Ten Thousand Fists

iTunes Review

The third album by Chicago metal-mongers Disturbed finds them fusing the muscular ambitions that spawned their wildly successful debut and Believe, its heavier, classic-metal fueled 2002 follow-up. Ten Thousand Fists has a more refined, focused sense of songcraft and some welcome textural restlessness. The opening/title track ably sets up the album’s anxious, head-bangers-with-hooks sensibility, while the standout “Stricken” pumps personal politics into a thumping maelstrom.“Deify” and the arena-ready anthem “I’m Alive” find singer David Draiman furiously exorcising the personal demons of his fundamentalist upbringing to various degrees. But strong first-half cuts like the staccato-rhythmed “Guarded” and riff-fest “Just Stop” also point-up the album’s Achilles heel: a second act whose obligatory dirge (“Overburdened”), more manic moments (“Decadence,” “Avarice”), and left-field pop conceits (a surprisingly effective cover of Phil Collins’ “Land of Confusion”) can’t quite match the forceful aura of its first half.