The Sickness
The Sickness is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Disturbed, released on March 7, 2000 by Giant and Reprise Records. The album peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard 200, and has spent a total of 103 weeks on the chart as of June 2011. It was Disturbed's only album to not hit number one on the US Billboard 200 until their seventh album Evolution debuted at number 4 in 2018. In 2018, The Sickness was certified five times platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over five million copies in the US, making it the band's most successful album.
2010 reissue
On March 23, 2010, a reissue of the album was released that was remastered, slightly remixed and includes B-sides, new artwork, and exclusive online content. This reissue celebrates the tenth anniversary of the release of the album and is available for the first time in Standard Black vinyl format.Disturbed's guitarist, Dan Donegan, commented on the reissue: " it's the album that put us on the map and launched our career. So we went back into the studio and we remixed it, we're having it remastered, we're gonna put a couple of bonus tracks on there and touch up some of the packaging and the artwork. Just a little collector's item, a little tribute to that album for the fans".
The two songs included in the reissue, "God of the Mind" and "A Welcome Burden", are also included in a B-side compilation called The Lost Children.
Critical reception
The album received positive reviews upon release. Steve Huey from AllMusic commented "But even if it has a few less-than-compelling moments, The Sickness overall comes off as the work of a band who really doesn't have far to go to achieve total control of its sound and compositional skills, and that makes it a terrific debut album."Accolades
In 2013, Loudwire featured The Sickness in their "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums" list, placing the album at number 24.Soundtrack appearances
- "Voices" has appeared in one of the trailers for the horror film Jeepers Creepers.
- "The Game" has appeared in the English adaptation of '.
- "Stupify" and "Fear" have appeared in an English adaptation of '.
- "Down with the Sickness" has appeared in several films and video games including Queen of the Damned, The One, Green Street, the Dawn of the Dead remake, Rock Band 2, South Park, Guitar Hero Live, WWE 2K18 and other media. The 2009 Guitar Hero game and Rock Band version have the "abuse" segment intact, however, all profane language was removed. Guitar Hero Live also features this song in the GH On Demand feature of the game, however as the music video version of the song is the version that is used, the "abuse" segment is not featured.
Track listing
Personnel
Disturbed- David Draiman – vocals
- Dan Donegan – guitars, keyboard, programming
- Steve Kmak – bass
- Mike Wengren – drums, percussion, programming
- Disturbed – production
- Johnny K – engineer, production
- Tadpole – engineering
- Frank De Lamora – programming
- Enrique Santiago – programming
- Andy Wallace – mixing
- Steve Sisco – mixdown engineering
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- P.R. Brown – art direction, design, cover and object photography
- Jana Leon – band photography
- Neal Avron – mixing
- Ted Jensen – mastering
- Engineered by Tim Powell and Bif Dawes for Westwood One
- Recorded in Chicago, IL March 10, 2000 at The Metro
Charts
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
| 2000 | US Top Heatseekers | 3 |
| 2000 | US Billboard 200 | 29 |
| 2001 | UK Albums Chart | 102 |
| 2002 | US Catalog Albums Chart | 1 |
| 2008 | Australian Albums Chart | 30 |
| 2008 | US Hard Rock Albums Chart | 19 |
| 2010 | Greece Albums Chart | 5 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart | Peak position |
| 2000 | "Stupify" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 12 |
| 2000 | "Stupify" | Alternative Songs | 10 |
| 2001 | "Down with the Sickness" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 5 |
| 2001 | "Down with the Sickness" | Alternative Songs | 8 |
| 2006 | "Down with the Sickness" | Hot Ringtones | 2 |
| 2000 | "Voices" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 16 |
| 2000 | "Voices" | Alternative Songs | 18 |
| 2001 | "Voices" | UK Singles Chart | 52 |
| 2002 | "The Game" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 34 |