You probably don't know who Andre Karkos, but you likely know him by his stage persona, Virus.
No? That's no help? Well the dude is the guitarist of Dope and was the guitarist of Device. You remember Device right?
No?
Okay, well, let's go back to 2012. The year prior Disturbed had announced they were going on indefinite hiatus (but made it clear it was not a permanent break up) because, I'm assuming, they figured it would be in the band's best interest to go away for a while in order to make a big splash when they returned. This ended up being a wise decision.
In the interim, Draiman was just sitting at home with nothing to do, so he decided to launch a new band… Device. From what I remember of the marketing of the debut record, it was primarily sold as DISTURBED FRONTMAN DAVID DRAIMAN'S NEW BAND, Device. It wasn't lauded as a supergroup, it was just like… hey, you like Disturbed? Here's something that sounds a lot like Disturbed…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1q1pw04Bs[/youtube]
Well, Virus seems to be really bummed the band ended. THEY HAD SO MUCH LEFT TO SAY. In a new interview with Metal Hammer, he says:
“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.”
As MetalSucks points out, 110,000 albums sold is nothing to scoff at, until you see that Disturbed's new album that came out this year, sold 98,000 copies in its first week. And, let's be honest, those 110k units shifted were on the band of all the Disturbed marketing over the years. If this was a new band, without a famous frontman, it wouldn't have sold nearly as much.
Clearly, Draiman saw the writing on the wall, and with the birth of his child, and the imminent return of his main cash cow, Disturbed, he figured he should stop wasting his time.
But in the aftermath, poor Virus is left abandoned without a meal ticket of his own.
