I am a great admirer of music that can bring out a dark, mysterious doppelganger out of you; as it leaves you feeling so exhilarated and fulfilled you want to experience the composition again and again. The latest album to encourage this mystifying alter ego of mine is the latest album "Immortalized" from infamous Chicago Heavy Metal quartet DISTURBED and I must say the album gave me a very breath-taking experience.

DISTURBED are one of the bands that highlighted the last of my teenage years and I remember the last album I heard from them was "The Asylum" released in 2010; around the start of my music journalism career. I remember enjoying the album very much; I loved the raw, gritty sound from the incredibly heavy yet melodic riffs on the guitars, pounding drums and of course the mesmerising vocal work. They all work together splendidly to create hard-hitting, invigorating melodies that will do than give you a wakeup call.

"Immortalized" gives us exactly that; it was an enlivening thrill ride from the moment I pressed play. The title track gives you the crucial elements of DISTURBED's sound I spoke of in the previous paragraph. DISTURBED have a strong, solid sound anyway; this album shows a much grander, more dominant presence.

Like "The Asylum", their newest addition to their discography has some extremely memorable tracks that will blow you away and keep you glued to your listening spot until it finishes. "Immortalized" contains an outstanding collection of material from the dark, seductive sounds of "The Vengeful One" to the positive vibes of "The Light" so it's fairly safe to say this album contains the right amount of variety.

This is the first album I have listened to for a long time where I have heard a couple of unexpected surprises, great ones.

The first one coming in the form of song "You're Mine"; the introduction of the song had a calm before the storm effect, I was a little puzzled as it did almost sound like the start of a BACKSTREET BOYS track but I breathed a sigh of relief when the heaviness kicked in again.

The second surprise actually stopped me in my tracks and bought a tear to my eye; I am talking about their breath-taking cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL classic "Sound Of Silence". This acoustic rendition shows a striking side of David Draiman's vocals that I was completely enticed by; it is in fact one of the best covers of any song I have heard for a while.

Ending in the usual DISTURBED fashion with concluding track "Who Taught You How To Hate" which is a strong track that does need to be heard, particularly in a modern society where there seems to be so much of it.

My personal overall conclusion? An absolute masterpiece I highly recommend you listen to.