Introduction | Background | Album Covers and The Guy | The Sickness | Believe | Ten Thousand Fists | Indestructible |
Album Covers and The Guy |
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The Sickness  The initial album of the band, Disturbed, is entitled The Sickness. The cover features a medical slate and a person, with an extremely enraged look, trapped in a straightjacket. The information box contains the lyrics to the title track and an etched out smile face that would later become the band’s mascot referred to as “The Guy.” On the inside cover of the CD case, and behind the disk, is the same image as the cover only this time an infant is trapped. This suggests that society’s plan works to ensure that people conform to societal norms (image of straightjacket) at a very early age. The title track depicts society as abusive and not willing to deal with those who are different. In the uncensored version, Draiman acts out a sketch about a son confronting an abusive mother to enhance this image. The rest of the cd’s songs pertain to this message but offer that it is right to shout and let it all out.
On the disk itself the four members of the group are depicted as The Guy with their hair making distinguishing features. It could be interpreted that the simple depiction of the sick as being one is a unifying theme that everyone wants equality. In the section devoted to acknowledgments, Draiman says “I would like to thank a world that never understood or accepted me, family & friends that never believed in me, lovers who never ceased to torment me, & a God that has one hell of a sense of humor. You have all made me what I am today. Let that weight heavily on your consciences.” While used to further the theme of the album, it reflected the idea of how human beings are the product of their collective life experiences.
 The second album focuses on religious ideals more explicitly. The title Believe is accompanied by a collage of overlapping images. The images contained include a Pentagram, the Star of David, a Cross and the Islamic crescent. As they are portrayed as being overlapping it points to a unity of faith that ignores differences. On the inside of the album jacket, the symbols appear separate, however, they are each burned on the same fabric along with the band’s pictures which are ingrained not separate. The message could be interpreted as people are in essence much the same but, like products in a grocery store, have different brands.
The lyrics are constructed in a fashion that gives two sides, however, a quote (in all uppercase lettering as outlined below) comes between the two as the theme of the album. “IN AN AGE OF NOTHING, AT A TIME WHEN WE STAND AT THE BRINK OF OUR OWN DESTRUCTION-STRENGTHEN YOUR BELIEF IN YOURSELF, IN THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY, IN THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD WHICH CANNOT EASILY BE PERCEIVED. AWAKEN THAT WHICH LIES DORMANT NOW WITHIN YOUR SOUL. RE-IGNITE THE FLAME OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS, AND MEASURE THE STRENGTH OF YOUR CONVICTION. REVEAL THE LIE. RENOUNCE YOUR HATRED. SEEK, FIND, AND EMBRACE THE TRUTHS YOU ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO DISCOVER. CHERISH THEM, USE THEM TO ANCHOR YOU IN THE SEA OF CHAOS THAT IS THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. WHEN TWILIGHT DRAWS NEAR, WHEN YOU ARE PUSHED TO THE VERY LIMITS OF YOUR SOUL, WHEN IT SEEMS THAT ALL YOU HAVE LEFT ARE THE DEAD REMAINS OF THE FABRIC OF YOUR LIFE-BELIEVE.”
Thus Disturbed is asking people not to conform to a new ideal but simply to strengthen the fabric of which people are composed.
 The third album offers the image of a crowd holding their fists in the air. The raised fist, being a long-standing symbol of resistance or defiance, shows that the group is ready to rebel against conventional means. The third album is largely a political work. Thus, this image could be seen as uniting under an ideal. The art is drawn by Todd McFarlane who is well known for creating Spawn. As Spawn has its own conventional art style, the group likely recruited him to capture the group that they discussed in the Sickness. Another important note is that The Guy appears for the first time in humanoid form, front-and-center ready to lead.
 The fourth and final album to date is titled Indestructible. The cover image features “The Guy” on fire stepping toward the viewer in an angry state, but also very determined. As the title suggest “The Guy” is indestructible in moving forward. As the mascot has taken on the meanings of each album, this one shows that the band is presenting their ideals, or their movement, as being unbreakable. In the pages of the book, the band is pictured behind a glass wall that is breaking. The simple symbolism behind this is that they wish to bring down society’s fragile walls.
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