Keven's Music Review: DISTURBED – The Lost Children

The first glaring observation I had while listening to Disturbed's 'B-Sides' collection is how much it sounds exactly like every single other Disturbed studio album since 'Believe'. Now, is that a good thing or not? I think it's a lot of both, because much like Godsmack, Disturbed are going to do what they want and could give a s*** less about adapting too much.

'The Lost Children' is a compilation of various soundtrack hits and 'B-sides' throughout Disturbed's career. So if you missed out on every mainstream horror movie soundtrack the last 10 years, you can just pick this up instead. It sounds really bad, but the shocker here is that 'The Lost Children' is actually a very stellar effort and the songs all compile together to form what feels like another studio effort.

The two standouts here are covers of both Faith No More's 'Midlife Crisis' and Judas Priest's 'Living After Midnight'. Both tracks are absolutely fantastic and although they both remain ultra faithful to the originals, Disturbed still put their own spin on them, making me wish the guys would just do a full-blown covers record instead. Singer David Draiman managed to pull off two extremely difficult songs from two of the most powerful vocalists in the history of rock music – Mike Patton and Rob Halford. I applaud the effort and highly recommend you check both songs out.

If you're already a hardcore Disturbed fan, you probably already own most of these, but for those of us who aren't crazy, 'The Lost Children' is a welcome addition to the iPod. Intro track 'Hell', has one hell of a nice hook making it the best original Disturbed offering here. 'Run' had a 'running' chorus that was very catchy as well while everything else, although solid, kind of blends together.

What baffles me is how this B-Sides effort sounds like it's just another studio album. I still can't say if that's good or bad – but I guess if you hate Disturbed, feel free to say "well they sucked then, why cease sucking?". On the other end of the spectrum, it's a huge testament to the band to remain this consistent. Right now, I'm enjoying 'The Lost Children' – a week from now I could end up feeling like I want to beat Draiman to death using Scott Stapp's head as a greasy club.

01. Hell
02. A Welcome Burden
03. This Moment
04. Old Friend
05. Monster
06. Run
07. Leave It Alone
08. Two Worlds
09. God of The Mind
10. Sickened
11. Mine
12. Parasite
13. Dehumanized
14. 3
15. Midlife Crisis (FAITH NO MORE cover)
16. Living After Midnight (JUDAS PRIEST cover)