Guitarist with Silly Name Says David Draiman Unplugged Device Too Soon, is Incorrect

Was this man kidnapped and made to style himself as a model for Hot Topic circa 2001?

Nope, he is a grown man named Andre Karkos, and he did so of his own free will. Other things he does of his own free will: ask people to call him “Virus” without laughing and play guitar for Dope and Device, David Draiman’s creatively braindead side project.

‘Cept Device is dunzo, and Virus doesn’t get why. Metal Hammer tells me that Virus tells the Talk Toomey podcast this:

“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.”

110,000 records is really, really impressive, until you remember that Disturbed’s new album, Immortalized, sold 98,000 units in August, giving the band their fifth #1 debut in a row. If Draiman’s goal was to scratch some artistic itch that Disturbed couldn’t reach, then yeah, breaking up Device was a mistake. If Draiman’s goal was to be a rock star, well, why needlessly re-start at the bottom of a mountain he has already ascended?

Or maybe Draiman just broke up the band because Virus wouldn’t ask him to call him Disease or some other word that starts with the letter “D.” Draiman clearly has a thing about Ds.