The Sickness (album)
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''The Sickness'' is the debut
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
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 20 ...
. It was released on March 7, 2000, by Giant and
Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...
. The album peaked at number 29 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, and spent a total of 106 weeks on the chart. It was Disturbed's only album to not hit number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 until their seventh album '' Evolution'' debuted at number 4 in 2018. In 2018, ''The Sickness'' was certified five times platinum by the
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
for shipments of over five million copies in the US, making it the band's most successful album.


Background and recording

''The Sickness'' was Disturbed's first studio release since the band's formation in 1994. Reflecting on the band's early days, lead vocalist David Draiman said in a 2015 interview, "People think it was like this meteoric rise. It really wasn't. We beat the hell out of ourselves for two or three years as a local band, our own self-promotional mega-machine, every band member in a different venue of the city every time a rock show would come through town, passing out our promotional material — cassettes, stickers, t-shirts, whatever we could. his wasin addition to playing strategically where we thought it made sense and in addition to building our following on the south side of Chicago. So there was a long period of time before that and a lot of struggle in a city that wasn't conducive to hard rock and heavy metal. Chicago was an alternative town. It was
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,
Local H Local H is an American rock band originally formed by guitarist and vocalist Scott Lucas, bassist Matt Garcia, drummer Joe Daniels, and lead guitarist John Sparkman in Zion, Illinois in 1990. The members all met in high school in 1987 and founde ...
. It was not metal. So we were blacklisted. We couldn't even play inner-city clubs. We weren't cool enough. We were too metal. That was something that wasn't considered cool enough. We had to force our way in." However, as the late 1990s brought a shift in focus in the rock industry toward a heavier sound, the band secured a record deal with
Giant Records In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
and Disturbed got their big break. Prior to the album's recording, the band sought to refine its sound. Lead guitarist Dan Donegan took a different approach than usual and adopted a style that did not incorporate
guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...
s: "In the beginning, before we were even signed, I'd solo all over the place and it didn't really work, so I pretty much cut out the solos altogether until the last album or two. That's the way it's worked with us. Over time we've pushed each other to become better musicians," Donegan said in a 2011 interview with ''
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''. According to Draiman, it was challenging for him to become comfortable with writing about the personal themes contained throughout the album's lyrics, saying, "It's very frightening. Because here you go, you've decided to be open and bare a part of your soul to these people, and lay it out on a platter for them to observe. So until you know that the listeners are getting any part of what you're saying, it's incredibly frightening." With Draiman on vocals and Donegan on guitar, the two were joined by Mike Wengren on drums and Steve "Fuzz" Kmak on bass. Seeking help with the album's production process, the band turned to producer Johnny K, who had gone to high school with Donegan's brother. By the time work on the album had started, a bond had already formed and Johnny K had begun working with the band as the producer for their album. In an interview with ''Guitar Edge'', Johnny K spoke about the process, saying, "They fought hard to get me to do their record. They didn't want to go to L.A. and make a record that wouldn't be any better than their demos. I felt that with a budget and time, I could make a record everyone would really like ..I pushed them as hard as I could, and we felt successful before it sold one copy. All of that hard work, and the fact that they are such a good band, made it easy for me to get other jobs. People liked it and would say, 'Who did the Disturbed album? Let's get him.'" Recording sessions took place in late 1999, and on March 7, 2000, ''The Sickness'' was released; however, the album was not an instant success. The lead single from the album, "
Stupify "Stupify" is a song by American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Disturbed (band), Disturbed. It was released on 12 April 2000, as the first single from their debut album, ''The Sickness''. It peaked at No. 12 on the United States Hot Mainst ...
", was released in April of 2000. " twas actually a hard sell at radio," Draiman said. "It's not like it shot up. They worked it. Giant Records at the time, they worked it. They pushed it to where it got enough awareness that it did start to chart decently." The track addressed themes of racism and discrimination, loosely based on one of Draiman's own experiences. It would go on to reach No. 12 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 10 on Modern Rock and remains one of their most popular songs. It was followed by the singles " Down with the Sickness" in October of the same year, "
Voices Voices or The Voices may refer to: Film and television * ''Voices'' (1920 film), by Chester M. De Vonde, with Diana Allen * ''Voices'' (1973 film), a British horror film * ''Voices'' (1979 film), a film by Robert Markowitz * ''Voices'' (19 ...
" the following November, and "
The Game The Game or The Games may refer to: Sports and games * The Game (dice game) (German: ''Das Spiel''), a dice game designed by Reinhold Wittig * The Game (mind game), a mind game, the objective of which is to avoid thinking about The Game itself * ...
" in February 2001.


