Divisive

As early as October 2020, frontman David Draiman stated that he wanted new Disturbed music to be "blisteringly angry", considering everything going on in the world with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in April 2022, Draiman took to his Instagram page to a share a photo of a whiteboard to his fans and followers suggesting that the album has been completed, in that photo, which has now been deleted, a list of approximately ten songs can be seen, all marked with an "X" symbol, which had initially led to speculation by fans that the album is a covers album.

Ann Wilson of Heart appears on the album on the song titled "Don't Tell Me". According to Dan Donegan, Ann is David's favorite female hard rock singer. After Ann sent out a tweet saying she was "inspired" by the band's cover of "The Sound of Silence", David reached out to Ann to thank her and they developed an online friendship. After the demo of "Don't Tell Me" had been recorded the band felt like it needed a female voice, and they thought Ann would be perfect. David reached out to her to ask if she would appear on the record, and the band was delighted when she said yes. In many interviews band members have stated they are "humbled" to have such rock royalty appear on the album.

"Hey You" topped the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.[9] A song titled "Bad Man" began radio play on Octane by November 15, and the song's meaning was inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.