Yep. I own some Disturbed. Physical copies even. Why, the elitist snobs might ask? Because I enjoyed the music, why else? When Disturbed broke through with the Sickness I was 30 and too old to be a scene kid at the time. They were a melodic metal band at a time when nu metal was trying to cement it's legacy and really just being a bunch of douches. After not hearing anything for so many years that made me want to revisit metal or hard rock and see what was out there, Disturbed was a breath of fresh air. When Believe came out it was a softer album then the first with even more melodic passage and catchy hooks so I thought these guys could be my new modern favorite. And it pretty much was so through the third album until I started really becoming aware of what else was out there on the metal scene.
Fast forward to now and I've discovered so many other bands that have more talent and creativity then Disturbed does. Disturbed has gotten used to being successful and it really shows on their latest effort Asylum if you want to call it an effort. There hasn't been any deviation from the last 3 albums and frankly I'm bored with them now. The songs are still catchy but when I'm saying to myself I've heard this before its time to move on. And I have. Thanks Disturbed for being the second generation gateway band for me and I will continue to listen to your music on my shuffle, but I'm seeing other people now. We can still be friends though right?
In what promises to be one of the biggest tours of the year Korn and Disturbed have announced the second leg of the 'Music as a Douche' tour. Arenas should be selling out with people that get their metal fix from their local radio stations and satellite radio providers. I still kind of want to see Disturbed and I saw Korn when they were brand spanking new and opening for Ozzy. But I'm not going to pay the 100 bucks it surely will cost to go to this. But I'm sure there a ton of people that want to so here are the dates after the jump.
03/08 Belton, TX – Bell County Expo Center
03/09 Las Cruces, TX – NMSU Pan American Center
03/11 Tucson, AZ – Tucson Convention Center
03/12 Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
03/13 Sacramento, CA – ARCO Arena
03/15 Portland, OR – Memorial Coliseum
03/17 Yakima, WA – Yakima Valley SunDome
03/18 Missoula, MT – Adams Center
Further stops for the second leg are currently pending. As previously reported, dates for the first leg of the trek can be found below:
01/14 Bloomington, IL – U.S. Cellular Coliseum
01/15 Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena
01/16 Rockford, IL – Rockford Metro Center
01/18 Hershey, PA – Giant Center
01/19 Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
01/21 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
01/22 West Long Branch, NJ – Monmouth University
01/23 Glens Falls, NY – Glen Falls Civic Center
01/25 Norfolk, VA – Constant Convocation Center
01/26 Morgantown, WV – West Virginia University
01/28 Uncasville, CT – Mohgean Sun Arena
01/29 Portland, ME – Cumberland County Civic Center
01/30 Atlantic City, NJ – House Of Blues
02/01 Winston-Salem, NC – LJV Coliseum
02/02 Fayetteville, NC – Crown Center Of Cumberland County
02/04 Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
02/05 Biloxi, MS – Mississippi Coast Coliseum
02/08 Corpus Christi, TX – Concrete Street Amphitheatre
02/09 San Antonio, TX – Illusion Theatre At Alamodome
02/10 McAllen, TX – McAllen Convention Center
02/12 Lubbock, TX – Fairpark Coliseum
Monster Uproar Festival Sleep Train Amphitheater (Sacramento, CA) 9/22/10
I’ve only been to this venue once or twice before… I can’t quite remember, it also doesn’t help that venue’s change their names with the coming and going of whomever has the most money to throw at them. Either way, I pretty much treated this venue as my first visit. I can honestly say, I’ve never been to a massive concert of this magnitude where you didn’t have to pay for parking, that was a nice surprise. You could pay $20.00 if you wanted for the deluxe parking, but fuck it.. that’s half a shirt.
I’ve been spoiled, I realized as I wandered around. I haven’t been to a major/festival concert in I don’t know how long. I’ve been attending local shows (in Sacramento), or seeing bands I adore, who might not be as popular here as I think they should be, at clubs in San Francisco. There was a LOT of people there. The line to the merch table took quite a while, though it seemed that if you wanted a tasty beverage or food, it wasn’t that long of a wait; then again, we got there about 4 or so, and the doors opened around 2ish.
After the concert necessary purchase of a tour shirt, and a five dollar bottle of water (rip off, as usual) for hydration for the day, we headed to the venue lazily. There were shows going on at the jagermeister stage, but considering the line up, I wasn’t going to waste my time and energy there. The line up, at various times were: The Chimpz, Hail the Villain, New Medicine, Airbourne and Hellyeah. I really could give a rat’s ass about all of them, since the only two reasons I was there was to see Hailstorm (again) and Avenged Sevenfold (first time).
