The Sickness by Disturbed

The Sickness, the debut album from American metal crew Disturbed, dropped on March 7, 2000, on Giant and Reprise, and it came out swinging. Johnny K produced it, and he kept the sound lean and brutal: Dan Donegan's guitars chugging in tight, heavy lockstep, Mike Wengren's drums hammering like a factory floor, and David Draiman barking, growling and stuttering over the top with a percussive, staccato delivery that sounds half like a war chant and half like a machine gun.

This is nu metal with its knuckles taped: part alternative metal, part rap metal, all clenched jaw. "Down With the Sickness" is the monster, a tribal drum intro that erupts into one of the most primal howls of the era; "Stupify" twitches and snarls, and "Voices" works the same jittery menace. There's no sprawl and not much subtlety, just rage, rhythm and hooks sharp enough to survive the circle pit.

It wasn't an overnight smash. The album peaked at 29 on the Billboard 200 but refused to leave, hanging around for 106 weeks, and by 2018 it had been certified five times platinum for more than five million copies shipped in the US, making it the biggest seller Disturbed ever had. The band's next five albums all went to number one; the debut is the one that got them there.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.