Indestructible (Disturbed album)

Indestructible is the fourth studio album by American rock band Disturbed. The album was officially released on June 3, 2008 by Reprise Records, with opening sales of 253,000 units, which beat the first-week sales of the band's previous album Ten Thousand Fists. The album is also the first self-produced effort by the band, without producer Johnny K. Indestructible is Disturbed's third consecutive #1 debut on the Billboard 200, and it remained in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 for 5 consecutive weeks. Only six other rock bands have accomplished three consecutive #1 debuts, including Dave Matthews Band, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Staind, U2, and Van Halen. Indestructible was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA on July 17, 2008, shipping over 500,000 copies.

Recording and production

After the record cycle of Ten Thousand Fists, the band took a break for about a month. Drummer Mike Wengren got married, and guitarist Dan Donegan had a child during the break. After the break, the band went to Groovemaster Studios in Chicago, Illionis and began writing music. Donegan stated, "The writing process is . . . pretty much the same since the beginning, the start of the this band. It's always been riffs; something musically that I'll come up with." Wengren commented, "We're always tossing around riffs and beats, but it isn't really until we get home and we are able to clear our minds, decompress for a little bit, and then hit it, especially Danny and I, and just start throwing the riffs and the beats out, that the music starts to finally come to life." When Wengren and Donegan complete a song musically, they send it over to vocalist David Draiman, and wait for him to make a melody line.

The first song completed musically was "The Night", and Draiman completed the melody line in three days. This caused Draiman to tentatively call the record The Night. As Draiman commented, "The instrumentation was so cool and so dark and textural that I right away kind of jumped into it."

Bassist John Moyer left the studio during the recording process, due to his wife being pregnant. Donegan and Wengren sent him demos through e-mail, and he continued to write bass lines for the songs from his home studio. When the instrumentation was complete, Draiman began to write lyrics for each song. Draiman commented, "I'm a big believer in the vibe of the music and the feel of it, how the song makes you feel musically should dictate what it is to be about and so if you start with something that has meaning, but the music doesn't support the meaning, then what good is it?" When the songs were completed, the band sent them out to the record label and waited for their approval.

Regarding electronics on the album, Donegan said, "When the basic guitar, bass, [and] drums were being laid down, at first I didn't really see a whole lot of room for some of the electronics, but as the songs were starting to develop, I was just in that frame of mind to try and toy around with some of the electronics."

"We thought it would be pretty cool, especially for the fans, if we brought back maybe a song or two, that were actually written during the same period that The Sickness songs were written," comments Wengren. "Danny brought in some old demo tapes, I'm talking twelve years old, back when 'Down With the Sickness' and 'Stupify' was written, this was actually written before that." The songs that Wengren was referring to were "Perfect Insanity", and "Divide".

Promotion

On February 26, 2008, an audio sample was posted on Disturbed's official MySpace page to promote the new album. The sample, titled "Perfect Insanity", is actually an early song that never previously appeared on an album, but was expected to appear on Indestructible. The track was later made available for download, in its entirety, on Disturbed's official website for promotional purposes.

Another sample of the track "Inside the Fire" appeared on Rock on the Range's MySpace page on March 14, 2008. The track was anticipated to be the album's first official single, with a music video directed by Nathan Cox. On March 24, 2008, "Inside the Fire" debuted on more than sixty radio stations, and was released for digital download the next day, quickly rising to #1 on the charts, and staying there for fifteen weeks. On May 2, 2008, the music video for "Inside the Fire" appeared on Disturbed's official website.

March 21, 2008 saw the release of a video trailer for Indestructible. On April 9, 2008, a limited edition pre-order digipak package of Indestructible was made available for order exclusively through Disturbed's official website. The limited edition package featured the entire album, with a b-side titled "Run", a DVD featuring a documentary about the making of the album and some "InDistRuctionals", a "wrap-around" poster, a special VIP laminate which grants access to special Disturbed events through 2009, and a special code which grants access to the "Inside the Fire" website add-on. On April 17, 2008, the track listing and cover art for the album was revealed. Disturbed was a co-headlining act in the Mayhem festival in promotion of the new album, with acts such as Slipknot, Mastodon, DragonForce, and others.

On August 20, 2008, a music video for the album's third official single and title track, "Indestructible", was posted on Disturbed's official website. The music video was directed by Noble Jones and has been described "[to] resemble the high-concept battle scenes of the film 300, with shots of the band intercut with images of warriors from throughout history."

Musical and lyrical themes

Vocalist David Draiman states that, lyrically, the album was inspired by various occurrences of "bad luck" that happened to him, such as a motorcycle accident, a garage burning that destroyed most of his vehicles, a suicide incident and a number of bad relationships. On April 18, 2008, Draiman was interviewed by MTV's Headbanger's Blog website. During this interview, Draiman talked about the Mayhem festival, the torrents of aggression behind the album, the meaning of the album title, his past battles with substances and circumstance, his experience playing for US troops overseas, and the betrayal he’s encountered in his search for a soul mate.

Reception

Commercially, Indestructible was well received by critics and fans alike. Professional ratings for the album were generally favorable as well. Some of the criticism it received suggested that the comment made by guitarist Dan Donegan that the album would be "ballsier" was not true. It was also criticized for not being innovative, and that at some points, the album "seems longer than it actually is", and some tracks just "don't deliver". The Rolling Stone criticized the album for "the same old angst-mongering that has fueled a zillion rock-radio hits in the past 10 years". Much praise was given to guitarist Dan Donegan for his guitar solos and riffs, though, and the album has been described as a "Draiman/Donegan supershow". There was also praise that the rhythm section of the album was extremely well done, which set the way for Draiman's vocal performance.

Track listing

1. "Indestructible" – 4:38
2. "Inside the Fire" – 3:52
3. "Deceiver" – 3:49
4. "The Night" – 4:46
5. "Perfect Insanity" – 3:57
6. "Haunted" – 4:42
7. "Enough" – 4:20
8. "The Curse" – 3:25
9. "Torn" – 4:09
10. "Criminal" – 4:16
11. "Divide" – 3:36
12. "Façade" – 3:45

Bonus tracks

• "Run" - 3:13
• "Parasite" - 3:25

The Making of Indestructible

"The Making of Indestructible" DVD was packaged with copies of both the special edition and limited edition of the CD.

Chapter Listing

1. "Flashback"
2. "Intro"
3. "MAAW3"
4. "Break S**t"
5. "Writing"
6. "Studio"
7. "The Night"
8. "Papa John"
9. "Lyric Writing"
10. "B Room"
11. "Producing I"
12. "David Tracking"
13. "Electronica"
14. "Producing II"
15. "Cymbol Choke"
16. "Old Songs"
17. "Danny's Guitar"
18. "Inside the Fire"
19. "Indestructible"
20. "Naming Record"
21. "Closing"
22. "Credits"

Studio tracking board

The actual listing for the songs that were written during the Indestructible sessions can be seen in the chapter "Electronica" of the Making of Indestructible DVD. Nineteen songs were written during these sessions, but only fifteen were mastered and published.

1. "The Night"
2. "WHAT DE FUCK?" (Was later listed as "My Insanity," not published)
3. "Indestructible"
4. "Run"
5. "Emptiness" (not published)
6. "Parasite"
7. "Mine" (not published)
8. "Enough"
9. Untitled track (not published)
10. "Torn"
11. "Inside the Fire"
12. "Facade"
13. "Deceiver"
14. "Criminal"
15. "The Curse"
16. "Haunted"
17. "Divide"
18. "Perfect Insanity"