Muzaks! Disturbed

Disturbed, one of my favourite bands, is a Hard Rock group from Chicago. They formed in 1996 when vocalist, David Draiman, joined previously the band was known as Brawl but after recording a demo the vocalist left the group.

Disturbed are a fairly issue-oriented band in that a lot of tracks on their albums focus on sensitive or political issues. The album "Believe" has a lot about the religious differences the band have, four members with four different religions, and how their religions do not affect how they see the world.

A consistent part of Disturbed's music is Draiman's guttural howls and bestial roars, alongside his deep melodic vocals the contrasting roars add a unique yet distinct sound to the tracks.

Down with the Sickness is probably the most well known track from Disturbed and one of the first songs I heard from them. It features a guttural howl that repeats throughout the track and is really a key piece of how the song is structured.

Land of Confusion is a cover of the 1986 version by Genesis. The video has a full figure depiction of "The Guy", Disturbed's mascot, leading a revolution against soldiers of an oppressive regime, to finally lead the way to the Real Power and to topple the corrupt government. It should be noted that this was recorded around the time of President George Bush's reign and was a piece of commentary on his political policies.

Muzaks! 3 Doors Down

A band I have known about for years yet never actually heard any of their music (knowingly at least) is 3 Doors Down, A progressive/Hard rock band from the mid 90's.

The first song I actually heard from them was a song called Kryptonite a fantastically written piece about a man giving himself completely to a woman he loves. Giving her the ability to "destroy" him. Something I am sure almost everyone has gone through at some stage.

Now let me clarify the above statement was my FIRST impression of what the song meant. After listening to the song and watching the video (several hundred times) I have realised that there are plenty of different interpretations of what the song can mean.

After watching the video my second impression was that it is about ageing, When you are young you have strength and a sound mind and can do almost anything but as you get older you start to lose that strength and can find it harder to do even simple things.

No matter what your interpretation of the song you have to admit that it is a fantastic piece of lyrical and musical writing and luckily enough it is only one example of this fantastic band.

I would ask everyone to definitely look this band up on youtube and have a listen to several of their songs. I can most certainly appreciate some really talented people and would hope that you can too...