Kev Rowland
There is something about 5FDP that has grabbed me right since the very first album. I know that some people tend to look down at this type of mu-metal/alternative metal style of music as it isn’t fashionable, and downtuned guitars aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But that’s okay, while everyone else is off listening to whoever is the flavor of the month these guys keep going out and hitting the mark time and time again. They are very few bands out there who are as consistently powerful and over the top as 5FDP, and they manage to combine a commercial form of hardcore with nu-metal with loads of forms to create something that is over the top aggressive yet somehow quite poppy at the same time. They wear their hearts on their sleeve, and this is all about the music, and they are incredibly passionate about it.
This is the second of a two album set, hence the volume 2 tag, and with the first disc is new songs while the second discs is a DVD called ‘Purgatory’ which captures the band where they belong, in front of thousands of fans who know exactly where to join in. Somehow they have taken the brutality of Biohazard, brought in elements of Beastie Boys and Anthrax, chucked in some Slipknot and then turned the volume up to 11 as per Spinal Tap. Songs such as “Here To Die’ are anthems for a new generation with Ivan Moody somehow staying in tune while letting the passion burst out of him. It is an album that I would have given 4*’s to, even without the additional live DVD but that is just the icing on the cake as far as I’m concerned. Superb from start to finish, this is metal with emotion and balls, and something I could play every day. Great stuff.