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Rock AM Ring, Rock IM Park, Sweden Rock, Nova Rock, Donington Download. Those were just some of the massive festivals Disturbed conquered this past June when they first came through here on this record cycle and left thousands of excited fans in their wake. Now they're back and the intensity left over from the Summer has helped make these shows some of the most memorable in recent years. I always challenge myself to come up with the right words to describe how rabid the fans are over here, and I fail every time. Seriously, you need to come over here and see what a Disturbed crowd is like in Germany, Holland, the U.K., Austria, Etc... I don't know if it's the weather, the history, or something in the water, but it is definitely a palpable madness!

I joined the tour in Brussels on October 11th and was instantly impressed with the way the fans over here have learned all the new Indestructible songs. The Ancienne Belgique venue in Brussels is also one of the coolest places in Europe to see a band like Disturbed play because the place just oozes vibe. There are several different levels to watch the show from, making it really feel like a distant cousin to a "House of Blues". That, and the fact that they have my favorite beer in the world on tap in the lobby (Hoegaarden) just pushes this venue over the top for me. Another really cool aspect of this venue is it's location. It's right next to the enormous Brussels town square, where, after soundcheck, we got to see some of the coolest old buildings in Europe just a short walk out the backstage door.

Soon after the Brussels show, we boarded the buses and headed to a little town I like to call "Are you serious? You can do that here?", aka Amsterdam! If you've never been, do yourself a favor and book a flight now. Amsterdam is one of those cities that creates legendary tales on a tour. We still laugh about Amsterdam stories from past trips here. Every time we come here, there seems to be some new crazy story that happens to one of us that tops whatever happened the last time we did some "Amster-damage". On our day off, we ventured out to find a bar that was playing some American Football on TV (all due respect to European soccer fans, our game is the REAL football!). Fortunately for us, the bar we found happened to be attached to the world famous Bull Dog "coffee shop". And yes, it's totally legal here. You order weed right off a menu like you're ordering a sandwich. Also legal here are the "goods" you can purchase while window shopping in the red light district, which we managed to take a stroll through on our way back to the hotel. Amsterdam is pure fun, let's leave it at that.

The last time I was here with Disturbed, we played the Paradiso, an insanely cool, but tiny, downtown club. This time, due to the band's increasing popularity, we moved to the much larger, but still vibe-heavy Heineken Music Hall. I loved this venue because the room is designed for rock music and sounds incredible. It sort of reminds me of a larger version of the Astoria in London. I also loved the wide open floor where I could clearly see at least 3 non-stop pits swirling throughout the show. Way to represent Amsterdam, you guys threw down hard! It was also really cool to see Spoox at this show. She flew all the way from Alaska to come see the band and take some pics, which I'm sure she'll be posting soon as well. PS - Thanks Spoox for the shot glasses, they came in handy on the drive to Hamburg.

The 2 shows in Hamburg turned out to be the hottest yet, mostly due to the small club we were playing in. I think there was an option to play one massive show in a bigger venue nearby but the guys preferred to play 2 intimate club shows instead. Based on their reaction, I'm sure all the Hamburg fans were grateful for the decision. There is something special that happens when a band like Disturbed plays clubs. Everything feels that much more intense and focused. Huge arenas are always cool, but the Hambu

The band worked very hard in the early years, recording two separate demo EPs which they then sent out to record companies. They sent two to show the record companies that they were dedicated to their music and that the first EP wasn't a fluke. The band broke out in 2000 with their single "Stupify" and subsequent album The Sickness. The album launched them in to stardom. They also released a completely revamped cover version of Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme music for the WWE, called "Glass Shatters." After participating in Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest tour in 2001, the band started the "Music as a Weapon" Tour.

In October 2002, their second album Believe debuted at #1, and in 2003, the band participated again in the Ozzfest tour.

They are currently touring with 10 Years and Ill Ni?o in support of their third album Ten Thousand Fists, released worldwide on September 20th, 2005. It debuted at #1 in the U.S. In addition to Ten Thousand Fists the band has released the tracks Hell and Monster although Monster is currently unavailable because the itunes offer it came with expired. But Hell is currently streamed on their myspace website. Both of these songs are in high demand and illustrate the band's extremely loyal fan base. In the future, the band is considering to create a "B-side" compilation including those two tracks as well as others. They are also scheduled to headline the J?germeister tour this November and will headline "Music as a Weapon III" in 2006.

The band's singer recently became embroiled in the music filesharing controversy by publicly speaking out against the RIAA's lawsuits against filesharing individuals, despite the fact his record label is a member of the RIAA.

"This is not rocket science. Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet. For the artists, my ass... I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection." - David Draiman

The WWE used Disturbed's single "Stricken" as the official theme of New Year's Revolution in 2006.

On January 7, Draiman said, on a radio show in Seattle, that it "looks" like Disturbed would be on this year's Ozzfest. However, he later said in an interview on January 30 that he never said anything like that to anyone, contradicting his previous statement. Draiman's conflicting statements led to an uproar of criticism from a few fans on Disturbed's offical messageboard. This resulted in the shut down of the online community by the band and their management. Although no official statement from the band or management has been made, it is reported by such sources as Blabbermouth.net that Draiman feels that the online community, which had grown to 8,000 has become a source of frustration for the band due to ongoing criticism and quarreling.

Nearly a decade after the release of their groundbreaking debut, The Sickness, Disturbed have become one of the most passionate and well-respected bands in the hard-rock universe, a dependable source not only of pummeling riffs and jackhammer beats, but of personal and political insights into our troubled times. Yet success (in the form of three platinum-plus albums, with both Believe and Ten Thousand Fists topping Billboard's album chart and over nine million albums sold) hasn't dulled this Chicago-based foursome's taste for adventure. If anything, Disturbed's loyal fanbase has pushed the band to newer heights of self-expression. So it makes sense that on the occasion of their fourth album, Indestructible, that frontman David Draiman, guitarist Dan Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren decided to take the reins and produce themselves in the studio.

"Doing three records with Johnny K taught us a tremendous amount," Draiman says of the industry veteran who helmed The Sickness, Believe and Ten Thousand Fists. "We're always trying to evolve and try new things and experiment," adds Donegan. "So this time we wanted to do things a little bit differently." Wengren says that Indestructible—which the band tracked over three months in Fall 2007 at Chicago's Groovemaster Recording—afforded the band the "opportunity to prove to ourselves and to everybody else that we could do it." The result of Disturbed's experimentation in the studio is the group's darkest, angriest outing yet. Inspired by two and a half years' worth of challenging experiences, Draiman told the rest of the band that he was in the mood to purge. Fortunately, they were right there with him.

"We wanted to get back to some of the elements that were maybe lacking on the last two records," says Donegan. "David's got a great ability to sing really melodically, but we wanted him to get back to the rhythmic, animalistic, rapid-fire delivery he's known for. He's very hard to touch when he does that, and we wanted to give him music to provoke that."