“Judgements, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms – in themselves such judgements are stupidities.”
-Nietzsche
Ten Thousand Fists is the third studio album by Disturbed. Released on 20 September 2005, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with 239,000 copies sold in its first week. It has been certified 3x platinum in the United States, and is the band’s second highest-selling album, next to The Sickness.
Disturbed — frontman David Draiman, guitarist Dan Donegan, and drummer Mike Wengren — had been without a bassist since the departure of Steve “Fuzz” Kmak. He was dismissed in November of 2003, as the band were finishing touring for the second album, Believe. Regarding this line-up change, Draiman and co. initially didn’t say much of anything. The general gist was “personality differences,” which is usually fairly self-explanatory. John Moyer — formerly of Texan nu-metal outfit the Union Underground — was brought in as a replacement.
With one line-up change within the band, Ten Thousand Fists was also Disturbed’s last album to be produced by Johnny K (Mushroomhead, Drowning Pool). And, it featured Disturbed’s mascot “The Guy” on the front cover; he has been a staple in the band’s album artworks since. He would also appear in the video for the band’s cover of Genesis’s 1986 single “Land of Confusion.”
On 16 June 2005, the album title was announced. I mistakenly thought it was Ten Thousand Punches, and called it that for a good two months. Silly me.
“Guarded” was released that same month, not as a single per se, but as a teaser. It “was put out there to just whet everybody’s appetite,” Draiman said. “It’s one of the more aggressive tracks on the record, just to remind everybody where we came from and who we are.” Guarding oneself as a means of self-preservation. Being a public figure and making music for a living comes with its share of perks, but those perks usually come with the loss of privacy, and a whole list of new problems once the money is there.
“Stricken” was the actual lead single for Ten Thousand Fists. A video, directed by Nathan “Karma” Cox, took place in an abandoned mental hospital, where some of the locations for Nightmare on Elm Street were filmed. The lyrics describe an endless obsession with a love that has gone unrequited. “You don’t know what your power has done to me,” Draiman sings. “I want to know if I’ll heal inside.”
The track has been a fan favourite ever since, and is notable for being one of Disturbed’s first songs to feature a guitar solo. “Overburdened” and “Land of Confusion” did as well, but “Stricken” seemed to be the chosen track to lead, to give fans a taste of the new Disturbed. Equally emotionally-charged and radio-friendly, it seemed to have this mass appeal. Not something you typically see in the metal world. The album saw the band move away from the nu-metal stylings of The Sickness and Believe, and towards a more traditional, thrash-inspired sound. A new-old sound more commonly associated with Iron Maiden and Metallica than that of Korn and Limp Bizkit.
Slipknot had abandoned any semblance of nu-metal on Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. Mudvayne and Drowning Pool had also gone in a traditional direction with their releases around that time. Linkin Park and Adema were going in a more straight-ahead rock direction. Disturbed were simply one of many acts who found inspiration by changing things up, while retaining their sense of intensity and connection with their fans.
With a solid lead single out there, Disturbed set about promoting the album further online, in an early example of what we now call viral marketing. Certain email recipients would receive a piece of software, who would in turn pass it along to further recipients. Once 250,000 recipients were reached, the title track was unlocked.
The album’s debut was a great success for the band. Enough fans amassed to give Disturbed their second consecutive number one chart debut, as Ten Thousand Fists sold 239,000 copies in its first week. And when it came time to tour, Disturbed hit the road with 10 Years and Ill Nino. The following year saw the band tour relentlessly across the world, joining Korn for the Australian leg of their See You on the Other Side World Tour, alongside Hatebreed and 10 Years. They then headlined Ozzfest 2006, with System of a Down, Lacuna Coil, DragonForce, Avenged Sevenfold, and Hatebreed rounding out the main stage.
Three further singles were released from the album:
“Just Stop” was released in February of 2006. It had a more modest chart presence than previous singles, but I enjoyed it greatly. It has the band’s signature blend of metal grooves and an anthemic chorus that launches into the stratosphere. “Just stop with all your little deliberate problems with my life,” Draiman sings.
