The Sickness

The Sickness is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Disturbed. It was released on March 7, 2000, by Giant and Reprise Records. The album peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard 200, and spent a total of 103 weeks on the chart. 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.[5] 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.[6]

The Sickness
Studio album by Disturbed
Released	March 7, 2000
Recorded	November–December 1999
Genre	Nu metal[1]
Length	47:18
Label	Giant Reprise
Producer	Johnny K
Disturbed chronology
The Sickness (2000) Believe (2002)
Singles from The Sickness
"Stupify" Released: April 12, 2000 "Down with the Sickness" Released: October 31, 2000 "Voices" Released: November 21, 2000 "The Game" Released: February 20, 2001

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]
Spin	5/10[4]

2020 reissue

In January 2020, Disturbed announced that they were going on tour for The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour with Staind and Bad Wolves. The tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sickness was re-released to mark the album's 20th anniversary. It includes all of the original songs remastered and live versions of the songs. The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour was rescheduled for July and September 2021.

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."[2]

Accolades

In 2013, Loudwire featured The Sickness in their "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums" list, placing the album at number 24.[7]

Soundtrack appearances

• "Voices" appeared in one of the trailers for the horror film Jeepers Creepers.
• "The Game" appeared in the English adaptation of Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge.
• "Stupify" and "Fear" appeared in an English adaptation of Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.
• "Down with the Sickness" 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 episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", Guitar Hero Live, WWE 2K18 and other media. The 2009 Guitar Hero game (Guitar Hero 5) 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. Professional wrestler Christopher Chri$ Ca$h Bauman also used "Down with the Sickness" as his theme song from 2001 - 2005 in CZW until his death in an automobile accident on August 18, 2005. As of 2005, Combat Zone Wrestling annually run a memorial tribute event for Bauman titled "Down with the Sickness" after his theme song. The show originally started as a double header afternoon show, with another CZW event taking place later in the evening. Many former CZW trainees have made appearances on past events, including longtime friend GQ, who has wrestled on all of the events

Track listing

All tracks are written by Disturbed, except for "Shout 2000", which was composed by Ian Stanley and Roland Orzabal.

Standard and 20th Anniversary Edition

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Voices"	3:11
2.	"The Game"	3:47
3.	"Stupify"	4:33
4.	"Down with the Sickness"	4:38
5.	"Violence Fetish"	3:23
6.	"Fear"	3:46
7.	"Numb"	3:44
8.	"Want"	3:52
9.	"Conflict"	4:35
10.	"Shout 2000" (Tears for Fears cover)	4:18
11.	"Droppin' Plates"	3:48
12.	"Meaning of Life"	4:01
Total length:		47:34

2002 re-issue

No.	Title	Length
13.	"God of the Mind"	3:05
14.	"Stupify (live)"	4:53
15.	"The Game (live)"	3:53
16.	"Voices (live)"	3:36
17.	"Down with the Sickness (live)"	6:16
Total length:		1:09:17

10th anniversary edition

No.	Title	Length
13.	"God of the Mind"	3:04
14.	"A Welcome Burden"	3:32
Total length:		54:09

Instrumental disc

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Voices (instrumental)"	3:18
16.	"The Game (instrumental)"	3:53
17.	"Stupify (instrumental)"	4:13
18.	"Down with the Sickness (instrumental)"	4:45
19.	"Violence Fetish (instrumental)"	3:29
20.	"Fear (instrumental)"	3:53
21.	"Numb (instrumental)"	3:50
22.	"Want (instrumental)"	3:57
23.	"Conflict (instrumental)"	4:41
24.	"Shout 2000 (instrumental)" (Tears for Fears cover)	4:25
25.	"Droppin' Plates (instrumental)"	3:48
26.	"Meaning of Life (instrumental)"	4:00
Total length:		1:42:19

Personnel

Disturbed

• David Draiman – vocals
• Dan Donegan – guitars, keyboard, programming
• Steve Kmak – bass
• Mike Wengren – drums, percussion, programming

Production

• Disturbed – production
• Johnny K – engineering, 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

10th anniversary edition (2010)

• Neal Avron – mixing
• Ted Jensen – mastering

International edition live tracks

• Tim Powell and Bif Dawes for Westwood One – engineering
• Recorded in Chicago, IL on March 10, 2000 at The Metro

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Peak position
2000	US Top Heatseekers[8]	3
	US Billboard 200[5]	29
2001	UK Albums Chart[9]	102
2002	US Catalog Albums Chart[10]	1
2008	Australian Albums Chart[11]	30
	US Hard Rock Albums Chart[12]	19
2010	Greece Albums Chart[13]	5

Singles

Year	Song	Chart	Peak position
2000	"Stupify"	Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[14]	12
		Alternative Songs[15]	10
2001	"Down with the Sickness"	Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[14]	5
		Alternative Songs[15]	8
2006		Hot Ringtones[14]	2
2000	"Voices"	Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[14]	16
		Alternative Songs[15]	18
2001		UK Singles Chart[9]	52
2002	"The Game"	Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[14]	34

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[16]	Platinum	70,000^^
Canada (Music Canada)[17]	2× Platinum	200,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[18]	Gold	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[19]	5× Platinum	5,000,000
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Lemeshow-Barooshian, Rae (January 8, 2019). "Top 50 Nu-Metal Albums of all-time". Loudwire. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
2. Huey, Steve. "Review The Sickness Disturbed". AllMusic. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
3. Ratliff, Ben (September 28, 2000). "Rolling Stone Review of The Sickness, Mudvayne's L.D. 50, Relative Ash's Our Time With You, and Soulfly's Primitive". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 10, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
4. Seward, Scott (June 2000). "Reviews". Spin. SPIN Media LLC. 16 (6): 158. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
5. "Disturbed Chart History - Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
6. Metal Hammer Forum – Einzelnen Beitrag anzeigen – Der relevante Charts/Verkaufszahlen Fred Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine
7. "No. 24: Disturbed, 'The Sickness' – Best Debut Hard Rock Albums". Loudwire. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
8. "The Sickness: 10th Anniversary Edition – Disturbed". Allmusic. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
9. Zywietz, Tobias. "Chart Log UK 1994–2008". Zobbel.
10. "Disturbed Chart History - Catalog Albums". Billboard.
11. "Disturbed – The Sickness". australian-charts.com. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
12. "Disturbed Chart History - Hard Rock Albums". Billboard.
13. "Disturbed – The Sickness". greekcharts.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-13.
14. "Disturbed > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
15. "Disturbed Album & Song Chart History: Alternative Songs". Billboard.
16. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2006 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
17. "Canadian album certifications – Disturbed – The Sickness". Music Canada. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
18. "British album certifications – Disturbed – The Sickness". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved September 20, 2020. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type The Sickness in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
19. "American album certifications – Disturbed – The Sickness". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 20, 2020. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH.