After a four-year hiatus Disturbed has returned with a new album, and it is fantastic. Since Asylum, I have been eagerly awaiting news that the group would produce another album, and this was close to everything I hoped it would be.

Immortalized revisits the previous three albums (Ten Thousand Fists, Indestructible, and Asylum) in themes and sound. Juggernaut warriors, Messiahs, glory, betrayal, revenge, and personal sins all return for this album. On the whole, this is good, because it is territory Disturbed does well, but it does invite a greater comparison with its previous works. If you cherished a pervious album dearly, you are in danger of finding this one disappointing.
In its sound, the new album is a Ten Thousand Fist/Asylum hybrid, rather than drawing on the harder metal of some of the band’s past material.

Disturbed has long had a more melodic sound and done it well, but hard-core metal fans may dismiss Immortalized as a hard-rock album. I really liked the melodic sound but wished a few of the tracks had some of the hard-hitting fire of Indestructible.

The back half of the album does journey into new territory. Halfway through “You’re Mine,” I realized Disturbed had actually written a positive love song, not one about doomed relationships and failure, such as most metal songs on the subject end up being. “Save Our Last Goodbye” was surprisingly personal for a band that usually deals with abstract concepts. Both tracks were good but not the most memorable.

“The Sound of Silence,” the cover of the famous Paul Simon song,deserves special mention. After listening to the original, I started Disturbed’s version, not really sure what to expect. I was amazed. The band completely redoes its sound for this track, David Draiman with his vocals especially, and it has a very moving effect. This was the only song on my initial play through that I replayed immediately.