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Disturbed succeeds
best where they
stick with the old

> ‘Evolution’ album review

Caroline Ho
Assistant Editor

kek YY

Des its ambitious and promising
title, Disturbed’s newest album
Evolution conveys less of a ground-
breaking, style-redefining transformation
and more of a phase that is a little awkward
to witness.

The hard rock/metal band’s seventh
studio album, released on October 19,
follows on the heels of 2015's Immortalized.
While Disturbed’s sound has deepened
and thematically intensified since their
signature “Down with the Sickness”
hit airwaves in 2000, Evolution marks a
significant and not wholly effective tonal
departure.

Admittedly, their aggressive, hard-
hitting sound had grown a little too
consistent over six previous albums—and
I say this as a completely shameless fan
of Disturbed in all their early-z000s nu
metal derivativeness. Evolution still carries
plenty of this familiar forceful energy, but
the band’s commercially successful cover
of “The Sound of Silence” on Immortalized
has also given them license on this new
record to try out some softer, more melodic

 

Nothing But Thieves’

Sonam Kaloti
Arts Editor

keen

Re music just keeps on getting better.
othing But Thieves released a new
EP on October 19 titled What Did You
Think When You Made Me This Way? On
their Instagram they announced that they
are disappointingly “hibernating for a big
chunk of next year and this is the last bit of
new music [were] gonna get from [them].
Although it consists of (sadly) only four
songs, each one is worth an entire album.
The songs are “Forever & Ever More”,
“Gods”, “You Know Me Too Well’, and “Take
This Lonely Heart”.

The EP is 100 percent a quality over
quantity situation. It is heavy compared
to most of their popular work, but it ison
par with my favourite song off their last
record Broken Machine, “Number 13”. Like
that song, in this EP the bass lines are
intense, the drums are banging, the guitars
are shredding, and the vocals—don't even
get me started. The band is made up of

 

songs.

The opening track and lead single,
“Are You Ready,” starts the album
off strongly and rousingly. With its
invigorating pace, pulsing drums and
riffs, and a chorus that calls its listeners to
action, this one’s a solidly heavy track that
lines up right with any of the band’s older
material. It’s followed up by “No More,”
another familiar-sounding but true-to-
form addition to Disturbed’s repertoire.
Frontman David Draiman delivers the
vocals with his usual ruthless vivacity as he
rails against a mindlessly greedy political
system.

Evolution changes gears with “A
Reason to Fight,’ the second single, which
is one of this album’s better attempts at
exploring a more tender side. The track
starts off with a simple acoustic guitar
and builds in strength as the lyrics sing
of conquering inner demons together.

As far as rock ballads go, it’s a decent

and genuinely passionate song. Lyrically
and thematically this track isn’t the most
innovative, but it is catchy enough for lines
like “When the demon that’s inside you is
ready to begin / And it feels like a battle
that you will never win’ to resonate.

Unfortunately, the album’s other
more ballad-esque offerings fall far shorter.

frve members: frontman Conor Mason on
vocals and guitar, guitarist Joe Langridge-
Brown, guitarist and keyboardist Dominic
Craik, bassist Philip Blake, and drummer
James Price. As Mason sings in “Take This
Lonely Heart”, they’ve “got a message that
you can't ignore’—and within these songs,
the messages speak measures.

“Forever & Ever More” was released
early as a single and works well for the
Halloween season. It is about falling in
love with a vampire, characterized by
the lines “What did you think when you
love me this way?” and “We'll be together
forever and ever and more.” A little more
obviously, there’s also the line “Hold me
close my little Draculove.” The music
video for this single follows a feverish man,
looking confused and angry as he adjusts

to becoming a vampire. It has many artistic

shots including being underwater, looking
at the sun, and close-ups of skin. Visually,
the video switches from muted colours
and grainy shots to harsh single colours
like reds and blues. The meaning could
be interpreted as struggling with a toxic
relationship.

“Gods” is my favourite song on the

 

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“Hold On to Memories” sounds about as
generic as you can get for an acoustic, triple
metre tune—not terrible, but nothing that
you wouldn't hear plopped in the middle
of any other rock album for a token stab

at variety. The same goes for “Uninvited

Guest,” only available on the deluxe edition.

In addition to featuring some dubious
harmonies in the vocals, “Uninvited Guest”
also contains verses and a chorus laden
with unambiguously bland lyrics.

These softer experiments are woven
between heavier, standard Disturbed fare,
such as with the swift, gritty delivery of
verses in the track “In Another Time.”
Resentfulness and retaliation abound in
“Saviour of Nothing.” The song echoes
a familiar theme in Disturbed’s songs
of being beaten down by a cold world,
sung with a bracing level of simmering
resilience.

“The Best Ones Lie” brings the best
the band has to offer: solid nu metal
groove, societally disenchanted lyrics
delivered with cutting staccato intensity,
and an infectious chorus melody that
already sounds like it deserves radio

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¢ YouTube Music Video Classics: Two
current Japanese hits

..and more!

‘Evolution’ aloum cover

overplay. Once again, the group’s

made similar hits previously, but they
consistently make them well and this

track sounds to be an even stronger, more
assertive, and more mature development of
their style.

The regular, non-deluxe edition of
Evolution ends on the disappointing note
of “Already Gone.’ This slow serenade drips
with overwrought melodrama, aiming for
deeply emotional but overshooting into
painful sappiness. Draiman’s powerful
baritone sounds wholly unused to this level
of melancholy—yet instead of sounding
poignantly raw, as one might hope, it
comes across as simply uncomfortable and
fades to a mediocre finish.

Evolution does merit mandatory
kudos for trying to branch out of the
band’s tried and true material. Some of
those brownie points are lost because
their attempts aren't all successful. The
album certainly contains a few excellent
songs, but none of those winners mark a
significant artistic reinvention so much asa
revitalization of their signature sound.

new EP rocks hard

» ‘What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way?’ EP review

EP. The sound is savoury as Mason’s voice
is smooth and dark, helped by his clean
vibrato. The bass and guitars mingle
flawlessly, and the drums add just the

right amount of intensity to what is a very
intense song despite its smooth essence.
The meaning is pretty simply stated
through lines such as, “Don’t you know
fame? Oh, it’s their next religion.” The song
emphasizes how gods are all around us in

 

celebrity news and in politics. They area
powerful group of people who “put our kids
in cages” and whom we do not get a chance
to resist.

The whole record is incredible.
“You Know Me Too Well”, and “Take This
Lonely Heart” hold just as much weight
as the other tracks. For an intellectual
headbanging session, I would highly
recommend checking out this EP.

‘Forever & Ever More' music video still