August 2025 Featured Release - The Gateway Edition
So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.
This month's feature release for The Gateway, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is the 2005 3rd album by Chicago-based alternative metallers Disturbed, Ten Thousand Fists. As we keep celebrating the 20th anniversaries of different albums from one of modern metal's best years 2005, this album is where the band was starting to find their sound after the darkness of The Sickness and the melody of Believe by combining those two sides. Some controversy towards vocalist David Draiman aside, he and his band have made decent albums like this that shouldn't be forgotten.
https://metal.academy/releases/6544
I'm honestly a little surprised by the results of me recently revisiting this Disturbed album, at a time of two problematic things: 1. Some political controversy towards vocalist David Draiman, and 2. My alt-metal interest is fading as proven by my thoughts on the August 2025 Gateway playlist. It's actually good enough to earn an extra half-star in my previously 3-star rating. Here are my thoughts:
The album is where the band has found the sound they were looking for, by combining the guttural Hell of The Sickness with the cleaner Heaven of Believe. Though while Draiman does his part in combining the aspects of the first two albums, his mix of theatrics and metallics cause him to alternate between two different sides. Having that Gollum-like aspect is a little, well, disturbing, but at least we still the best of both sides, his operatic baritone and his metal intensity. Oh, and his trademark "AH-AH-AH-OWW!!!" In many songs, the verses show him singing in a rap-ish pace, balanced out with the rock-out chorus. The tracks that don't seem to catch on for me are the ones that are either too experimental or repetitive, like the band's attempt at making a prog-ish 6-minute epic or adding too much electronic experimentation. With that said, their Genesis cover rules! Ten Thousand Fists is an album of beastly heaviness as expected in modern rock/metal. However, the more mainstream parts of the album again show the perils of The Gateway and my taste in the clan. But if my interest in alt-/nu metal really does fade away, albums like this help make sure that nothing's in vain....
3.5/5
Recommended tracks: "Ten Thousand Fists", "Just Stop", "Stricken", "Sons of Plunder", "Forgiven", "Land of Confusion", "Sacred Lie"
For fans of: Breaking Benjamin, Staind, Device