Grade: C

It’s quite the quandary when a band that prides itself on the enunciation of its lead singer puts together a record that barely utters a coherent string of lyrics.

Chicago quartet Disturbed has just released its second disc, Believe, which initially shocked music observers when it sold over 250,000 copies in its first week and landed the band at the top of the Billboard 200. It took a fella named Elvis to remove the guys in Disturbed from the top of the heap.

Believe is a less-appealing follow-up to 2000’s The Sickness and represents the generic conglomerate of universal riffs that comprise the music of metal’s obscure members. The Sickness was by no means unsuccessful, though, as over 2.5 million people put down their $12-15 for the somewhat-noteworthy disc.

The Sickness was bolstered by a pair of rock-radio-friendly songs and helped the band establish a fan base. “Down With The Sickness” utilized an embellished, throaty vocal melange that sounded like an angry monkey, and crowd-pleaser “Stupify” was generic stuff, but its shimmering string of harmonics laced throughout the crunchy rock track made the song a radio favorite, especially in the band’s hometown of Chicago.

Lead singer David Draiman means well on Believe, with his intent to bring back “the majesty of metal” from a lyrical perspective, but his efforts fall flat, mostly because you can’t discern the majority of his lyrics. Most of Believe relies on rehashed riffs, biting elements of Tool and a dependence on airtight production to make up for the generic, been-there-done- that feel of most of the tracks.

Production wise, the album is somewhat impressive. The bass has a nice bouncing resonance, and the songs are polished, but good production doesn’t save most bands, and it doesn’t save Disturbed. Lead-single and album-opener “Prayer” is perhaps the strongest song on the album, and when a band leads off with its only solid track, you know sitting through the entire album is going to become somewhat laborious.

“Prayer” fuses most of the elements that have made bands like Staind popular over the last few years, including dramatic lyrics (which are barely understandable for most of the track) like “Another nightmare about to come True / Will manifest tomorrow,” big bass tones and muddy guitars.

At several points, the verse portions of the track follow a beat arrangement similar to “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin. Although not very noticeable at first, the similarity manifests in a side-by-side listen — not that you actually have any Ricky Martin music floating around the apartment. Obviously not intentional (or so the fans would hope), Disturbed still sounds better than Ricky on any day, if that’s any consolation.

From “Awaken” to “Rise,” the tracks on Believe begin to gel together a little too much, and it becomes difficult to distinguish one from the next. Album-closer “Darkness” seems like nothing more than the now obligatory and cliched ballad that has been used by so many rough-sounding bands to calm a rabid crowd or to cross over into mainstream acceptance. Although “Darkness” is a bit too abstract for mainstream radio, it does offer a break from the monotonous pounding on the rest of Believe.

Draiman and company proved they could bring it to metal stalwarts on The Sickness, and they’ve won a legion of loyal fans since then, but more was expected of them on Believe. The embedded sparkle of the tracks on The Sickness has been replaced with the same old drudgery that gave nu-metal a bum rap in the first place.