There was also scheduled autographs at various locations, but, again, I could give a crap about any of them, even though I am quite the autograph whore. Halestorm WAS signing, but, since I already met them in Santa Rosa earlier this year, and got my autograph fill, I didn’t want to take the chance to lose my place in line and get a good spot in the front of the pitt. Don’t get my wrong, I would have loved to meet them again, and show support, but I weighed my options and I took the awesome spot over a handshake and an autographed mini-poster.
So, let’s jump ahead to where we’re actually in the Pit and waiting for the bands to play. So far, so good. Things are pretty laid back. Everyone is respecting eachother’s space and there’s no real crowding to the front of the mass. We stayed to the right side of the stage, just past the speakers and stuff, so we had not only a great view of the stage (without the angry mob pressing us into the rails, but we got to see what was going on behind the curtains before A7X played.
Halestorm started off first. The stage was empty, sans Arejay’s drum kit, but as soon as the stage appeared ready, you can hear Lzzy’s sultry vocal melodies from the speakers. She finally comes out on stage to say hey to us, while Arejay (dressed in an amazing band outfit with a skull mask), Joe Hottinger (Guitar) and Josh Smith (Bass) followed. I think, for starters, it seemed like not a lot of people knew who they were or liked them. That changed pretty quick as what started off with a few fists in the air, turned into a huge part of the crowd fist pumping, jumping up and down and throwing up the devil horns. They only had a 30 minute set, but they definitely made the most of their time.
I was really happy they performed my favourite song, A Familiar Taste of Poison. Before it started, Lzzy grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass, poured herself some, and toasted the fallen rock Gods we’ve lost this year. She never mentioned any names, but for me personally, I envisioned Dio, Paul Gray and Jimmy Sullivan as she drank the wine. Somewhere during the song she tossed the glass to a fan, which I thought was pretty awesome. Here’s a video of that performance (not filmed by me, because my camera sucks). Enjoy.
After that, Arejay had a nice little drum solo, which I was pretty much expecting, because he’s such a bad-ass and HIGHLY entertaining drummer. After his Animal attack on his drum kit, which gigantic drum sticks, the band came out and all banged away on these garbage can looking drums. It was pretty spectacular. Here’s a video (from another Uproar festival) to give you an idea of what I walk talking about and then tell me you don’t get an image of Animal (from the Muppet Show)..
I really thought they did an amazing job, and hopefully made some new fans. As for their set, here’s the list, painstakingly taken by me during the show.
It’s Not You Dirty Work Familiar Taste of Poison Arejay Drum Solo Nothing To Do With Love I Get Off
Following Halestorm was Stone Sour. I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan. Though I do like some Slipnot, I wasn’t impressed with Corey Taylor and his inability to command a stage. The songs they played were sometimes unfamiliar, sometimes recognizable, but for the most part, really uninspiring. Anyways, out of their setlist, which I did not write down as they played, they did this new song, which I am happy to say, I actually liked. This is their newest song, from their upcoming CD, called “Say You’ll Haunt Me”. Here’s a video of that performance, again not from me.
Skipping ahead to the main reason why I was there; Avenged Sevenfold. So, as I mentioned earlier, the stage was covered with a big black cloth to obscure the view from the majority of the crowd. What they didn’t see was the construction of the stage. An INCREDIBLY bad-ass backdrop of a haunted house, complete with brick veneer stands for the band to stand on as well as cemetery gates in front of the backdrop. They also didn’t see the magic happening. A man, being harnessed into a cable and climbing on a scaffolding. I had assumed he would be dropping something like snow or whatever cheesy image came into my mind. Once the lights went out and the curtain pulled back the crowd goes insane. As you can see from the video below, this is what happened to bring Nightmare to life.
They toured through past hits and newer songs from their latest CD and all the while I was amazed on how much time and effort Mike Portnoy took to really learn those songs. I’ve talked shit about him in the past, and though personally speaking, even though I’ll always prefer the Rev as a drummer, I have to give him some respect for what he did for A7X. That was really cool of him.
After about five songs, M. Shadows talked about his fallen brother, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, thanked Portnoy again and again, and dedicated the next song to him. The image in the back changed to a beautiful image of the band of brothers hugging it out, with Sullivan in the forefront. The image is also on their CD, Nightmare. It’s amazing. They asked everyone to light up lighters, cellphones, anything they had that gave off light for Jimmy and played this song “So Far Away”. It was a beautiful sight.. here’s a little bit of that moment.
