Jump to content

Ten Thousand Fists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dude527 (talk | contribs) at 00:56, 10 August 2010 (→‎Personnel: we do this as cited in the booklet. Draiman is cited with vocals (not any specificed typed, so we won't either), and Moyer is not credited at all, so we won't credit him.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

Ten Thousand Fists is the third album by American heavy metal band Disturbed. The album was released on September 20, 2005 and became Disturbed's second consecutive number-one debut on the Billboard 200 in the United States, shipping around 239,000 copies in its opening week[2]. The album was also the band's second number-one release in New Zealand. It also is the first Disturbed album not to feature Steve Kmak as bass guitar player; instead, the album featured John Moyer.[3] It also has the most singles than any other album. It is also the first Disturbed album not to have a Parental Advisory sticker. The album is also the first in which Disturbed's mascot, The Guy, appears on the album cover, as well as later appearing full-bodied in the music video for "Land of Confusion".

Promotion

On June 16, 2005 the album title was announced via the Disturbed website.[4] Later that month, the album track listing was also revealed.[5] The song "Guarded" was released to radio stations in late June 2005 as a teaser. Vocalist David Draiman said the motive behind releasing the song was to promote the album. He said, "[The song] was put out there to just wet everybody's appetite. It's one of the more aggressive tracks on the record, just to remind everybody where we came from and who we are."[6]

The first single, "Stricken", was released on July 25, 2005.[6] On August 19, 2005 the music video "Stricken", directed by Nathan Cox, was posted on the Warner Bros. Records website.[7] The music video was filmed in an abandoned hospital, in the same location where some scenes from the 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street were filmed.[8] In early August 2005, viral marketing was used to promote Ten Thousand Fists. A piece of software was sent via e-mail to certain recipients, who passed it along to other recipients. When the software was passed along to at least 250,000 recipients, it unlocked the song "Ten Thousand Fists".[9] In early July 2006, the third single, "Land of Confusion" (originally written by Genesis), was released, alongside an animated music video directed by Todd McFarlane.[10][11]

Themes

Vocalist David Draiman said that Ten Thousand Fists "seems to fuse the brutality and darkness of The Sickness with the added melodic nature and complexity of Believe. It's more aggressive than the last record, and at times, more aggressive than the first one."[5] The album includes lyrics about soldiers going to Hell.[8] Draiman said that the song "Guarded" is about Draiman guarding himself from other people. He said the song "reflects what choosing this life forces certain people to do in a certain way — you have to remain guarded on a certain level."[6] Draiman said the song "Ten Thousand Fists" is meant to "[signify] strength, unity, conviction, power, and the exhilaration that you feel when you get to see that at one of our shows."[9] Draiman continued to say, "It's one of my favorite moments, and people know that I have an affinity for asking people to put their fists in the air, and it's just, it's exhilaration to be able to see ten thousand raised fists or more."[9]

Political content

According to band members, while Ten Thousand Fists was not written as a political album, it was their most political record to date.[12] Vocalist David Draiman's lyrics for the title song, "Ten Thousand Fists", were heavily influenced by his feelings towards American president George W. Bush, and several of the songs included war/anti-war themes, including "Deify," for which the intro features audio clips of Bush urging the nation to push forward in war, interlaced with an individual's political commentary, while the video for "Land of Confusion" depicts big business and capitalism as being a corrupting Nazi-like enemy being overthrown by an army of the people led by The Guy, the band's mascot.[13][12]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
411mania [14]
Allmusic [15]
Blender [16]
IGN [17]
Live-Metal.Net [18]

Ten Thousand Fists earned mostly mixed reviews from critics; it received a score of 59% on the review-aggregating website Metacritic, based on seven reviews.[19] Allmusic reviewer Johnny Loftus gave the album a positive review; however, regarding the album's sound, he stated "Ten Thousand Fists does start to sound the same after a while."[1] Village Voices reviewer Phil Freeman also gave the album a positive review, "The guitarist and drummer are an airtight team, and the session bassist capably underpins the guitar solos that are a welcome new addition to the band's sound. Program out the cover of "Land of Confusion" and you've got the best mainstream metal release since Judas Priest's Angel of Retribution." New Musical Express gave it a 1/10 review describing it as "unfocused rage" and "you'll find nothing more despicable this year".[20]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Disturbed, except "Land of Confusion", which was written by Genesis

No.TitleLength
1."Ten Thousand Fists"3:33
2."Just Stop"3:46
3."Guarded"3:22
4."Deify"4:18
5."Stricken"4:07
6."I'm Alive"4:42
7."Sons of Plunder"3:50
8."Overburdened"5:59
9."Decadence"3:27
10."Forgiven"4:15
11."Land of Confusion" (Genesis cover)4:50
12."Sacred Lie"3:08
13."Pain Redefined"4:09
14."Avarice"2:56
Total length:56:22

UK Bonus Tracks

No.TitleLength
15."Monster"4:03
16."Two Worlds"3:33
17."Hell"4:14
18."Sickened"3:59
Total length:15:52

Personnel

Chart positions

References

  1. ^ a b Loftus, Johnny. "Ten Thousand Fists allmusic review". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  2. ^ "Disturbed Pummel Billboard Competition With #1 Fists". 2005-09-28. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  3. ^ "Disturbed Finds New Bassist". 2004-05-04. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  4. ^ "Disturbed announce new album title". Blabbermouth.net. 2005-06-16. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  5. ^ a b "Disturbed album track listing". 2005-06-22. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  6. ^ a b c "Disturbed: New single "Stricken" to go for radio adds this month". Blabbermouth.net. 2005-07-08. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  7. ^ "Disturbed: "Stricken" video posted online". Blabbermouth.net. 2005-08-19. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  8. ^ a b "Disturbed frontman: "We have the utmost love and respect for US soldiers"". Blabbermouth.net. 2005-08-18. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  9. ^ a b c "Disturbed: 250,000 fists to unlock new tune". Blabbermouth.net. 2005-08-03. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  10. ^ "Disturbed: "Land of Confusion" video available online". Blabbermouth.net. 2006-07-07. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  11. ^ "Disturbed's version of "Land of Confusion" is timely". 2006-06-27. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  12. ^ a b "Disturbed drummer: All the bands on the radio "sound the same to me"". Blabbermouth.net. 2006-07-19. Retrieved 2009-07-10. Cite error: The named reference "george" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ Harris, Chris (2006-03-15). "Todd McFarlane to make Genesis' 'Confusion' clip even more disturbed". MTV. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
  14. ^ Ratliff, Brandon (September 20, 2005). "Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fists Review". 411mania. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  15. ^ Loftus, Johnny. "Ten Thousand Fists > Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  16. ^ Catucci, Nick. "Disturbed Ten Thousand Fists". Blender. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  17. ^ D., Spence. "Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  18. ^ Maki, Jeff. "Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fists". Live Metal. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  19. ^ "Metacritic score". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  20. ^ New Musical Express, 17 September 2005, p.58
  21. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists Australian charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  22. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists Austrian charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  23. ^ a b c "Ten Thousand Fists US charts (alt)". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  24. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists Dutch charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  25. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists New Zealand charts". 2009-07-09.
  26. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists Swedish charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  27. ^ "Ten Thousand Fists US charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Ten Thousand Fists US single charts". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  29. ^ ""Stricken" single chart". Retrieved 2009-07-09.
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
October 2, 2005 - October 8, 2005 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ten_Thousand_Fists&oldid=378096570"