Disturbed

OOH-WAH-AH-AH-AH!! Chicago’s premier heavy metal band Disturbed are one of those bands that have to been seen live to fully appreciate what they’re all about. On record and, in particular, in the press, singer Mad Davey Draiman (as he’s unaffectionately known here in the UK, much to the singer’s dislike) and Disturbed’s brand of chugging nu-metal-esque alternative rock can come across as clumsy and silly.
But I have been a believer ever since I first saw them peddling their Believe album at Brixton Academy in 2002 (supported by the Darkness, would you believe!). On the stage, David Draiman’s vocals excel, whether furiously barking or hitting those high near-classical notes, and the power of those chugging riffs suddenly exude power like Pantera at their most accessible. The choruses of old favourties like ‘Voices’, ‘Stupify’, the insane ‘Down With The Sickness’ and ‘Prayer’ have aged better than you might imagine, and more recently they have delivered more ‘serious’, thrash metal-inspired songs like ‘Asylum’ and ‘Indestructible’, which took them to arenas in both the US and the UK.
The band are currently on hiatus, but I fully expect them to come back louder and more inspired than ever, as the metal world is a much less interesting place without the ramblings of Draiman and his cohorts; it took them leaving for us to realise it.