DISTURBED: First 'Immortalized' Making-Of Webisode

After a four-year hiatus, Grammy Award-nominated, multiplatinum hard rock titans DISTURBED have announced their return with their sixth studio album, titled "Immortalized", to be released August 21 through Reprise Records. Lead single "The Vengeful One" is out now, along with the accompanying animated video from award-winning filmmaker Phil Mucci, and "Immortalized" is available for pre-order everywhere. The upcoming release follows 2010's gold-certified "Asylum", DISTURBED's fourth consecutive #1 on the Billboard Top 200, and the group's subsequent break, which gave members David Draiman (vocals),Dan Donegan (guitar),Mike Wengren (drums) and John Moyer (bass) the necessary reprieve to make this imminent and deliberate return.

The first in a series of webisodes featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the making of "Immortalized" can be seen below.

"The idea was to leave when we were at our peak, which we were, and to come back when we felt reinvigorated," said Draiman. "Everything was strategic. We wanted to give ourselves a chance to breathe, give the fans a chance to breathe, and give the culture a chance to evolve. Now is the time. The environment feels ready. The musical landscape feels ready. We're ready."

"We had basically been going nonstop since 1998," added Wengren. "We got to do our things. It didn't take too long until the itch started coming back."

"We wanted to return when we collectively had that fire underneath us," agreed Donegan. "We missed it so much that we could tap into this energy and deliver the right album. We did it on our own terms."

"The Vengeful One" has racked up more than two million views in eight days, and Donegan told The Pulse Of Radio they kept the creation of the new album a secret for the better part of a year. "It's been tough, because we haven't even told like some of our family and friends, so, I mean, for us to go away for almost four months, it was tricky," he said. "I mean, there was some family that I didn't even tell what I was doing. It was tricky to kind of keep that secret, 'cause I'm very bad at lying. I'm not a good liar at all, so to kind of withhold that information from our friends and family, it was tough."

Regarding the songwriting process for "Immortalized", Draiman told Billboard.com: "There's a lot of new and fresh in the mix. We had more input on each other's parts than we probably ever had previously. Everything was really put under the microscope and everybody had an opinion, and, believe me, everyone was voicing them loudly. You get all these very, very alpha type of mentalities all in one room together, all being very, very cocksure about what they want to do and how they want to do it. There were fireworks on an occasion or two, but I must say everyone was very, very decent and open and willing to try anything anyone suggested at any point in time. We were very, very cooperative with one another, very professional the entire time — not that we haven't always been, but especially this time."

DISTURBED has yet to announce tour plans behind the new record

Band photo credit: Travis Shinn