Disturbed at the St James

By PETER GRIFFIN

West Auckland boys 8 Foot Sativa again proved their worthiness as a solid opener for a headlining metal act. With the sonic patter of double-kick drums, relentless riffing and a vocalist reminiscent of Judas Priest's Rob Halford minus the high-pitched screeching, Sativa's a home-grown metal band. No old or nu-metal pretension here, just hard-out metal with a nod to an eclectic mix of heavy influences - musical and other.

While the Iron Maiden pumping out of the PA before Chicago quarter Disturbed made their entrance pointed to the band's classic influences, there's little in the music and lyrics that separates Disturbed out from its new-metal, Ozz-fest decorated contemporaries - nothing that moves the "genre" along in the way Megadeth, Korn and Tool or the earlier masters of metal back to Black Sabbath did.

Still, Disturbed rocked like the two million-album-selling act they are, crashing through a set drawn from their two albums, The Sickness and last year's more polished follow-up Believe.

Standout numbers Prayer, Awaken, Believe, Stupify and Down With The Sickness had the St James floor trembling. An electronica tinge to some of the songs blended well in concert with the output of the two long-haired axemen.

When the sound system blew up mid-show elaborately pierced frontman Draiman, assuming his role as a mouthpiece for metal, seemed just as comfortable preaching to the crowd as he was peppering Disturbed's songs with guttural barks and moans.

"Metal ties everyone to everyone" he proclaimed, pointing out the differing walks of life in the crowd and urging the kids to swear at passers-by in the streets judging them by their heavy metal garb.

The best-received song of the night was a pounding cover of Tears for Fears' hit Shout. the best metal take on an 80s pop song since Orgy thrashed up New Order's Blue Monday.

A lively show made up of numbers cut from the the same angry dark mould a dozen other American metal bands are belting out from as they tour the world. Dark and angry is fine, but originality is even finer.