DISTURBED: Making Of 'Are You Ready' Video

Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of "Are You Ready", the new video from DISTURBED, can be seen below. The clip was directed by Roboshobo (a.k.a. Robert Schober),who has previously worked with METALLICA, ALICE IN CHAINS, MASTODON and GREEN DAY, among others.

"Are You Ready" is the first single from DISTURBED's new album, "Evolution", which will be released on October 19.

The band said in a statement: "It is with tremendous pride, joy, and anticipation that we look forward to sharing the next chapter in the creative life of DISTURBED with the world.

"This record is truly unique, and very special to us, and we can only hope that upon listening to it, that the world will feel the same.

"The record showcases the most adventurous and eclectic combination of musical styles and moods that we've ever attempted in our careers. Each song truly has its own identity, feel, and power.

"The writing and recording sessions that fostered this album were truly an emotional and magical experience for us, creating without boundaries or limitations, and simply going where each day's musical inspiration led us. Influenced by some of the great classic rock records of our youth, it is an experience unlike anything we’ve previously created.

"Its time is drawing near for the world to finally hear what is undoubtably the most daring record of our lives.

"Evolution is coming.

"Are you ready?"

"Evolution" track listing:

01. Are You Ready
02. No More
03. A Reason To Fight
04. In Another Time
05. Stronger On Your Own
06. Hold On To Memories
07. Savior of Nothing
08. Watch You Burn
09. Best Ones Lie
10. Already Gone

Deluxe edition bonus tracks:

11. The Sound Of Silence [live] (featuring Myles Kennedy)
12. This Venom
13. Are You Ready (Sam de Jong Remix)
14. Uninvited Guest

DISTURBED recently launched an online poll to ask fans which type of track should be unveiled as the first single from the new LP, with the choices being "Heavy" and "Ballad." Drummer Mike Wengren told El Paso, Texas radio station KLAQ about getting the public involved: "We were letting everybody know that this record has got a pretty big diverse amount of material on there, and we just wanted to know what their opinion was." He added that many fans were "leaning towards the heavy song."

Wengren also talked about the songwriting process for the follow-up to 2015's "Immortalized", saying: "This time around was a lot similar to when we did 'Immortalized'. For us, when the magic really happens is when we are in a room together and you can look each other in the eyes and you can see those reactions, you can feel together when the hair on the back of your neck stands up when there's something cool that was created. Years before that, we got a little bit away from that, because we don't live in the same states anymore, so it can be challenging to get together, especially with everyone's busy schedules. But we definitely realized how important that is for that live element of the chemistry coming together."

"We're a bit spread out," he continued. "John [Moyer, bass] is down in your neck of the woods. I know you're in El Paso, but he's down in Austin. David [Draiman, vocals], actually, recently moved from Austin to Honolulu — he's out in Hawaii with his family; his wife's family is from there, so they moved to be closer. And then I'm up in the Wisconsin area, outside of Milwaukee, and Dan [Donegan, guitar] is down in the Chicago area. So a lot of times what we'll do to get the jumpstart is I'll drive down to Dan's — he's got a home studio at his place — and we'll just start working on some music, and when we get a little bit of some stuff happening, we'll throw it David's way just to get his opinion. But then, ultimately, again, like I said, it's about us coming together in a room and hashing it all out, and, like I said, just letting that energy flow and getting the magical moments."

DISTURBED recently held an industry event where various record company people and radio personnel got to hear the band's forthcoming album, and the response was overwhelmingly positive, according to Wengren.

"For musicians, it's always a long, crazy process, 'cause from the moment you start a riff or a beat or a melody, and then once it develops into a full song, and then you go in and record it, it's a long process," he explained. "And the anticipation of being able to let the fans hear it and let people hear it and give their opinion, the longer it takes, the worse it feels. So it was really exciting for us to be able to finally let some people hear it, and especially getting those positive reactions was definitely reassuring. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun, and even more importantly now, to be here at the release date of the single coming up here, being able to let all the fans hear it, this is what it's all about."

Wengren said that DISTURBED is "definitely working" on putting together a tour in support of the upcoming album. "The last I heard is we're talking about doing a big U.S. run come January and February of '19," he said. "Nothing is in stone yet — we don't have any routing yet; nothing is solidified — but we're trying to put together something really big, and we wanna bring it to as many cities as we can. So once we get that finalized, hopefully we'll be able to announce some dates soon."

"Immortalized" ended a four-year hiatus for the quartet and was its fifth album to enter the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1. "Immortalized" featured the band's massive hit cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's "The Sound Of Silence".

Like "Immortalized", DISTURBED's new album was recorded at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada with producer Kevin Churko.

DISTURBED only has one show on its schedule so far for the rest of 2018, at the Austin City Limits music festival on October 13 in Austin, Texas.

Photo by Travis Shinn