It started in 2000 with "Down with the Sickness." Disturbed's thick, rhythmic take on alt-metal was perfect music for stalking bloody zombies, and vocalist David Draiman's jaw-snapping Pavlovian grunts made the trigger fingers of first-person shooters itch. There were threads of other groups in the sound -- Pantera's wrenching power, Slipknot, the ill-lighted parlor games of Tool -- but Disturbed held their own from the start. If 2002's Believe downplayed Draiman's guttural responses a little, that tact's long gone for 2005's Ten Thousand Fists. From Todd McFarlane's evocative wronged misfits artwork -- Suicide Girls stand fists upraised next to ghoulish fiends and disenfranchised truckers -- to the rousing staccato of the title track and the "Sickness" rewrite "Stricken," Disturbed solidify their stance as the black knights of gaming-console rock. Creepy electronics slither behind Dan Donegan's guitar, and he mostly forsakes soloing to concentrate on the visceral groove. When he's not hacking like a chained-up pit bull, Draiman emotes from the valley of reverb (that's next to the valley of death), and his moments of epic roar make the songs' choppier parts more effective. Now, "Overburdened" takes the epic stuff a little too far. Draiman starts off the song in narration, muttering "Fate is so unkind" like a monster who's been given the power to feel. But even in its swirling pretentiousness, you can't deny his intensity. Luckily the majority of Fists sticks to mid-tempo punishers that pound back anger-gritted teeth and no anesthesia. (Remember, Disturbed's tours are underwritten by Jägermeister, the black licorice firewater that punches Saturday night in the face.) "Deify" rails against blind devotion to political leaders and "Sons of Plunder" stalks at a faster, more aggressive faster heart rate, while "Decadence" and "Sacred Lie" drop into the rhythmic grip that by mid- to late album is almost comfortable in its gloomy thump. (Disturbed's ill-advised cover of Genesis' "Land of Confusion"? No comment.) Ten Thousand Fists does start to sound the same after a while. But those bloody zombies aren't going to stop pouring though the doorway, so it's a good thing it has at least 12 burly alt-metal rockers. Fire! ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Sorry, but land of confusion was a good cover, something about disturb's playing gives the song entirly new meaning. While genesis's version was a comment on 80's cold war politics. Distubed makes this song an Anarchist's anthem. Beautiful.
Classic. Classic. Classic. Every song on this is pure hard rock that extends a massive arm through your speakers and punches you in the face (thematic pun intended).
Had Disturbed not decided to tack on Avarice as random filler, this would be a perfect album.
What's with the "knights of gaming-console rock" references? Johnny Loftus has UNDENIABLE problems with commercial success. If Disturbed was quietly touring the underground scene, he'd talk about the unique sound, the fantastic retro-80's style solos, the balance of a metal-style scream/grunt with actual vocal quality in Draiman's voice. But they're signed to a label, so Mr. Loftus suddenly deems them unoriginal? Uninspired? Sellouts to the Left 4 Dead crowd? Not all bands are Tool, Johnny-boy.
10,000 Fist in the Air must be paying tribute to Manowar's 1983 song Gloves of Metal.
Hands high, fists fill the air
Against the world we stand
Hands high, forever we'll be there
Gloves of metal rule tonight
But then again, not everybody takes after Manowar. (too bad)
Best album ever. Period. There are no bad songs, and every single one is, in fact, excellent. The only slightly low point is "Avarice", as that song loses a bit of their song writing talent in favor of more agression, which isn't necessarily all that bad. That song gets 4 stars out of 5. Every other song on the album gets 5.
I am sorry, I cannot agree with this review of this album. Ten Thousand Fists is exceptionally well written, with 14 stunningly amazing songs. There is not a single bad song on the album. The only one, in fact, that I don't give 5 stars out of 5, is Avarice, which gets a solid 4 stars. This is one of the greatest albums of all time, by any band, ever. Oh, and their cover of Land Of Confusion is definately better than the original.
This is the first Disturbed album I ever owned (whell my brother owned it but I just kept borowing it because it was so good)when I first heard it, it was very different from what I was used to which was a refreshing change, great album. My favorite songs are Stricken(I heard that song about a thousand times when it came out, its part of the reason I got the album) Deify, Guarded, 10,000 Fists,Pain Redifined, and the Land of Confusion cover, (they did it better) I like pretty much all of them