powerful and undeniably melodic voice....[There are] musical gems scattered throughout..."