"A Reason to Fight" is a song by American heavy metal band

Disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 2 ...

. It was released as the second single off of their seventh studio album ''

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

''. It topped the ''

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Mainstream Rock Songs Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart for three weeks and became the band's record-breaking sixth consecutive number one on the chart.

Background

In July 2018, upon the completion of recording the band's seventh studio album ''

'',

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

David Draiman David Michael Draiman ( he, דוד מיכאל דריימן; born March 13, 1973) is an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distorted, operatic, baritone voice and percussive singing style, he is best known as the lead vocalist of the h ...

polled fans as to whether they preferred the first single to be a heavy rock song, more akin to most of their back catalogue, or a more mellow ballad song, more comparable to their cover of

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's " The Sound of Silence". Out of 80,000 respondents, over 83% chose "heavy" over "ballad". As a result, " Are You Ready" was released as the first single from the album on August 16, 2018. The album's second single, the ballad "A Reason to Fight", was later released on September 21, 2018. The song was chosen as a single to help represent the band's change in sound for the ''Evolution'' album, comparing it to what

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's "Black Album" was to the rest of their career up until that point. A

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was also released at the time of the single's release, and was directed by

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Tim ...

, who had previously directed their "The Sound of Silence" music video.

Themes and composition

Lyrically, the song is about battling

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and depression; the song is meant to provide a positive and hopeful message for those struggling with it. The rough song idea was initially proposed by guitarist

Dan Donegan Daniel Joseph Donegan (born August 1, 1968) is an American musician who serves as the guitarist and keyboardist for heavy metal band Disturbed. Donegan began playing guitar as a teenager and eventually formed a band called Vandal, which was ...

, and supported by frontman and lyricist

, who felt a personal connection to its message, having seen a number of people close to him struggle with addiction and depression. The song is most commonly referred to as a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

prominently featuring

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. The song's musical direction was inspired by the band's success with their cover of "The Sound of Silence".

Reception

Vince Neilstein of ''

MetalSucks MetalSucks is a heavy metal music-themed news website. The site features reviews, interviews, information on latest metal releases and blog-like posts from the writers, most notably Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg. History The site was foun ...

'' was critical of the song, summing it up as "Draiman whining over top acoustic guitars", but conceded that it was poised to do well at

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Personnel

Disturbed *

– lead vocals *

– guitars, programming *

John Moyer John Moyer (born November 30, 1973) is an American musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for the heavy metal band Disturbed. Taking over in 2004 after Steve "Fuzz" Kmak was fired, Moyer has played bass guitar with the group ...

– bass *

Mike Wengren Michael Wengren (born September 3, 1971) is an American drummer, best known for his work with Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Disturbed (band), Disturbed. He is one of the founding members of the band, which was formed in 1994. Wengren is k ...

– drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reason to Fight, A 2018 singles 2018 songs Disturbed (band) songs Rock ballads Reprise Records singles Warner Records singles Songs written by Kevin Churko Song recordings produced by Kevin Churko 2010s ballads