When David Draiman first barked out the now-infamous "Oh-wa-a-a-ah" 'monkey noise' (as it's called), you can be damn sure he didn't expect it to shape one of the most successful hard rock and heavy metal bands on the planet. Thankfully, an entire generation of 90s kids were putting their feelers out, ready and waiting for some of the most sonically-satisfying and downright badass riffs to come their way. So when a passionately driven and perfectly accessible Disturbed arrived with more landmark material in their first album than others do across entire careers, it was all they could ask for. Chances are you still remember the first time you came across the band, whether that be 2000's phenomenal The Sickness album, as Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme song in the now-renamed WWE - or through any of their four number one albums that positively demolished the Billboard 200 chart, something that puts them in league with the mighty Metallica. So, with the Immortalized album on the way and the band firing on all cylinders as they continue on with what's already been one hell of a return to form, let's celebrate everything that makes Disturbed one of the greatest metal bands of all time.
16. Dan Donegan Is One Of The Most Underrated Guitarists On The Planet
https://youtu.be/SK6XHuJmIAc?t=133 Not since Kirk Hammett has there been someone who could focus so much on note selection and the deployment of a wah pedal in just the right spots, over simply shredding as fast as they can just to fill time on a track. You can spot a Donegan solo a mile off; there's just something so exquisitely enjoyable about the scales he uses, certain patterns he likes to deploy and his unique feel on the instrument that always just screams "TURN THIS PART UP!" He's got a great sense of melody and restraint when putting sections together too, and that translates into peaks and troughs of pace, trading mind-blowingly fast sections with more technically-minded runs, just to school everyone who thought they had him figured out. All of that doesn't mention many of Disturbed's most crowd-pleasing and iconic riffs coming from his godlike fingers too (Stricken, anyone?), and to this day you need only fire up something like Immortalized's barnstorming intro to see his approach hasn't aged a day.
