After the awesome performance from shinedown the crowds attention and chants turn to tonight’s headliners “Disturbed”, the stage is covered in a black backdrop with 2 ropes being held by roadies, the volume is rising and the anticipation growing, then the entrance the whole place has been waiting for, with the appearance of David Draiman strapped to a sack truck, bound in a straight jacket and donning the Hannibal Lector style face mask the academy erupts.

Whilst he is unstrapped the stage cover is removed to display the impressive backdrop of the new album “ Indestructible” and an even more impressive drum kit, straight in with “guarded”, ”violence fetish” and “criminal” and the whole place is going absolutely mental, with the jury still out on what genre disturbed fit into my mind is firmly made up, this the ultimate in heavy metal, not nu-metal, not alternative or whatever other made up title they might have, with tracks like “the game” and “meaning of life” David Draiman / John Moyer / Dan Donegan and Mike Wengren deliver the real deal live.


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The coolness and calmness of Draiman is almost eerie, for him, it’s a given, a worshipping, the crowd joining him in every word he says, he is over the moon to be playing the home of heavy metal, with every chance he refers to the great history of the city, the birthplace of his music and his band are paying homage.

“Prayer”, “land of confusion”, “remember” keep the crowd in worship mode, then, for the encore the moment that for me summed the whole night up, with the intro to “down with the sickness“ the whole evening goes up another level, those in the mosh become rabid dogs, all building towards one moment in the song and the words “and when I dream!!! no mommy , don’t do it again”.

I've seen some sights in my time but fuck me, this was as intense as it gets, you just have to applaud the band and the hardcore fans for this spectacle, as with Shinedown, I can't say anything negative about Disturbed, it was truly amazing and a stroke of genius whoever put these 2 bands together for this tour !!

Review by James Hope

Review of single Indestructible