Device guitarist says band could have been huge

The guitarist in David Draiman’s shelved side project Device says the group wasn’t given a chance to develop by the singer.

Andre ‘Virus’ Karkos says the rug was pulled out from under Device just as they were about to hit the big time. Draiman formed Device in 2012 during Disturbed’s hiatus, but pulled the plug just as they were about to go on a potentially lucrative tour.

Karkos tells Talk Toomey: “Device was extremely successful for the little time it was around. If it just was left to do what it was supposed to do and we gave it the proper time and attention, like we were gonna, that band would have been huge. I have no doubt about that.

“The first single went to No.1. Things were great, and we sold a bunch of records. I think that we were at 110,000 records when David pulled the plug.

“The tour that we walked away from before it was all over was Avenged Sevenfold headlining, Five Finger Death Punch was main support, and then it was Device. That was the tour that we had lined up, and David walked away. That band could have been a really large band.”

Device released their self-titled debut album in 2013 and Karkos insists the band would have gone on to be a financial success.

He adds: “I feel like if it was given its due time that you could start looking at the projected direction of the band, financially as well, and go, ‘Wow, this could be a really successful entity.’

“And then even writing a second record, I just feel like it would have been monstrous. I was really bummed out when that ended. I was really upset. But it was David’s thing. That’s kind of his decision, and I respect that.”

As for the band’s future, Karkos hopes a reunion could be on the cards. He says: “If David’s got some time off, let’s go do some Device shows. That would be great. I’m all in.”

Disturbed ended their hiatus in August with the release of latest album Immortalized. Draiman said last month that he wouldn’t record another album with Device.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.