Vilify

Album: Device (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Device is the name of the Industrial Metal band that David Draiman put together after his regular group, Disturbed, announced their hiatus. This was released as the first single from the eponymous debut album. "It's one of the biggest songs on the record [and] it has a stylistic bridge, if you will," said Draiman to Lithium Magazine. "I figure 'Vilify' is the perfect song to bridge people from Disturbed into Device. There is the familiarity of my melodic vocal delivery and there is the electronic element which is much more prevalent in Device." The song was made available on digital download on February 19, 2013.
  • The accompanying video depicts Device performing the song in a mostly dark environment with flashes of blinding white light as an android-like creature appears to be born. Draiman told Lithium Magazine he didn't have any input in the clip's concept. "I stay away from that completely," he said. "Pretty much, ever since the 'Prayer' video, I never really get too involved in that too much. I got burnt pretty hard when MTV decided to ban the video I co-directed. Ever since then, I think, 'that way it's not my fault, it's somebody else's fault. I didn't write it!' [laughs] I'm still involved as an artist, but I'm not the guy who comes up with the ideas anymore."
  • David Draiman has been dealing with criticism throughout his whole career. He told Zoiks! Online: "Everybody these days, and in the Internet age, where you have this troll society or predatory animals that get off on picking fights with people left and right and trying to be all big and bad behind a keyboard who wouldn't dare say the majority of the things that they would go ahead and say online to the average individual to a person's face and certainly not mine. It really doesn't faze me. I kind of laugh it off, to be honest with you. Occasionally I'll actually engage with them in a bit of sport. [laughs] 'OK, you wanna go? Let's go for a little bit. Let me show you just how stupid you sound.'"

    "That's really what 'Vilify' is kind of about," Draiman added, "all these guys that try to make me out to be some sort of demogodish egomaniacal prick, I'm so laid back and chill until you cross and then I'm not so laid back and chill anymore. I don't really worry about it too much. It's not worth my time."

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