Disturbed Has Recorded Enough Material For A New Album, Says Guitarist Dan Donegan

Disturbed are currently deep into celebrating a major milestone – 25 years of their groundbreaking debut album, The Sickness – with an extensive tour. While fans are enjoying the anniversary celebration, guitarist Dan Donegan confirmed that although a new studio album’s worth of material is already recorded, its release date remains undetermined as the band keeps its focus firmly on the ongoing tour.

In a recent interview with Rock 100.5 The KATT FM, Donegan addressed the timeline for the follow-up to 2022’s Divisive:

“We haven’t really nailed down when we wanna release it because our priority’s been this tour [celebrating 25 years of The Sickness. We wanted to keep the focus on the anniversary.”, he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).

He assured fans that new music exists and the band is pleased with it:

“We did record a bunch of material this past fall, enough for an album, and it’s great and we love it and we’re excited about it.”

However, strategic planning around future touring, including European dates this autumn continuing the anniversary theme and formulating plans for 2026, means a full album launch isn’t imminent. Donegan suggested a possible path forward:

“We may drop another single at some point, and maybe we’ll have a release date for the whole album by that point.”

To tide fans over during the anniversary tour, Disturbed released a standalone single, “I Will Not Break,” on February 21st. Donegan explained the decision:

“…at least with this tour we’ll put out ‘I Will Not Break‘ as a [new standalone] single just to give fans something new along with this anniversary tour, but not quite announce a release date of the whole album.”

“I Will Not Break” also marks a significant business shift, being the first track released on the band’s own label, Mother Culture Records, after parting ways with their longtime home, Warner Brothers. Donegan described the transition:

“We’ve been with Warner Brothers our whole career… We had a great relationship with them… [We’re] very thankful… it was a great run with them, but we weren’t obligated to stay.”

He noted the band is leveraging the infrastructure of their management company, Q Prime, and their established industry relationships:

“We have a great relationship with our management company, with Q Prime, and they have the infrastructure too… And I think our relationship with radio and the fans over the years… we’ve had a lot of support.”

Donegan also shared the origin story of “I Will Not Break” on The Mistress Carrie Podcast, revealing it emerged during the album sessions last fall while revisiting old ’90s demos to recapture the early Disturbed vibe. Though a new composition, “it kind of just had that vibe.” He recounted the moment the core riff clicked: “I changed the riff probably 50 times… when the riff finally came about, I think me, Mike [Wengren] and Drew [Fulk, producer] just looked at each other and were, like, ‘That’s it. That’s the one.’ And David‘s [Draiman, Disturbed singer] trying to play catch-up, because he’s gotta write all these lyrics to these songs.” The song humorously earned the working title “Cakebread” after a bottle of wine enjoyed during its creation.

“The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour” kicked off in late February 2025 and is currently underway across North America. The shows feature a unique two-part set: The Sickness played in its entirety, followed by a set of greatest hits. Support acts have included Three Days Grace (with Adam Gontier) and Sevendust on the first leg, with Daughtry and Nothing More featured on the second leg.

While a new Disturbed album is confirmed to be “in the can,” the band is currently dedicated to celebrating their five-times platinum debut live with fans across the globe, with a full album release pending further strategic planning.