Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

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Disturbed Believe Review

General Information:

Artist: Disturbed
Album: Believe
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Nu Metal
Released: 2002
Length: 47 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Reprise

Track List:

01. Prayer
02. Liberate
03. Awaken
04. Believe
05. Remember
06. Intoxication
07. Rise
08. Mistress
09. Breathe
10. Bound
11. Devour
12. Darkness

Disturbed Believe Cover

Disturbed Believe Cover

Disturbed Believe Review

Believe is the second album by nu metallers Disturbed. Following the massively successful release of The Sickness, you could have easily expected Disturbed to follow up in a similar fashion but that isn’t the case because they have chosen to shed off many of their defining traits to start on a new path for Believe.

The confrontational singing style and angsty lyrics have been scrapped in favour of highlighting David Draiman’s highly melodic singing abilities with his lyrics now taking a closer look at religion and spirituality, which is also depicted on the albums cover as a mix of the Christian crucifix, Islamic crescent, Jewish star of David and a Wiccan pentacle. The only song on Believe to feature any of his distinguishing barking noises is Intoxication so for anyone that is put off by that on The Sickness will find Believe much more welcoming.

The electronic elements have disappeared almost entirely with the tiny exceptions being the glitchy vocals at the start of Liberate and then the keyboards at the start of Remember and on the bridge of Mistress. Another rare moment is the final song, Darkness, which is an artfully crafted piano ballad that will catch most listener’s off-guard. It also proves that the band is capable of expressing themselves in an entire different way when they want to. It also happens to be the only song to feature an acoustic guitar as well as cellist Alison Chesley.

Devour picks up a lot of momentum right at the end before coming to a sudden stop and it’s hard not to think that this could have easily transitioned into a new verse or even something slightly progressive but instead of tip-toing around something new Disturbed strictly adheres to their radio friendly format. That isn’t to say that there is anything inherently wrong with this, despite it almost feeling intentional at times, but it would have been interesting to hear the band tackle something more challenging.

Despite the sudden shift into a highly accessible and melodic style, Believe is still a nu metal album that focuses on straightforward guitar riffs and stays away from any form of flashy showmanship. In contrast to this, the rejection of angsty lyrics and aggression in general makes Believe one of nu metals most mature efforts by the simple virtue of escaping these common elements. Whether you consider Believe to be a streamlined or a stripped back effort will depend entirely on your perspective of the band and the subgenre.

Performers:

David Draiman: Vocals
Dan Donegan: Guitar, keyboards
Steve Kmak: Bass guitar
Mike Wengren: Drums, percussion
Alison Chesley: Cello

External Links:

Disturbed Homepage
Disturbed on Wikipedia
Believe on Wikipedia

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Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

Artist: Rob Zombie
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe
Genre(s): Nu Metal
Subgenres(s): N/A
Released: 1998
Length: 38 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Geffen Records

Track List:

01. Call of the Zombie
02. Superbeast
03. Dragula
04. Living Dead Girl
05. Perversion 99
06. Demonoid Phenomenon
07. Spookshow Baby
08. How to Make a Monster
09. Meet the Creeper
10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore
11. What Lurks on Channel X?
12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
13. The Beginning of the End

Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Cover

Hellbilly Deluxe is the first album that Rob Zombie recorded as a solo artist. Released the same year as his heavy metal band White Zombie disbanded, Hellbilly Deluxe serves as a spiritual successor to White Zombie’s final album, Astro Creep: 2000, but in many ways it is something entirely new.

Abandoning the groove metal sound of White Zombies last 2 albums, Rob Zombie gravitated towards nu metal still with an emphasis on strong groove laden songs and samples of horror film dialogue with his own lyrics revolve around the same themes as well as offbeat characters and concepts of his own creation.

Rob Zombie manages to cling onto his distinct gravelly voice while showing a massive improvement in his singing abilities. He sings clearly enough to be heard throughout most songs and no longer sounds like he’s straining himself anymore. At other times he takes to an almost spoken word delivery on Living Dead Girl, The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore, and Return of the Phantom Stranger.

Song-writing has flourished in a lot of new ways while each song is generally shorter and has a more clearly produced sound. After the creepy samples that make up Call of the Zombie he cuts to the heart of Hellbilly Deluxe; adrenaline pumping horror rock anthems tinged with an assortment of odd noises and all the other ingredients you’d expect to hear in a b-list horror film.

The other, more arguably artistic side of Rob Zombie crawls through on the spooky soundscape work of Perversion 99 while How to Make a Monster is a seemingly intentional lo-fi rocker that sounds as though it was recorded in a basement with the microphones in another room. The supernatural monster shenanigans come to a bizarre finish with The Beginning of the End, a noise song that is riddled with several layers of unidentifiable sounds that swirl around uncomfortably.

While some parts of Hellbilly Deluxe are comparable to White Zombies later output, it’s important to remember that Rob Zombie has moved beyond what White Zombie was and has gone onto carve out a far more ambitious and creative solo career with Hellbilly Deluxe.