Band:	Disturbed
Album:	Immortalized
Style:	Alternative metal, Nu metal
Release date:	August 2015

01. The Eye Of The Storm
02. Immortalized
03. The Vengeful One
04. Open Your Eyes
05. The Light
06. What Are You Waiting For?
07. You're Mine
08. Who
09. Save Our Last Goodbye
10. Fire It Up
11. The Sound Of Silence [Simon & Garfunkel cover]
12. Never Wrong
13. Who Taught You How To Hate?
14. Tyrant [bonus]
15. Legion Of Monsters [bonus]
16. The Brave And The Bold [bonus]

As a Disturbed fan, I naturally received the announcement of their hiatus several years ago with disappointment, but the band had made apparent with Asylum, and even as early as Indestructible, that their career could not continue on the backs of increasingly threadbare concepts. I had hoped that Immortalized would mark the beginning of a new era for Disturbed, welcoming back into the fold a refreshed, newly-inspired band, but it seems that the much-needed break did not bear fruit.

Disturbed had only been gone for four years, which is not a lengthy absence; bands often take as long to record a new album even without going on hiatus. Even so, it feels like a lifetime since they last walked the earth, and for that reason I have the somewhat unnecessary compulsion to comment that David Draiman's unique voice is sounding as strong as ever. In fact, he sounds better than ever, as you'll hear towards the end of the album, but he uses his powers for unobtrusive malaise rather than evil. However brief their vacation, Disturbed have returned a changed band - a diluted, toothless band.

In place of the fantastically violent, gritty crunch that brought them acclaim (and later began to slide out of their grasp), Disturbed have adopted a more alternative rock style that sabotages their best attempts to resurrect their dark energy. Immortalized is full of repetitive drum lines, the sort of mid-paced mindlessness that often heralds the coming of a Top 40 rock-themed song. The guitars and guitar parts alike are thin and generic. "Open Your Eyes" and the title track could easily be passed off as belonging to any number of vaguely grungy, "heavy-ish" bands that often served as the average citizen's less-frightening alternative to Disturbed some years ago. "The Light," a highly unusual track for Disturbed in its uplifting relative quietude, possibly best encapsulates the drawbacks of this musically- and thematically-transformed band. Basically, this is now a hard rock band. I'm not so much "disturbed" as "mildly irritated."

Immortalized lacks a clear stand-out aside from the above-average "Vengeful One," which could fit comfortably among the middling material from Indestructible, and the surprisingly fantastic cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound Of Silence." I'm quite tempted to say that the album was worth it just for that cover. At the very least, that's where I'll take my solace, because this album is otherwise terribly disappointing. Disturbed have become a very different kind of band, with none of the power, darkness, anger, or personality that once made them great. All of those interesting quirks and distinctly Disturbed flourishes have fallen away, leaving a stripped-down skeleton that could belong to any band. Disturbed may well be immortalized in the vast pantheon of heavy metal, but it certainly won't be for this album.