Reissues


10th anniversary

On March 23, 2010, a reissue of the album was released that was remastered, slightly remixed and includes B-sides, new artwork, and exclusive online content. This reissue celebrates the tenth anniversary of the release of the album and is available for the first time in Standard Black vinyl format. Disturbed's guitarist, Dan Donegan, commented on the reissue: " ..it's the album that put us on the map and launched our career. So we went back into the studio and we remixed it, we're having it remastered, we're gonna put a couple of bonus tracks on there and touch up some of the packaging and the artwork. Just a little collector's item, a little tribute to that album for the fans". The two songs included in the reissue, "God of the Mind" and "A Welcome Burden", are also included in a B-side compilation called '' The Lost Children''.


20th anniversary

In January 2020, Disturbed announced that they were going on tour for ''The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour'' with
Staind Staind ( ) is an American rock band from Springfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The original lineup consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist and backing vocalist Johnny April, and dr ...
and Bad Wolves. The tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ''The Sickness'' was re-released to mark the album's 20th anniversary. It includes all of the original songs remastered and live versions of the songs. ''The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour'' was rescheduled for July and September 2021 but was once again canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions.


Critical reception

The album received positive reviews upon release. Steve Huey from AllMusic commented "But even if it has a few less-than-compelling moments, ''The Sickness'' overall comes off as the work of a band who really doesn't have far to go to achieve total control of its sound and compositional skills, and that makes it a terrific debut album."


Accolades

In 2013, ''
Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...
'' featured ''The Sickness'' in their "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums" list, placing the album at number 24. In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 2000 by '' Metal Hammer'' magazine. In 2021, the album was put on the list of the
Revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
magazine "20 Essential Nu-Metal Albums".


Soundtrack appearances

* "Voices" appeared in one of the trailers for the horror film '' Jeepers Creepers''. * "The Game" appeared in the English adaptation of '' Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge''. * "Stupify" and "Fear" appeared in an English adaptation of '' Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug''. * "Down with the Sickness" appeared in several films and video games, including '' The One'', '' Queen of the Damned'', the 2004 remake of '' Dawn of the Dead'', '' Green Street'', the ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' episode " With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", '' Rock Band 2'', Guitar Hero 5, ''
Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xb ...
'', '' WWE 2K18'', ''
The Death of Dick Long ''The Death of Dick Long'' is a 2019 black comedy-drama film directed and produced by Daniel Scheinert and written by Billy Chew. The film stars Michael Abbott Jr., Virginia Newcomb, Andre Hyland, Sarah Baker, Jess Weixler, Roy Wood Jr., and S ...
'', and other media. The ''Guitar Hero 5'' and ''Rock Band 2'' versions have the "abuse" segment intact, however, all profane language was removed. ''
Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xb ...
'' also features this song in the GH On Demand feature of the game, however as the music video version of the song is the version that is used, the "abuse" segment is not featured. Professional wrestler Christopher Chri$ Ca$h Bauman also used "Down with the Sickness" as his theme song from 2001 - 2005 in CZW until his death in an automobile accident on August 18, 2005. As of 2005, Combat Zone Wrestling annually run a memorial tribute event for Bauman titled "Down with the Sickness" after his theme song. The show originally started as a double header afternoon show, with another CZW event taking place later in the evening. Many former CZW trainees have made appearances on past events, including longtime friend GQ, who has wrestled on all of the events.


Track listing


Personnel


Disturbed

* David Draiman – vocals * Dan Donegan – guitars, keyboards, programming * Steve Kmak – bass * Mike Wengren – drums, percussion, programming


Production

* Disturbed – production * Johnny Kengineering, production * Tadpole – engineering * Frank De Lamora – programming * Enrique Santiago – programming * Andy Wallace – mixing * Steve Sisco – mixdown engineering * Howie Weinberg – mastering * P.R. Brown – art direction, design, cover and object photography * Jana Leon – band photography


10th anniversary edition (2010)

*
Neal Avron Neal Avron (born December 31, 1965) is an American record producer, mixer, audio engineer, and musician. Working predominantly in rock music, Avron began working on records in 1993 and achieved his production breakthrough when he co-produced Eve ...
– mixing * Ted Jensen – mastering


International edition live tracks

* Tim Powell and Bif Dawes for Westwood One – engineering * Recorded in Chicago, IL on March 10, 2000 at The Metro


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Decade-end charts


Singles


Certifications


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sickness, The 2000 debut albums Albums produced by Johnny K Disturbed (band) albums Giant Records (Warner) albums Reprise Records albums