Even though I can talk for hours about how amazing this show was, I have to jump to the last song, and something that really got the lump stuck in my throat, more that the heartfelt loss we all felt remembering the Rev, when they played the last song, Almost Easy, they had left Jimmy’s vocals in their and played them during the performance. For a moment, I had forgotten he was gone and looked for him at the drum kit. It was just the perfect way to end the evening..
All in all, this is one of the best shows I’ve been to in a long time. Though I missed Disturbed, because of having to get up early the next day, I really enjoyed this experience a LOT. I haven’t been to a large festival in a long time, having been relishing in the intimacy of bar shows and smaller venues for the past few years.. If you have a chance to catch anymore Uproar shows, I highly recommend you go.. And although I did take a LOT of pics, I really wanted to get this post in, to capture the essence of this amazing show from the cobwebs of my memories before they all faded away. I'll try to post a couple of them later.. keep an eye out for them. Here’s Avenged Sevenfold’s setlist (again, written down by me during the show) for your entertainment.
Nightmare Critical Acclaim Welcome to the Family Beast and the Harlot Buried Alive So Far Away Afterlife God Hates Us Unholy Confessions Almost Easy
Before I forget, I have to share this. Rockstar made a program for the events, sharing information about the bands, their music, the instruments they play and interviews and whatnot. Here's a brilliant pic, taken by my camera phone, of the Disturbed band interview and review. Read through it and check out Disurbed's new lead singer "Don Draiman". LOL FAIL.
It was a close one between Slayer and Disturbed but it appears the readers have spoken and Disturbed is the most over rated band out of the bunch. This is probably due to the fact that for three albums now Disturbed has churned out the same melodic hooks and generic riffs and seem to somehow sell a million records. All the while people on Facebook and Youtube are calling them the greatest band ever.
I guess it just shows that there are factions of people that are fine with the same old same old and have no desire to search out more interesting and intricate bands.And that the voters are tired of Draiman's lip spikes.
Thanks to everyone that voted and check back starting Monday where I put a few more victims on the judging block.
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.
I've got a alot of band pages I've fanned up so I can get live feeds from any news they may or may not have on Facebook. Sometimes it works out because I've occasionally received breaking news before Blabbermouth on a lineup change or a break up or a album release. Most of the time it's just clutter on the page though. I have my favorites and then I have some that I wish I could unlike. Let's start with the how not to do it after the jump.
Disturbed by far has the most annoying wall feeds. If you like your bands to be narcissistic and treat their fans like it's an issue of Teen Beat, then this is the page for you. Let's go over few status updates excluding the annoying spam for each and every show they're doing in England.
"TRIVIA: Who did the cover art for Disturbed's 2005 album "Ten Thousand Fists"? Umm...who really cares? If you like comic book art it was a cool cover but who is really obsessed with the band to know that?
"How many Disturbed albums are in your collection?" All of them so far but if I said none would you send the mafia at me? Seriously looking for self assurance that people buy your stuff guys?
" Have you pre-ordered Asylum yet? Which version did you get?" Seriously guys shut the fuck up. People are going to buy your shit. Relax.
In between these gems of personal interaction are behind the scene photos and merch whoring. And that's all fine but my main focus is on the status updates where someone is actually typing out something and not copy and pasting an update.
Now let's move to my favorite.
3 Inches of Blood treat the Facebook page like it's your coolest friend going out and partying every night. The kind of friend that listens to metal but geeks out on movies and videogames too. Here are samples.
"what makes a man, is it the woman in his arms? just cause she has big titties?
or is it the way, he fights every day? no, it's probably the titties" Truer words could not be spoken.
"MAGNUM FORCE rules! All hail Dirty Harry! -jhag" These guys are watching Clint Eastwood on the bus between shows. How cool is that?
" Show went pretty well in Virginia Beach today. Lots of cool fans at the signings, thanks for coming and saying hello. Can we please get one day where its stays cloudy all day?" See what I'm saying here? A very down to earth, personable, and gracious post.
Now they do post concert dates and any press they get which is fine and professional but they're not so self absorbed in themselves either. Now you may be asking why the hell I have Disturbed as a fanpage anyway. Because I like their music. As do millions of others. That is why in honor of 3 Inches of blood being the cool dudes that they are I'm going to not just do a link to their Myspace. I'm going to post a clickable banner so you can check out the new deluxe rerelease of Here Waits thy Doom. Because they deserve to sell as many albums as Disturbed does without losing their soul.
