New DISTURBED Album Will Include 'Bigger Riffs And Heaviness' As Well As 'Big Melodic Moments'

DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan recently spoke to Janna of the WGRD radio station about the band's upcoming eighth studio album, which was recently mixed for a tentative fall 2022 release. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We started writing a little bit last fall, in 2021. We got together a couple of times in the studio in person, down in Nashville and down in Fort Myers, Florida just on a couple of days off in between shows. And then we were just hungry to get back in the studio and attack it in February of earlier this year. We went down to Nashville [and] worked with a great producer, Drew Fulk, who is based out of California. But I asked him if he would mind coming to Nashville, just [for] a change of environment, go down there. And for me, coming from Chicago, it's a nice, easy flight to come in and out when I needed to. And we recorded February and March. [We were] in there for just under two months of tracking some great ideas."

Donegan went on to describe the recording process as a "a great collaboration. And I just think the hunger within the band of having that time off between the previous album, 'Evolution', and that break we had during the pandemic, we were just excited to get back in the studio and have some new material," he said.

Asked if he would agree with DISTURBED singer David Draiman's recent comment that the band's new LP is "about 90 percent heavy as fuck," Dan said: "I normally don't like to say too much… David likes to give away a lot more than I do; there's no secrets with him. And I appreciate his enthusiasm and excitement. But a lot of times I'm a little bit more quiet of, like, 'Let's put it out there and let the fans…' the anticipation of them hearing it.

"[There is] some heavier stuff, definitely — some bigger riffs and heaviness to the album," Dan acknowledged. "There's definitely some of those moments to where there's some good old-school DISTURBED in there, some of the earlier days in the heavier-ness to some of the riffs and a little bit more of the aggression with David vocally. But there's also those big melodic moments as well.

"We do have a semi-ballad on the album too that I can't give away too much on that other than it was a great in-the-moment kind of in-the-studio [idea]," he revealed. "I switched gears. We had a song that we were working on that I just didn't feel like it was good enough at the moment, so I switched gears and started fresh with a new idea. And it was probably a great idea to do that because we got a really great one out of it. But I think the fans will be pretty pleasantly surprised with some of the direction on this and very happy with where we're going with it."

Last month, Donegan told WMMR's Brent Porche about the writing process for the new DISTURBED album: "I've always had a lot of ideas archived and just kept in the vault. But then I think when we ran out and did those handful of shows back in November, we went down to Fort Myers on a couple of days off to work with a friend of ours, another producer, Dave Fortman, who did EVANESCENCE, GODSMACK, SLIPKNOT; he used to play in UGLY KID JOE back in the day. So we went out and we did a couple of days with him, just to kind of improvise and track some ideas, just on a couple of days off, and that got the ball rolling. So we just went with all-new, fresh material — nothing from the vault. I just started pulling out new ideas. And it just progressed from there."

In July, DISTURBED released "Hey You", the first single off the upcoming album. The official music video for the song was directed by Josiahx. Draiman called the track "a wake-up call. We've become our own worst enemies," he said. "Civil discourse has become the exception instead of the norm. People have lost themselves in outrage addiction."

In June, Draiman said that DISTURBED's upcoming album will contain a "surprise track" that will "blow [fans'] minds."

In May, Draiman told the audience at DISTURBED's concert in Camden, New Jersey that the band's new LP is "about 90 percent heavy as fuck. Now there's still 10 percent of caring, loving goodness [laughs] — 10 percent. Hey, for everybody that fell in love with 'The Sound Of Silence' [SIMON & GARFUNKEL] cover, I figured, you know… But the rest of it? 'Sickness'-, 'Ten Thousand Fists'-era DISTURBED, for sure. You excited about that? 'Cause I'll tell you we're really fucking excited about it."

DISTURBED performed live for the first time in nearly two years last September as one of the headliners of the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

In March 2021, DISTURBED's "The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour" was officially canceled. The amphitheater tour, with very special guest STAIND and BAD WOLVES, was originally slated to take place in the summer of 2020 but was rescheduled to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was eventually scrapped altogether.

"The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour" was supposed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of DISTURBED's seminal album "The Sickness". On the tour, the band was expected to perform songs off the album, as well as tracks from "Evolution" and DISTURBED's extensive catalog.