DISTURBED Guitarist: Hiatus 'Injected New Life' Into The Band

July 22, 2016

DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan spoke to The Times-Tribune about the group's controversial 2011 decision to take a long break so that he and his bandmates could enjoy their families and work on other creative side projects.

"The rush from the fans is something we've definitely missed on the hiatus," he said. "The hiatus was an amazing thing for us to do. If anything, it injected this new life into us after being away from each other and it made us miss what we have together. We come back firing on all cylinders."

He continued: "We were going to hard for so many years. It was 11 or 12 years of go, go, go. We'd been climbing that mountain and a lot of people thought we were crazy to walk away from that. [But] the fans got a little rest from it, and it made them miss us more, and we missed each other more. Creatively, it allowed us to become better musicians [by collaborating] with other players outside of DISTURBED. When we returned, we all brought something additional to the table."

DISTURBED went on hiatus after completing the touring cycle for its "Asylum" album and issuing a rarities collection called "The Lost Children".

During the hiatus, singer David Draiman launched a new band called DEVICE, while Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren premiered a new project called FIGHT OR FLIGHT.

DISTURBED's comeback album, 2015's "Immortalized", became the band's fifth effort in a row to enter the chart at No. 1 — a feat shared only with METALLICA and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND.

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