What does Down with the Sickness mean?

Disturbed: Down with the Sickness Meaning

Album cover for Down with the Sickness album cover

Song Released: 2000


Down with the Sickness Lyrics

Can you feel that?
Ah shit

Drowning deep in my sea of loathing
Broken your servant I kneel
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing in me
(Will you give in to me?)

Looking at my own...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 6th 2008 !⃝

    It's about how when you are put down so much (could be physical, mental, social etc.) to the point where you begin to change and you can't hold in the anger you've been trying to contain.

    The anger is "the sickness", which I guess is what begins to consume a person when they have been subject to the kind of "torture" depicted in the song. and when it does consume a person, they begin to change for the worse ("looking in my own reflection, when suddenly it changes").

  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 6th 2008 !⃝

    I think he was abused. I think his mom cut his throat that's why he can make that sound at the beginning of the song.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 18th 2008 !⃝

    I always thought that the guy who sings it worked at a mental institution and that he knew someone who was beaten as a child and killed his mom.

    but then again I know a lot of people who just like making me look like an idiot.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 7th 2008 !⃝

    I don't think he means a mom when he says "you mother"....I think that he just means more like "you mother f*cker" , but hey, that's way to many syllables for the line...tee hee

    I think the song is about inner corruption....watching yourself become some horrible thing....and in some sick, masochistic way. enjoying it!

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 26th 2007 !⃝

    Bahaha..."completely baboon"?? that is soo lame!!
    not to mention racist!

    if the composer himself said it was about his childhood then so be it..no need to argue anymore case closed sheesh..

    n to that dude who said "Hail Hitler"..you do realise that david is a Jew?..moron

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. erinw88
    click a star to vote
    Sep 12th 2007 !⃝

    What are you talking about? I just laughed at that, that's so wrong, what I said first is the meaning, I swear, it came from David himself, I promise.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 10th 2007 !⃝

    Ok this song is about the main character going to prison and being rapped by this big, and more than likely black man.

    FIRST VERSE
    line one and two are telling you he is in prison
    line three is the big black guy
    line four is talking about this big black guy who looks like a baboon is going to rape him and slowly put his baboonness inside him
    line five is the black guy again

    if you listen to the song you can hear the chase that the black guy is giving him with the "AWW AWW" screeches

    SECOND VERSE
    this is where the black guy catches him
    line one is where he looks at his ruined ass in the mirror
    line two and three is his hole changing cause a big baboon has been in it
    line three is once you go black you never go back
    line four he is a baboon now, and he rapes other prisoners

    CHORUS
    line one is incourageing more people to be baboons and rape
    line two is kinky and he is telling people to rape him
    line three is more about the gay agenda
    as is four and five
    line six is glorifing being gay

    THIRD VERSE
    line one he is trying to convince others they are gay
    line two he is brainwashing them
    line three he takes the role of the baboon
    line four and five he tries to excuse his actions

    FOURTH VERSE
    line one, two, and three he is helping someone cope with turning baboon
    line four and five he is blaming all of his rapes on the baboon that rapped him

    THE MOMMY PART
    this is where his newly aquired aids is eating his brain and he is spitting out random sentences, ignore this part... It is dumb and ruins the song

    CHORUS
    it is still the same except the last line has changed to tell every one that he is completly baboon now.

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 1st 2007 !⃝

    Okay to get some stuff straight. The song is an original disturbed song undoubtedly not redone or any of that shit. The drum beat at the beginning is a disturbed trademark and the bark and everything. It is all Draiman's lyrics. The cheese dude whoever he is did a jazz version but it's not his. and the song is about society. you can't argue with a direct quote from the artist who did the song. and not all songs have to be from a personal and literal perspective so get off the whole thing of him being abused by his mother. The end part where he's screaming is to further push the point of how society(mother) hurts and pushes and does all this shit to the people who are subject to it(child). And anyone who has met Draiman, I envy you.

  9. Crittic47274
    click a star to vote
    May 6th 2007 !⃝

    Ok Richard Cheese did a version of this song, and it's not an old song, you can tell by just listening to the audio of the song. This is A Disturbed original at it's best and I totally believe the whole mother society quote but to tell you the truth I'm sick of hearing how awful the world is. Yet Disturbed still rocks.

  10. erinw88
    click a star to vote
    Apr 3rd 2007 !⃝

    Yes, Stupify, But Not Down With the Sickness.

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 3rd 2007 !⃝

    Stupify has to do with racist assholes. He gives an example of when he dated a girl of different race. It also shows how the world is dark and sinister. Like in the video.

  12. erinw88
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2007 !⃝

    I'm Telling You, He Himself Said That Quote, And He Pretty Much Disliked The Way His Mother Treated Him Just As Anyone Dislikes How Their Mother Treats Them.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2007 !⃝

    Last time they were is my city touring with drowning pool, I met up with david for drinks at gilhooleys, and asked him why the song in question was absolutely insane. and with a complete straight face, he pretty much said exactly what that dude said up there about mother beating down children. It's about society, straight up

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 30th 2007 !⃝

    David hates the way his mother treated him.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. erinw88
    click a star to vote
    Mar 26th 2007 !⃝

    For all the stupid people who think this is really about his mother, you're all very, very stupid, learn to interpret. This is a quote straight from David Draimen, "speaks about the eternal struggle of the individual against the mother culture of society that is constantly trying to beat the child struggling for independence and individuality into submission."




More Disturbed songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Blog posts mentioning Disturbed

Just Posted

Happy? anonymous
Rock Show anonymous
Don't Go anonymous
Tek It anonymous
Don't Leave Me anonymous
Chop Suey anonymous
Taking Over Me anonymous
All The Good Girls Go To Hell anonymous
Wingriddenangel anonymous
I Spoke to The Devil in Miami anonymous
This Woman's Work anonymous
Action! Not Words anonymous
Everybody Loves Me, Baby anonymous
Fall in to Sleep anonymous
Lemon Boy anonymous

(We won't give out your email)