Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan says fans should not consider the 16 B-sides and rarities on the upcoming compilation "The Lost Children" to be of lesser quality than the songs on the Chicago quartet's five studio albums.

"To us, B-sides don't necessarily mean these are your worst songs and they didn't make the album," Donegan explains to Billboard.com. "A lot of our favorite songs have been left off the albums for the purpose of hoping they'd see the light of day, find the right soundtrack or a sporting event or something where people would have a chance to get familiar with them. We've had a lot of moments where we we'd be like, 'Oh, man, I wish we had left that one on so we could play it now.' So this (album) gives us a chance to get some of those songs out there, and hopefully fans will find some favorites on there for themselves."

Disturbed's Draiman on Band's Hiatus: 'It's the Right Time to Step Away'

"The Lost Children," which is due out Nov. 8, includes songs from throughout Disturbed's career, including "God of the Mind" and "A Welcome Burden" from sessions for the group's 2000 debut "The Sickness," which appeared on the 10th anniversary edition of the album last year. The compilation also includes the never-released "Mine" from 2010's "Asylum" sessions, "3" -- which was released on Disturbed's web site in April to raise money for the West Memphis Three's legal expenses -- "The MOment" from the "Transformers: The Album" soundtrack, and contributions to tribute albums for Judas Priest ("Living After Midnight") and Faith No More ("Midlife Crisis").
"Hell," the first single from "The Lost Children," hails from 2005's "Ten Thousand Fists."

"I like them all for different reasons," Donegan says. "They really take me back to the places and the times we wrote them. It's really hard to pick any kind of favorite; the reason behind the title is that we always referred to our songs as our children, because we can't pick a favorite. They're all just personal to us."

"The Lost Children" will, of course, have to tide Disturbed fans over while the group is in an open-ended hiatus that it announced while it was headlining this summer's Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. "We just decided not to have a game plan -- that's the first time in our career we've done that," Donegan explains. "We've always said, 'After this tour, let's do this...,' always something planning ahead. This is just the first time we're not having those discussions. We said, 'Let's finish this tour and go home.' We'll see where that takes us."

Donegan does, however, want to clear up "a little confusion" over the reasons for the break. "We're not stopping to pursue other things -- at least I'm not," he says. "We're kind of looking to just go away for a bit, give the fans a little bit of a break, give ourselves a bit of a break. There's not some great game plan or design to all of this."

For his part, Donegan says he's started going to concerts again, "out in the crowd, not on the side of the stage, so I can feel that feeling of when I was a kid growing up, wanting to be a musician and be up there playing...and be inspired by that." He also hopes to "jam with other plays around town, not to form another band...I'm just looking for more outside inspiration that would push me for any Disturbed project we do in the future." He's also resumed the piano lessons that he began during the break before "Asylum."

As to when the group will come together again, Donegan says, "I don't know if it will be six months or six years or whatever. I really don't. It's kind of scary to me to think, 'What if we don't return?' That part of it bothers me." Nevertheless, the guitarist says that the group will stay on ice until "we all miss it so much and want to do it again, not because one guy calls up and says, 'Hey, I really miss this...' " And Donegan is confident Disturbed will be back at some point.

"My hopes are if we're away from it long enough we're gonna want it that much more," he says. "I like to think that as much as we've done together and how good the chemistry has been in the band, there's going to come a time -- hopefully sooner than later -- that we're gonna turn around and say, 'Man, I f***in' miss this. I want to get back there.' I'll be surprised if that doesn't happen, really."