A dance remix of Disturbed’s Sound Of Silence cover has cracked the US dance charts, and it is the worst thing we’ve heard in a hot minute

By Matt Mills
( Metal Hammer )
published

If you want to hear David Draiman wailing about “silence” over an obnoxiously loud club beat, this is the remix for you…

A screenshot of the Disturbed Sound Of Silence video, showing singer David Draiman staring at the viewer
(Image credit: Disturbed via Youtube)

An atrocious dance remix of Disturbed’s version of The Sound Of Silence (originally by Simon And Garfunkel) has given the band their first hit on the Billboard dance chart, according to a report.

As reported by Forbes yesterday (March 19), the remix, by producer Cyril, has reached number 34 on the chart.

Disturbed singer David Draiman responded to the news on X (formerly Twitter), simply posting, “Holy shit”, plus a link to the Forbes story.

Cyril’s remix of The Sound Of Silence was released on February 13 and currently has more than 7.5 million views on Youtube, despite being irredeemably bad. Draiman’s melancholic vocals about the throes of silence are sped up then terribly, and ironically, underpinned by a loud, bouncy club beat. It’s tonally dissonant, lazy and completely misses the point of Simon And Garfunkel’s original work.

Nonetheless, according to Blabbermouth, the remix has been something of a sleeper hit. Last month, it debuted on the US Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart and started slowly creeping upwards, peaking at number three.

The chart news also marks yet another success for Disturbed’s cover. The Sound Of Silence is currently the nu metal band’s most listened-to song on Spotify with 745 million streams. Their second-biggest song, Down With The Sickness, has 725 million.

The Sound Of Silence’s video is also the most watched on Disturbed’s Youtube channel, with 982 million hits at time of publication. The band’s second-most viewed video, again for Down With The Sickness, only has 216 million.

Disturbed’s performance of The Sound Of Silence on late-night talk show Conan in 2016 has gone on to break records as well, becoming the most viewed video on host Conan O’Brien’s Youtube channel. O’Brien later jokingly posted on X, “I always knew that heavy metal band covers of Simon & Garfunkel songs would be my legacy.”

Disturbed are currently touring to promote their 2022 album, Divisive. The full list of announced 2024 dates is available below, with tickets now on sale.

Disturbed 2024 tour dates

Mar 21: Melbourne Knotfest, Australia
Mar 23: Sydney Knotfest, Australia
Mar 24: Brisbane Knotfest, Australia

May 9: Daytona Beach Welcome To Rockville, FL
May 14: Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena, IA
May 16: Columbus Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival, OH
Sep 28: Louisville Louder Than Life, KY
Oct 13: Sacramento Aftershock Festival, CA

Matt Mills
Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.