“Land of Confusion” followed, with the aim of “taking a song that’s absolutely nothing like us and making it our own,” according to Draiman. The Sickness featured the band’s cover of Tears for Fears’ “Shout,” following the nu-metal tendency to take their favourite hits from the eighties, and transform them into something that was both a heartfelt tribute, and a breath of fresh air. It was the same with their take on Genesis’ hit. The song’s bridge was replaced with a solo by Donegan. The video, directed by Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane, depicts government and big business collusion as being like a Nazi-style dictatorship, overthrown by an army of people led by the Guy.
At the end of the year, “Ten Thousand Fists” was the fifth and final single. Of the title track, Draiman said it “signifies strength, unity, conviction, power, and the exhilaration that you feel when you get to see that at one of our shows. It’s one of my favourite moments, and people know that I have an affinity for asking people to put their fists in the air, and it’s just, it’s exhilaration to be able to see ten thousand raised fists or more.”
All singles and promotional tracks were well-received by fans, as did the album’s deeper cuts. “Deify” is just one track that has a strong anti-war message, featuring audio of then-U.S. President George W. Bush urging the nation towards war in the Middle East. “Decadence” appeared on the soundtrack for EA’s 2005 racing game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
Each song is different, but themes heard throughout the album tend to deal with rejecting external judgement, manipulation, control, but also defiance, and empowerment.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,” Viktor Frankl said. “To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor. He founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy describes the search for meaning in one’s life as a motivating force. He published many books, most famously Man’s Search for Meaning. It might seem weird to take Disturbed’s lyrics and the works of the famous logotherapist, but both engage with themes of control and judgement. But there is a connection. Frankl emphasised that while we cannot control our external circumstances, we can control how we respond. Attempts at external control cannot truly succeed if one’s inner freedom remains intact.
The lyrics heard throughout Ten Thousand Fists say more or less the same thing, just in a more aggressive, confrontational tone. A philosopher like Frankl would probably stroke his chin and sympathise with the demand for autonomy. He would add that there is a greater need to affirm one’s own meaning and responsibility to oneself, regardless of the attempts at control.
The aggression found in Disturbed’s music and Draiman’s lyrics might appeal more to the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw such attempts at control and manipulation to be a manifestation of the “herd instinct,” or the inclination to think and act like the majority. Judgement is the domain of the weak individuals who make up the herd, who would constrain and criticise to keep the strong down to their level. The noble, life-affirming individual that is the Ubermensch — the Guy seems to symbolise this — will break free, and assert their values, their will to power.
He might think the people raising their fists alongside the Guy are the herd, but hey ho. “Socrates was rabble” and whathaveyou.
What does one do? Transcend judgement (Frankl), or dismiss and overcome it with boldness (Nietsche)? Is there some kind of middle ground? Neither? Both philosophers come to mind when I think about these lyrics, but the tendency to push back associates the band more with the Nietzschean ideal in my mind. Draiman was educated in religion and philosophy as a youth, no doubt he could come up with a far more cogent take on this. People see systems of control, and we experience the effects to varying degrees. Some express this through music, some explore philosophy and psychology, others do many different things.
And to this day, the band members don’t consider Ten Thousand Fists to be an overtly political record. They were just voicing their truth. That seems to be the thing with so-called nu-metal. Not too keen to put a political label on themselves, but writing lyrics and speaking truths that still manage align with people fed up with “the way things have always been.”
Whatever their meaning, they had an album and singles lighting up the charts. Things looked rosy for Disturbed throughout the mid-2000s, but complications arose when Draiman was having problems with acid reflux. This affected his voice, which led to the rescheduling of a European tour. The root of the problem seemed to be a deviated septum, and Draiman underwent surgery. Some changes to his diet and routines on tour, and he was in perfect form to tour again.
Disturbed saw out 2006 by headlining the third installment of their Music as a Weapon tour. Stone Sour, Flyleaf, and Nonpoint served as openers. There was only one leg for this tour, as the band were keen to return to the studio to record their fourth album, what would be 2008’s Indestructible.
Nu-metal may have been on the way out in the mid-2000s, but it was under these conditions that Disturbed managed to break away from the well-worn path and establish themselves as accomplished, timeless metallers. Good for them, and good for us listeners too. I just hope listeners today can get into the album’s deeper cuts, and not just “Stricken,” as great as that track is.
Lawrence Deveney 