Disturbed Doesn’t Compromise on Noise or Melody

It often seems as if bands at the noisier end of the rock spectrum have one purpose only: to provide aggressive release. While this is a major part of heavier metal’s appeal, it’s a band’s ability to surpass pure pandemonium and appeal to more than hyped-up 13-year-old boys that makes it stand out.

Chicago’s Disturbed has cultivated a balance of cathartic clamor and accessible melody quite well, and its show Wednesday at the Hollywood Palladium proved you can have both without compromising a thing.

Singer David Draiman is known for taking the stage in dramatic ways, and he was rolled out inside a wooden, cage-like contraption. He broke free and immediately tore into tunes from the band’s hit debut album, “The Sickness,” with a hypnotic intensity that was hard to resist. Bathed in multicolored light and stationed in front of backdrops with eerie, primitive-looking drawings, the prancing Draiman and his bandmates evoked a dark, almost gothic atmosphere.

Most of Disturbed’s songs deal with individuality, isolation and frustration, but despite their attempts to interpret these ideas in the live setting (e.g., his breaking out of the cage), the message was really clear only when Draiman spoke to the crowd or when the band performed anthems with obvious nonconformity-themed choruses such as “Down With the Sickness,” the hit “Stupify” and versions of Tears for Fears’ “Shout” and Pantera’s “Walk.”