Disturbed's David Draiman Reacts to Claims That Rock Is Dead: 'It's Absolutely the Opposite'

"Even some of the gentlemen and ladies within our own genre are very quick to proclaim rock dead," the singer says.

During a conversation with Eddie Trunk, Disturbed vocalist David Draiman talked about the band's new album "Evolution," live shows, rock music being "dead," and more.

You can check out a part of the interview below (transcribed by UG).

Anybody will bemoan the standing of rock these days and how hard it is to break through, so the fact that you've been able to do it against the grain and you're currently out there headlining arenas, it's amazing...

"Well, they're going to keep singing that song and dance because it's a headline that for whatever reason every once in a while sells, and people click on it, they want to read about it.

"It's always so quick to proclaim rock dead, even some of the gentlemen and ladies within our own genre are very quick to proclaim rock dead.

"It's absolutely the opposite. The rock acts are doing what they're doing well are continuing to grow and are continuing to develop and the fanbase has always been there.

"The irony is that if you look at touring exclusively within the rock world, we're a dominant force on a global level. And in many territories - in fact, in most territories - we eclipsed the other genres, but it's just not one of those soundbites that seem to sell."

Where are the strongholds for Disturbed?

"We do really well in New Zealand and Australia, or we do very well across the UK, all across the European run...

"You change strategies a couple of different times in your career depending on where specific markets tend to be heating up. For a long time, several markets in Europe that weren't the strongest in rock were having a bit of resurgence.

"It's a chess match of sorts - you got to be careful where you move your pieces."

How much of the new album 'Evolution' have you been doing in the setlist?

"Quite a bit. 'Are You Ready' is definitely tailor-made to open up the set, and you know, that's definitely what we've been using. We enjoy it, the fan reaction is explosive instantaneously, and it's a wonderful opener.

"So we've been playing 'Hold On to Memories,' 'A Reason to Fight,' we've been playing 'Mo More' from the record, we've been playing 'Watch You Burn'... quite a bit of the new material from the record, and we also have several spots that we leave as our audibles for the night, the rotating song category, so you never really know what else we're going to pull out.

"We've been playing quite a bit of it and the reaction live is amazing. The new record really gives us a tremendous dynamic flow throughout the set. It enables us to have real peaks and valleys of intensity and some really emotional moments among the pummeling."

You take different turns and different passages and show a different side of what Disturbed can do. At the core, of course, it's a heavy rock band, but you've got a lot of other things no better illustrated of course than the gargantuan success of the cover of 'The Sound of Silence' on the last record.

"For sure, and you should know, it is largely in part to our influences from the classic rock, really was.

"The whole previous tour cycle, all our dressing room music was classic rock bands, it was Zeppelin and, you know, certainly Sabbath, but we're going into Journey and REO, Creedence, further and further down the line. Just listening to how much diversity those records had back in the day.

"The combination of stylistic elements and the journey they took you on - it made us really yearn to try and recreate that vibe and now having additional tools in our repertoire. It really helps make the set more dynamic, it makes for a really amazing experience, not only for the fans but for us as musicians, being able to go through all these different elements."

Now, a few years after 'The Sound of Silence' cover, it is still reverberating what you've done with that song, and one thing I think about is - I mean, look you've got a tremendous voice, but you've got to go out there and deliver that thing every night the way people want to hear it.

"It is daunting, but you know what, I got to honestly say it's literally one of my favorite moments of the night, every time we play it.

"Especially on this run, we've done it just so beautifully in terms of the theatrical method that we're delivering on this tour, and it's such a joy to see people light up the way that they do and to see an entire audience that was just a few moments prior, you know, banging their hands and creating circle pits and everything else."

"Evolution" is out now, you can check it out below.

You can check out Disturbed's latest album "Evolution" below.