Ten Thousand Fists In The Air
When it comes to Marmite bands in Heavy Metal it would probably be fair to say that Disturbed sit atop the pile - they're the very epitome of meat & potatoes Heavy Metal. Tonight at the O2 Arena their most fervent followers were out on mass for a support slot which was being billed more as a co-headline type deal. They certainly had the stage production which suggested as much as well, Mike Wengren must have been sweating his tits off with the amount fire jets surrounding his drum-kit. For a band who dominate headlining slots in arenas across the US, they're not unfamiliar with the kind of spectacle and brashness needed to carry a show in this kind of environment that's for sure.
As noted, there were legions of Disturbed fans across the venue and they were in extremely good voice as soon as Draiman and co. hit the stage. Opening with a couple of numbers from their latest record Immortalized pockets of the crowd immediately exploded in to a bit of a frenzy, almost as much as some of the bigger hits later on which was impressive to see. Even if you weren't particularly a fan of the band (and this writer certainly isn't for the most part), there was no doubting that you were watching a band who have the ability to put on an arena show in their sleep. With the set beginning to dip slightly, and that weird Genesis cover injected in to the setlist (if you squinted whilst watching you could pretend that this was Phil Collins reigniting his solo career in style) they lowered the lights, and hit the absolute highlight of the show. When we first heard their cover of The Sound Of Silence when reviewing Immortalized we were slightly perplexed as to what exactly we were hearing. Since that record dropped in 2015 that cover alone has grown in to a beast beyond maybe even they could have ever expected (this is a track which has nearly 175 million views on Youtube... INSANE). Needless to say, tonight at the O2 Arena, as the lighters and phone lights lit up the place and Draiman took his place at the end of the extended section of stage within the crowd this genuinely felt triumphant.
After a lengthy applause the band picked up the pace again pummelling through tracks which built towards a final four consisting of Stricken, Indestructible, Ten Thousand Fists and Down With The Sickness. That is a serious fatal-four way of hits that triggered bedlam across the floor. Whilst Draiman's vocals may grate at times and everything can begin to meld in to sounding like one long track, Disturbed proved exactly why they're in this spot on the bill with as true an arena show as you can possibly expect.