Album Review: Disturbed - Immortalized

Four short years ago we witnessed a last hurrah from nu-metal staples Disturbed with the announcement of an indefinite hiatus. Out of nowhere now, however, we've been delivered their latest long-player and if you're expecting a revitalised and unique take on the modern metal spectrum, you're fucking wrong.

Immortalized has followed the band's defined style so intently it's borderline insulting. With the same apocalyptic battlefield lyrics, heavy, strobing flange-filtered guitar breakdowns and stadium-aimed fist-pump choruses, this record is as close to a reach-for-listeners'-wallets as you're likely to see without even an attempt at originality or creative thought. Lead single The Vengeful One has such an incredibly rehashed riff that it could pass as a modern Whitesnake B-side, the cliched mid-record rock ballad is gleefully filled with The Light, and if you wondered what 55 seconds of David Draiman taking bong hits would sound like, the intro to Fire It Up will leave you wondering no more. Even the attempt at recapturing the lofty heights of previous covers is taken care of with a rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound Of Silence.

Where previous records Ten Thousand Fists and The Sickness had a tightly polished heavy aesthetic that was able to push them into mainstream listening with the accompaniment of Draiman's powerful, angry vocals, Immortalized is so void of these emotive concepts it'll be more suited to the rolling credit soundtrack to a Uwe Boll film.

Let's all just move on and pretend this never happened.