EARLIER THIS WEEK, DISTURBED CAME OUT OF HIBERNATION, RELEASING THE SINGLE, “THE VENGEFUL ONE,” FROM THEIR FORTHCOMING ALBUM IMMORTALIZED. IT’S PROVEN TO BE A HIT, WITH THE VIDEO GETTING OVER 1 MILLION VIEWS IN JUST TWO DAYS (1.4 MILLION AT PRESS TIME). HOWEVER, DON’T LOOK TO CONGRATULATE SINGER DAVID DRAIMAN ON THE SINGLE’S SUCCESS OR THE FORTHCOMING ALBUM, AS HE’S NO LONG ER ONLINE. BLABBERMOUTH REPORTS THAT HE’S DELETED HIS TWITTER  ACCOUNT BECAUSE OF TROLLS THAT HAVE GIVEN HIM CRAP ABOUT HIS PRO-ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. IN AN INTERVIEW WITH MINNEAPOLIS’ 93X, HE SPOKE ABOUT HIS DECISION:

“I’m done with social media, personally. And it had nothing to do with the [upcoming release of the new DISTURBED] record. It happened to be coincidental, but it had nothing to do with the record.”

He continued: “Social media has become a playground for trolls, a playground for these people who prey on one another. You can’t get anything decent done on there anymore; you just open yourself up to constant attack. And I’m just done with it. I’m done with it. I hope that the couple of years of my being as involved in it as I was meant something to people. I hope that they gleaned something from it, or took something away from it, or at least were entertained or something, because, now, I’m becoming a recluse.”

Draiman added: “At the end of the day, what people want from me is to get up there on that stage and make them feel powerful and give them a release for an hour and a half or two hours every once in a while. And if I’m still able to do that, hopefully I’m still making people happy.”

DRAIMAN WAS ACTUALLY REFRESHING ON TWITTER. HE ENGAGED DIRECTLY WITH HIS FOLLOWERS (INCLUDING US ON OCCASION. AND WHILE IT WASN’T ALWAYS EASY TO AGREE WITH HIS VIEWPOINTS,  AT LEAST HE DIDN’T HIDE BEHIND ANYTHING. HE’LL HOPEFULLY RETURN BEFORE TOO LONG.