Their music video is a living, breathing monument to the internet’s favourite complaints about “the state of music today”. What if musical instruments turned to dust? What happened to guitars and drums, man? What happened to real musicianship? You can imagine Disturbed clenching their fists, holding back manly tears as they sing about what we’ve lost – “people writing… SONGS!!!”
Viral hits and subtlety don’t mix. By stripping away all the context of the original, turning it into an overblown, brain-meltingly obvious movie trailer cover song, Disturbed have pandered to a bigger audience than any original song they could ever write. In the ‘60s, buying a Simon & Garfunkel record signified that you were likely literate, politically liberal, and against the conservative status quo. In 2016, sharing a Disturbed video on Facebook is like unironically saying “Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.”