About Disturbed
Disturbed is an American heavy metal band from Chicago, formed in 1994. The band includes guitarist Dan Donegan, drummer Mike Wengren, lead vocalist David Draiman and bassist John Moyer. Donegan and Wengren have been involved in the band since its inception, with Draiman replacing original lead vocalist Erich Awalt in 1996 and Moyer replacing original bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak in 2004.
Disturbed's debut album, The Sickness, was released in 2000 as a commercial success, mainly due to the singles "Down With the Sickness" and "Stupify". The band then released the albums Believe , Ten Thousand Fists , Indestructible , and Asylum , all of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Disturbed went into hiatus in October 2011, during which the band's members focused on various side projects, and released The Lost Children, a compilation album containing previously unreleased songs. They returned in June 2015 and released their sixth album Immortalized that same year. They followed it up with the albums Evolution and Divisive .
With over 17 million records sold worldwide, six RIAA certifications for their albums , singles from all eight albums reaching the top ten of the Mainstream Rock chart, and two Grammy Award nominations, Disturbed ranks alongside Slipknot and Godsmack as one of the most successful rock bands of the 21st century.
Before David Draiman joined Disturbed, guitarist Dan Donegan, drummer Mike Wengren and bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak were in a band called Brawl with vocalist Erich Awalt. Before changing their name to "Brawl", however, Donegan mentioned in the band's DVD, Decade of Disturbed, that the name was originally going to be "Crawl"; they switched it to "Brawl", because the name was already being used by another band. Awalt left the band shortly after the recording of a demo tape; the other three members advertised for a singer. They posted an advertisement in the local music publication in Chicago, Illinois, called the "Illinois Entertainer". Draiman answered the advertisement after going to twenty other auditions that month. Guitarist Dan Donegan commented on Draiman: "You know, out of all the singers that we had talked to or auditioned, he was the only singer who was ready to go with originals. And that impressed me, just to attempt that".
With regard to Draiman being the singer for the band, Donegan said, "After a minute or two, he just starts banging out these melodies that were huge...I'm playing my guitar and I'm grinning from ear to ear, trying not to give it away that I like this guy, you know, because I don't want to, you know... 'Yeah, we'll give you a call back. We'll, you know, discuss it.' But I was so psyched. Chill up my spine. I'm like, 'There is something here.'" As drummer Mike Wengren commented, "We clicked right off the bat." Draiman then joined the band in 1996 and the band was renamed Disturbed. When asked in an interview why he suggested to name the band "Disturbed", Draiman said, "It had been a name I have been contemplating for a band for years. It just seems to symbolize everything we were feeling at the time. The level of conformity that people are forced into was disturbing to us and we were just trying to push the envelope and the name just sorta made sense."
After renaming the band, Disturbed went on to record two three-track demo tapes, the first containing demos for "The Game", "Down with the Sickness", and "Meaning of Life", while the second had demos for "Want", "Stupify", and "Droppin' Plates". The artwork was composed of the band's newly created mascot, The Guy. The band eventually signed with Giant Records in August 1999 and opened for Ministry at Chicago's Riviera Theatre around the same time. In 2000, the band released its debut album, titled The Sickness, which launched the band into stardom. The album peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200, and it has sold over four million copies in the United States since its release. Before joining Marilyn Manson's 2001 European tour, bassist Steve Kmak was unable to play with the band due to a shattered ankle, caused by falling out of a fire escape outside Disturbed's rehearsal hall in Chicago. He took the fire escape to exit the building while the elevator was being used to move their equipment downstairs. Kmak skipped the European trek of the tour, but he did perform with the band on January 11 and 12, 2001 at Disturbed's show in Chicago. During the European tour, Marty O'Brien replaced Kmak until he was able to tour again.
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