Disturbed (band)

Disturbed

Disturbed is a rock band from Chicago, Illinois. The group was formed in 1996 when musicians Dan Donegan, Steve "Fuzz" Kmak, and Mike Wengren hired singer David Draiman in Chicago, Illinois. Originally classified as a nu metal band, Disturbed is now regarded by some music critics as hard rock or heavy metal, although others now regard them as alternative metal. However, the band's genre is still being debated. When asked about die-hard metal fans not finding Disturbed heavy enough, frontman David Draiman stated:

We probably have too much melody going on or we're not quite as turbulent or caustic. While I really love that type of music, it's not what we try to do. If we have to place things in context, we're more hard rock than heavy metal these days.

History

--212.219.232.90 (talk) 13:54, 26 February 2008 (UTC)'''BELIEVE IS THE BEST SONG EVER!'''

Early days, The Sickness, Believe

In its early years, Disturbed started recording several demos and played live shows. Not long after, the band released its debut album, titled The Sickness, which launched the band into stardom. The song "Down with the Sickness" from the album became extremely popular and was later used in many film soundtracks, and still is used a great deal to this day. Soon after the release of The Sickness, Disturbed released a revamped cover version of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's theme music for WWE called "Glass Shatters". Disturbed headlined Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest tour in 2001 alongside Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Black Label Society, and Crazy Town. Afterwards, the band started their own tour, called Music as a Weapon. The bands Adema, Drowning Pool, Stereomud, and Systematic were featured on the tour alongside Disturbed.

Before joining Marilyn Manson's 2001 European tour, Disturbed's bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak was unable to play with the band due to a shattered ankle. Fuzz injured his ankle by falling out of a fire escape outside Disturbed's rehearsal hall in Chicago a few days before Christmas. He took the fire escape to exit the building while the elevator was being used to move their equipment downstairs. After a successful operation, doctors highly recommended that he skip the tour to avoid more severe damage to his foot. But he did perform with the band on January 11th and 12th, 2001 at Disturbed's show in Chicago. A bass player named Marty O'Brian was recruited and filled Fuzz's spot until Fuzz was able to play again. On June 4th 2002, Disturbed released a "documentary" about the band titled M.O.L., which showed the band in personal in the studio and during tours.

In September 2002, Disturbed released their second studio album titled Believe, which debuted at #1. The songs "Prayer", "Liberate" and "Remember" became very popular and many fans were impressed with Disturbed's new album, despite it being less aggressive than their debut album. Disturbed's frontman, David Draiman, recorded the vocals for "Forsaken", a track written and produced by Jonathan Davis of the nu metal band Korn for the Queen Of The Damned soundtrack. In 2003, the band once again participated in the Ozzfest tour and started another one of their own tours named "Music as a Weapon II". The bands Chevelle, Taproot, and Unloco toured with them.

Kmak left the band in early 2003, after Disturbed had finished the "Music as a Weapon II" tour; as frontman David Draiman puts it, "When Kmak was with the band, Disturbed wasn't totally clicking; musically or personally." The band tells fans that he left for personal reasons. He was replaced with Matt Konopinski very briefly, and then John Moyer, who is now the current bass player.

Ten Thousand Fists, Indestructible

Disturbed toured with 10 Years and Ill Niño in support of their third album Ten Thousand Fists, released worldwide on September 20 2005, which also debuted at #1 in North America. Ten Thousand Fists had five B-side tracks that were not released on the album, but rather on various singles and other albums. Currently the track "Hell" can be found on the "Stricken" single (a second version of this single has the studio version of the track "Dehumanized", which was originally featured as a live track on the "Music as a Weapon II" live album and DVD). The track can also be heard on the band's Myspace page. The track "Monster" was originally released as part of an iTunes pre-order package for the first people who pre-ordered Ten Thousand Fists. Afterwards, the track was very hard to find. But, it can now be found on the "Tour Edition" of Ten Thousand Fists (along with the track "Two Worlds"). The track "Sickened" can be found on the "Land of Confusion" single, which is a cover of a Genesis song. The fifth and final track "Criminal" has currently not been released to the public, though it may be released on a single later in the future. A month after the release of Ten Thousand Fists, Disturbed headlined the Jägermeister tour along with the band Bloodsimple.

Disturbed supplied the song "Stricken" for WWE's New Year's Revolution 2006. In April 2006, the band completed an Australian tour supporting Korn and sharing the tour with 10 Years and Hatebreed. In mid 2006, a European tour was scheduled but had been moved twice due to the band's frontman having troubles with his voice.

I had been taking Prevacid for about four years and my body built up a resistance to it, to the point where it wasn't doing anything anymore...I had a night of drinking in London followed by a full day and night of drinking on a day off in Dublin, because what else is there to do in Ireland but drink? That, coupled with a show where I had monitor problems, and I pretty much trashed my voice.

In late 2006, Draiman went to undergo surgery for his voice. It was successful, and ever since then, Draiman has stopped drinking. Disturbed headlined Ozzfest 2006 along with Ozzy Osbourne, System of a Down, DragonForce, Avenged Sevenfold, Lacuna Coil, and Hatebreed. The band also went on the European tour that had been previously moved twice earlier in 2006. Disturbed headlined another one of their own tours named "Music as a Weapon III"; the bands Flyleaf, Stone Sour, and Nonpoint toured with them.

Disturbed's frontman recently became involved in the music file sharing controversy by publicly speaking out against the RIAA's lawsuits against filesharing individuals, despite the fact his record label is a member of the RIAA.

This is not rocket science. Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet. For the artists, my ass...I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection.

Draiman also told NYRock:

[I'm] Very positive about the internet, Napster. I think it's a tremendous tool for reaching many more people than we ever could without it. When you release music you want it to be heard by people. Artists really want to have their music heard. They want to have their creation heard by people. Nothing is going to do that better than Napster. I can't tell you how many kids have come up to me and said, 'I downloaded a couple of tunes off Napster and I went out and bought the album.' Or they say, 'I want to come see you play.' I don't really make money off of record sales anyway.

Disturbed completed the first leg of their "Music as a Weapon III" tour in late 2006. Soon after, Draiman stated that there wasn't going to be a second leg to the tour and that instead the band was going off the road to start working on their fourth album. In July 2007, a new track titled "This Moment" was released on the soundtrack to the movie Transformers.

The band is currently mixing their fourth album in Los Angeles, titled Indestructible, which is expected to be released in late May, 2008. In a recent interview, Draiman said that they are going to record 15 songs, but only 12 will be on the album. David also said that the track "This Moment" will not appear on the album.

The band has recently changed the main screen of their website, promoting the new album.

It has been recently announced that Disturbed will tour over July and August of 2008 in the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. They will be touring on the main stage alongside Slipknot, Dragonforce, and Mastodon. The band has also been announced to play at the Download Festival during June 2008.

Discography

Main article: Disturbed discography

Studio albums

Album information
The Sickness Released: March 7, 2000 (U.S.) Label: Giant Records RIAA Certification: 3x Platinum in U.S. Chart Positions: #29 U.S.
Believe Released: September 17, 2002 (U.S.) Label: Reprise Records RIAA Certification: Platinum in U.S. Chart Positions: #1 U.S.
Ten Thousand Fists Released: September 20, 2005 (U.S.) Label: Reprise Records RIAA Certification: 2x Platinum in U.S. Chart Positions: #1 U.S.
Indestructible Released: May, 2008 (U.S.) Label: Reprise Records

External links

• Official site
• Disturbed's MySpace