From The Pit To the Album: Review of Disturbed’s ‘Evolution’

 

It’s not uncommon for artists to take their time before releasing new studio materials. And sometimes the wait is absolutely worth it. This holds true for Disturbed with their new album ‘Evolution’, which releases on October 19th. Their prior album, ‘Immortalized’, was released 5 years after ‘Asylum’. Luckily, Disturbed fans only had to wait 3 years for this new release. ‘Evolution’ brings Disturbed back working again with Kevin Churko, who also produced ‘Immortalized’. For a band who’s sold over 16 million albums, 5 albums certified Platinum, 2 Grammy nominations, and 12 #1 singles, you would think they’ve done it all. ‘Evolution’ will prove that wrong.

The first track “Are You Ready” has all the elements Disturbed fans expect with David Draiman’s guttural vocals, Dan Donegan’s and John Moyer’s heavy riffs, and Mike Wengren’s thundering drums. The track immediately grabs you for the wild ride and doesn’t let go. The song had over 4 million streams on Spotify and the video had over 4.5 million views on YouTube. As a fan of Disturbed, I can see this is a classic Disturbed song and there is no doubt as to why this song was a #1 single on Billboard. The following track of “No More” also has similar elements making it an excellent choice to follow “Are You Ready”.

Now, what did catch me off guard was “A Reason To Fight”. The third track starts off with a beautiful acoustic guitar and David’s melodic singing before ripping into a heavier sound. A song about fighting addiction and depression is a goosebump chilling ballad for Disturbed. There’s no doubt this song will be a huge hit and should be. It’s very well written with its powerful message for those struggling to keep going.

As you make your way through the rest of the album you’ll be in for a journey you didn’t expect. There are your expected rock tunes of “In Another Time”, “Savoir of None” and “Best Ones Lie”. I loved the little tribute to James Bond in Don’s guitar riff from “In Another Time”. See if you catch it. And then Disturbed presents more of their ballads with “Hold Onto The Memories”, “Watch You Burn”, and “Already Gone”. “Already Gone” has a similar sound to “The Sound of Silence” with David using his haunting deep vocals. All are absolute solid songs and I’m glad to see Disturbed provide more songs like these. The way the album is laid out the tracks alternate from heavy to softer from about track 5 and on.

If you pick up the Deluxe Edition of the album you get 4 additional songs. The first is a live version of “The Sound of Silence” that includes Myles Kennedy, vocalist from Alter Bridge, performing. David introduces Myles as “the Art Garfunkel to my Paul Simon”. If you haven’t been burnt out on this song yet, you’ll appreciate the duo’s performance. David’s deeper vocal to Myles’ higher falsetto’s is a great combination. “This Venom” is a good rock song for the band but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. There’s a remix of “Are You Ready” listed as the Sam de Jong remix. It has a very EDM sound to it and is a decent version though I think Disturbed fans will appreciate the original version more. The last bonus track is another ballad titled “Uninvited Guest”. It’s a well-composed ballad with David showing off his vocal range throughout the song and has what sounds like a full orchestra backing him up. This is one I wish was included on the normal edition as I really enjoyed this song.

‘Evolution’ is not your typical Disturbed album. This album shows the growth of the band reaching out into new territory and doing so successfully. With a nice blend of hard rock songs and ballads, ‘Evolution’ should be the band’s 6th consecutive #1 album. Though some hardcore Disturbed fans may think the band is going soft, they’re not. Give this album and chance and see another side of Disturbed that you will love as much as you do their hard rock.