Original VS. Cover: Land of Confusion

[Tenta]

Yeah, you can blame the thread on "In The Air Tonight" for this one. I'm personally not a huge fan of Collins, and I personally dislike Genesis, but I'm personally a fan of this song. And it didn't take me long to remember.... Shit, someone covered this song, didn't they?

And they did... And it was Disturbed that took the duty on this song, and tried to do it justice. Now, both of these songs also have outstanding music videos, both with their own splashes of brilliance added to them. I'll try to separate the music videos from the actual songs, but that's going to be pretty fucking difficult, with how brilliant they both are. Genesis was able to get the creator's of the British Show Splitting Image to create lifelike puppets for the characters in the video, while Disturbed tapped Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame to do the animation for their music videos. And granted, these are both well timed, brilliant pieces of work for one and all involved. I'll say right off the bat, that both of these bands did fantastic jobs with these songs.

Anyway, we'll first present the original first, as we present Genesis' Land of Confusion


Now, we'll present to you Disturbed's Land of Confusion


Now, in general, both of these songs are angry attacks at government, and the politicians that are running our systems, and the corrupt souls that allow for the World to go to shambles. This is meant to be a very angry song, almost a riot rallying call. Therefore, I have to give raw emotion to Disturbed on this one. And that isn't even because Disturbed is a naturally angry band, though that may clout my vision. Even then, Disturbed doesn't sacrfice the rhythm of the song for their otherwise hard rock sound. Rather, they embrace it, and feed right into the melody of the music, choosing the preserve Genesis' relative sound, even while making this a song all of their own. That, folks, is craftsmanship. was fully prepared to hate a metal remake of "Land Of Confusion," but Disturbed's take is no less melodic and remains faithful to the tune's perfect construction. Even singer Dave Draiman's guttural breaths before the chorus don't bother me. He was born to growl this piece of '80s pop, and the message is still relevant to boot.

That said, while I do find Disturbed's to be the better piece, something about Genesis' piece makes me feel as if Genesis is just as concerned with the stake of the planet, without having to sacrifice their voices. While Genesis seems a far bit more passive than I would hope for a song asking for rallying against the system, Genesis is able to craft a song and video that is sly, intelligent, and better yet, relevant to society. This piece transcends music, and is more of a speech on the wrongs of society, and that's just all right by me. Land of Confusion was better than the other singles Genesis released from the Invisible Touch album, but like most of their material from this period, it lacks anything closely resembling progressive rock. It's basically a fast-paced pop rock song. And that, for a song with this sort of message, just doesn't cut it for me. As groundbreaking as the song was, I still have to give the nod to Disturbed here, and say that it is the better overall performance.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

I am going to have to agree with you Tenta on this one. Despite the fact that Genesis was a great band & any song that they made or touched were done beautifully IMO, I will have to say Disturbed is the band to own this song. For any song that is blatantly attacking something like religion or governments or society needs to have grunt, emotion & anger presented in the song. With Disturbed's singers unique hate yet melodic voice range alongside the whole band being hard rock/metal, it just compliments the messages being presented through the song & effectively communicates to the listeners what the underlying lyrics mean.

 

[Paradox]

Good choice Tenta. I like both versions of this song, as it's a great song. Each band brought their own unique feel to the song, as well as a unique idea to the video. First time I saw Genesis' video. I went crazy. I loved it, I thought that it was so cool, and original. It blew my mind away. Then when I saw Disturbed's video.. I just didn't have words. For some reason this band just makes this song that much better. The video fit perfectly with the lyrics and the whole cartoon idea was brilliant. I enjoy both versions of the song, but in this case got to go with Disturbed. Its not many times that I go with a remake, but in this case I will.

 

[Dexter]

I'll buck the system here and go with Genesis but I'll note that I am NOT making any effort to separate song and video. In this one instance, they're absolutely inextricably linked... like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer"... you think of the song and you think of the video.

That said, combining song and video, Genesis's version wins. Disturbed's version was artistic and stylized but it just didn't get the message across as plainly and relevantly as Genesis did. I think they just tried too hard to be subtle and it failed.

 

[NSL]

While I've always liked the original, it was largely forgotten until Disturbed redid it. They took it, ripped it apart, and put it back together in their own image, and did it better than most of their own songs. When they perform it live, there's a weird energy that flows through the crowd, and that makes me give the edge to them. I'm a bigger Collins/Genesis fan than you'd expect, so I'll listen to either at any time.

 

[AdamBenjamin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bm4r8oNm-o (there's the link since I guess I don't know how to embed correctly yet.)



I've never been big on videos, and Anders Fridén and In Flames beat Disturbed to the punch on this cover. I've always thought the In Flames version of that song was far superior to Disturbed's, mostly because they can't hold it together, musically, next to a band as incredible as In Flames. The other big factor is it's an actual update of the song and music. A new, more raw emotion to it, not only vocally, but instrumentally. It's more aggressive and demonstrates a very real and intense objections to the same situations Genesis originally rebeled against, just in a different time. I always thought that disturbed cover was a total rip, just because I've been an In Flames fan forever, and heard it on 2003's Trigger EP long before I saw that another band covered it.

That said, and videos aside (as I said, not really my cup of tea... unless it's tool?) I'd have to pick the Sweds' as my favorite in this race, even though it isn't an option. I do firmly believe that there isn't more than a handful of people in the world that can compare to Collins abilities to write melodies..