Monday, February 11, 2008

Hooked On Disturbed

As I have done many times in the past, I decided to pull out a CD that I had purchased many years ago, but had never really immersed myself into. I put the disc into the car CD player about a month ago and didn't take it out until the end of last week. This time, the disc was Disturbed's first album, titled The Sickness. I've been a fan of Disturbed since I first heard their music in 2000 when "Stupify" started getting radio play. I have always enjoyed their mix of heavy rock, raw vocals and lyrics about social injustice.

Since "Stupify" became popular, Disturbed has released two more albums and had about a dozen more tracks aired on the radio - of which, I have liked every one. However, I had not purchased either of their most recent albums. Megan was observant and thoughtful enough to have acquired both of the albums absent from my collection, and gave them to me for an early Valentine's Day gift. So, the only reason that The Sickness was removed from the CD player, was to make room for Ten Thousand Fists (Believe will be played, but one of them had to be first).

Now, I can't get the song, "Land of Confusion" out of my head. I only recently realized, after having known the song for months, that the track is a cover of the 20-year old Genesis song, with the same title. Disturbed kept the melody and the lyrics of the song intact while providing their own distinct sound. Just as Disturbed added an edgier sound to "Land of Confusion", Todd MacFarlane provided an updated appearance and a more rebellious tone to the video. The song is about society living in fear during the uncertain times, it couldn't be a more appropriate time for the song to resurface. While I do like the original Genesis song/video, I much prefer the updated version by Disturbed. Below are both versions of the video - which do you prefer? If anyone is interested, the lyrics can be found HERE.

The Genesis version from 1986 - can be slow to load, be patient.



The Disturbed version from 2006

4 comments:

Kim said...

I like them both for different reasons. I like 80s music so of course I like the old one. And the music video is very funky and out there. I like the modernism of the new video too. They sound VERY similar though!

Andrew said...

The Disturbed version of the song can't truly be appreciated as a separate entity until it is turned up so loudly that it makes your ears hurt. Computer speakers don't do it justice. Ah, the beauty of Disturbed.

Moflo said...

"Turned up so loudly that it makes your ears hurt"--you mean like our song, "Prison Sex"?

Andrew said...

moflo - Exactly, just like our song.