Devil's Review: Disturbed - Asylum

I think Disturbed has finally hit that longevity point where they've stopped growing and figured "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Currently I'm sitting through my second listen to the new Asylum cd to see if I get a different impression then I did the first time around. And no....not really.I get really annoyed with bands that claim in interviews that the new album is more mature and darker then anything they've ever done and when you listen to it it's like 'where are you getting that shit from?'.

What we have here is an album with an unoriginal title,a token environmental message, and the same recycled vocalizations that Draiman has done on every album since Believe. It's evident that the focus is strickly on Dave's vocals because the guitars are kept low in the mix and even when you can hear them it's fairly generic riffing that's been done before. I guess to balance this out there is more soloing then previous efforts which again is uninspired.Speaking of Dave's vocals again the one thing that is lacking is the different squawks and screeches first popularized in the Sickness during every song. I guess in Disturbed's world this is considered maturing and growing by leaving that stuff out.

By now I guess it comes down to this. If you're a long time Disturbed fan but a casual music listener you'll like this. If you're new to Disturbed you'll like this if you like not too heavy but melodic hard rock music. But if you're someone who gets band fatigue by listening to the same recycled stuff over and over then you'll want to pass on this. I fall into the latter category.

Here is the new video for Asylum after the jump. This song pretty much encapsulates everything I've said in this review. If you don't know where to pick this cd up then you shouldn't be listening to music because it's everywhere.