Metal Anarchy

Disturbed are planning to release a new album in 2027. Guitarist Dan Donegan confirmed the news during a recent interview with The Rockpit.

Donegan commented:

“We definitely have a lot of material in the vault. We have an album sitting there that we’re trying to figure the timeframe [to release]. And that was part of the discussion [we had about our touring plans]. So once we realized we wanted to come back into your part of the world [in the spring of 2027], we wanted to also have a game plan and an announcement of the release of an album. So sometime in ’27 is the game plan [to release the new album]. We don’t have an exact date. So I’m hoping that we can have new music, at least a single or something, out before we come over there [to New Zealand, Australia and Asia in April/May 2027]. But as far as the album release, I don’t know that date just yet. We have to talk with management and figure out that game plan. But we’re very excited about it.

We’ve tracked [the new album]. Now I’m actually going to L.A. to meet up with [singer] David [Draiman] and [drummer] Mike [Wengren] in a couple weeks to have one final comb-through of the material to see if there’s any things, now that we’ve been living with these ideas for a while, is there anything we need to touch up on or wanna change? But it’s basically just sitting back listening, combing through and probably putting it under the microscope a little too much. Sometimes you gotta just back off and leave it alone and let it be. But it’s kind of our last look at it before we make that final announcement.”

He also added:

“We always try to push each other, ’cause we’re trying to inspire each other. So everything usually starts with me musically, that I present to the guys. And I don’t care about the outside world as much as I care about the guys I’m writing with. I wanna bring in something that’s gonna be inspiring to them, of course. That’s the only time I feel like, okay, their opinions are the ones that matter to me because they gotta play their parts to it, they gotta write to it. So, musically, I still feel like there’s a lot left in the tank. I feel like I’m… I go to enough concerts, I’m constantly at shows when I’m back home. I’m just looking for inspiration all the time. I just went to see Metallica at the Sphere in Las Vegas last weekend. This whole summer — I live about 25 minutes away from our outdoor amphitheater out here. I was living up there all summer long. I’ve seen everything from Creed to Limp Bizkit to Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Megadeth — god, everything that came through, everything from John Mellencamp to Train to everything in between. So I’m very much in my element when I’m in the crowd and I feel like that kid again. I mean, I don’t need to stand on side stage to watch bands. I’ll go out in the crowd and I’ll watch it like everybody else, and I’m there all the time. So I’m very much looking for that push and that inspiration.

So for this album, this future album, there’s a lot of signature things that are Disturbed. There’s some syncopation, some aggression, melodic moments from David, animalistic moments from David. I’ll get him kind of doing his growling thing again, and some of the old-school elements. I went back and I dug up some demos, the riffs that we did in the ’90s, in the late ’90s… A lot of times I try to sneak those back in without playing the demos for the guys. I just try to sneak a riff back in because if it’s stuck with me that long, I always try to see what we could do with it today, [with] fresh ears and fresh ideas. And there’s a certain song that’ll probably make this new album that it was a riff that I had from then, from the late ’90s. And we didn’t really… It was just all improvised. It was literally taking a cassette player back then, setting it up in the back of the room, in the rehearsal room, and hitting the ‘record’ button, and then we just had these live jam sessions. And I would go back and I’d listen to ’em and say, ‘What jumps out to me? Is there something still 25 to 30 years later that I’m still, like, ‘Wow, that was cool’?” And so there’s definitely some of those I’ll kind of bring back to the surface and see if we connect with it again. And then there’s the possibility of just collaborating with a couple artists that were on our mind that we’ve never really quite done before, other than Ann Wilson from Heart that we did on the previous album, on ‘Divisive’. That was the first time we ever really had an outside collaboration on a studio album like that. So, even though these haven’t taken place yet — I’m probably speaking too soon — but it’s definitely something on our radar that we thought, ‘This deep into our career, let’s have a little fun with maybe trying to do a little bit more of that,’ and seeing what that outside collaboration can bring to the table.

But as where the material sits now, there’s still, there’s still some really great tracks on here. And the only one that we’ve released off it so far was the song called ‘I Will Not Break’, which was released as a single. It was Number One here in the States, and it was released around the world, and it gives you a taste of some of the aggression. But it’s not all aggression. It’s a good combination. It’s a good blend of those melodic moments and those animalistic moments.”

[via Blabbermouth]