At last month’s Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio, DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan was asked by Ronni Hunter and Lewis of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station if he and his bandmates have commenced work on material for the follow-up to 2022’s “Divisive” album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “When we’re out here [on the road], we just have to switch gears. Right now it’s been focused on the tour and the shows and the production. I do have probably a thousand riffs in my phone because I’ll just record stuff in the moment. I won’t get too married to it. I’ll just kind of put it in the vault. I’ll revisit it later — if I’m having a dry moment when I’m writing, I might revisit it and see if something strikes me again — but we’ll start out, a lot of times, of just going back to improvising and trying to capture something new in that moment. So I’d rather wait for that to happen first. And if I need to grab a riff here or there, if something’s not coming together, then I’ve got something to fall back on.”
This past March, DISTURBED garnered its 19th No. 1 on the Active Rock radio chart with “Don’t Tell Me”, the band’s latest single, which features a guest appearance by Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and HEART co-founder Ann Wilson. The song is DISTURBED‘s fourth No. 1 off “Divisive”.
This is the second time DISTURBED has earned four No. 1s on a single record, having previously accomplished the same feat on 2015’s “Immortalized”. Only nine rock albums since 1992 have been able to secure four No. 1 songs on the Mediabase Rock charts and two of them have been DISTURBED‘s.
Released in November 2022, “Divisive” was recorded earlier that year with producer Drew Fulk (MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, LIL PEEP, HIGHLY SUSPECT) in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Divisive” sold 26,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 22,000 units via album sales. On the all-format Billboard 200 chart, “Divisive” debuted at No. 13.
DISTURBED has had five No. 1s on the all-genre chart, beginning with “Believe” in 2002.
According to Billboard, DISTURBED‘s “Take Back Your Life” summer 2023 tour grossed $17.4 million and sold 336,000 tickets.
DISTURBED averaged 11,573 tickets sold per show, up from 6,901 in 2019 and 4,404 in 2016. The average ticket price for the “Take Back Your Life” tour was $51.07.
DISTURBED‘s biggest headlining concert ever happened on September 2, 2023 at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, where the band drew more than 20,000 fans.
