Kingcrimsonprog Five Flavour Fruit Punch, Five Finger Butt Plug, Nickleback For Juggalos; call them what you want, but I am an absolute mark for Las Vegas’ biggest Metal band, Five Finger Death Punch, and their Melodic chorus/Pantera-verses/Blunt-ignorance formula. It just always hits the spot somehow.

That being said; two out of their last three albums have been weaker than their usual standard, and a lot of high profile intoxication, protracted label legal issues, loss of a key member and an on-stage meltdown plastered all over the media have somewhat tainted the band’s rising-star vibe.

Its nice to say however; that their latest album, their eighth studio album, 2020’s F8 (Fate), sees the band clear-headed, sober and once again delivering the goods. You can hear singer Ivan Moody venting all that aforementioned baggage on the excellent tune “Bottom Of The Top” which is one of the highlights musically and lyrically. The quality of song-writing here is a lot stronger than their …And Justice For None record, and the performance is a little less robotic. That album had the air of disharmony about it, whereas F8 sounds like a band really gelling and coming together. For those who like the band at their faster and heavier, “This Is War” & “Scar Tissue” are the standout moments. If you prefer the band doing ballads and poppier moments, it’s the acoustic with electro-drums “A Little Bit Off” that you need to check out.

This is their first album without their key drummer Jeremy Spencer, who was such a big part of their sound, its hard to imagine the band without him. (I recently read his autobiography, and it’s a bit of a depressing tale of addiction, infidelity and recurrent erectile dysfunction that gives a good insight into the inter-band relationships, but definitely signposted that he wasn’t going to stay in the band forever!). Charlie Engen takes the drum throne this time around, and is a capable replacement, but maybe lacking a bit in personality on this particular record. I think much like Slipknot’s Jay Weinberg, it will take until the next album until we really see his potential. I don’t reckon you’d want to make too many waves on your first appearance.

I saw the band live just before this album was released, and it was absolutely glorious. I had been following them since their sophomore record had just been out and they were only starting to get noticed, and have been a day one purchaser on most of their albums to date, and it was amazing to see them not only playing arenas, but utterly captivating them. They dropped some new material from this record and it fit in perfectly with a hits-laden set. ‘Inside Out’ in particular feels like it will stay in their live set from now until retirement.

Its not hard to imagine that in the future, F8 will be looked back upon as one of the band’s better albums. Its not a Dr. Feelgood style new beginning, but it is a focusing and strengthening of the existing formula with simply better songs. (Does that mean its their Razor’s Edge? I don’t know…)

Kingcrimsonprog Five Finger Death Punch albums are often fairly similar in terms of quality, musical direction and performance. Most of them feature bouncy groove-metal riffs balanced with melodic modern-metalcore loud/quiet dynamics and easy on the ear radio friendly production jobs. Maybe a ballad or two for variety.

Not all their albums are absolutely identical, and for example their debut is faster and rawer than their fifth album, but there is a general similarity between a lot of them and the basic rule of thumb is that if you like one of them, you’ll probably like them all. They do have a distinct formula if we’re being honest here.

For me, their first two albums and also Got Your Six are the strongest, and up until this point, The Wrong Side Of Heaven’ 2 and American Capitalist are the weaker ones in the catalouge, as there are possibly too many ballads and light tracks on them and not enough fast songs for my own personal tastes, but to be honest that’s all if you are getting nit picky and there’s not too much difference between them unless you sit there and analyse them.

In 2018; two years after it was actually recorded due to some record company shenanigans and legal wranglings and after a gap filling greatest-hits compilation, the band released their seventh full-length studio album, And Justice For None. You can get it in a standard edition, or one with the new songs they added to that aforementioned greatest-hits albums, the catchy single ‘Trouble’ and the cover song ‘Gone Away’ which is a reworking of a The Offspring song (which to be fair they put on the standard edition anyway in the end), as well as two further bonus tracks from the same era, ‘Bad Seed’ and ‘Save Your Breath.’

Now; remember when I said there’s too many ballads and lighter moments on the albums I’d rate as being not their best? Well, this one has two lighter songs that are both covers. It also has the ballad single ‘When The Seasons Change’ preceded by the very good but still ballady ‘I Refuse.’ It even ends on a power ballad with ‘Will The Sun Ever Rise?’ It also has the strange lighter electronic tracks ‘Stuck In My Ways’ & ‘Bloody’ which feel like a play to get on TV advertisements and are a lot lighter and less powerful than my favourite songs by the band.

Hey; I am no ballad-phobic caveman. I love power metal for goodness sake, where you can’t move for ballads. Its just, when there’s one very good ballad on an album, it is a nice piece of variety. When its like two thirds of the whole record it sort of weighs it down and they loose their efficacy. If it had only been say, ‘I Refuse’ for example, that would be fine. If there was only one cover it might’ve been aright. If they only had one song experimenting with electronics, it would have stood out. As it stands, its all a bit too much and it feels like overkill.

There are some groovier, heavier and faster tracks here. ‘Rock Bottom,’ has a rumbling menace to it, ‘It Doesn’t Matter,’ ‘Fire In The Hole’ and ‘Top Of The World’ are the traditional Five Finger Death Punch sound and the opener ‘Fake’ is pretty strong. There’s stuff to like here for sure, don’t let me make you think its a complete departure. I guess the album is a bit overlong though, and a bit unfocused. It also hits the strange ‘make-your-mind-up’ sweet spot between staying too close to the old formula at times and experimenting with new stuff too much, without really committing to either. The problem is that they don’t really suit the new stuff. Again, ‘Bloody’ is an excellent example of what I did not expect from this band. Another song that doesn’t sound like the band is the controversial lead single ‘Sham Pain’ with its lyrics basically complaining about being on tour and sounding ungrateful.

When I first got this album, it really felt like a let down after Got Your Six, and I will admit that it has grown on me a lot more with each repeat listen. If I hadn’t bought it and felt guilty about the money, I might not have listened to it quite so often and allowed it to grow on me. Even with this appreciation-raising slow burn, this is easily my least favourite album from the group. It may be due to the circumstances in which it was written and recorded, burned out and before getting clean and with the record label woes, it may have all impacted upon the quality of the record. Maybe the next one will be great. Or again, maybe its just a natural dip from a band working that hard pumping albums out and touring so often. They dipped a little on the fifth album and rose higher again on the sixth. Maybe it is just a natural fluctuation. Either way, while I am still going to be listening to this album in full over and over again to try and feel like I got my money’s worth, I feel like I won’t ever like it as much as Way Of The Fist or Wrong Side Of Heaven part 1. If you aren’t an obsessive fan, don’t feel bad if you want to skip this one, and if you are a new fan or aren’t a fan yet, I’d advise you leave this one until last, and try something like War Is The Answer first.

Kingcrimsonprog Dependable as always, the American Heavy Metal band Five Finger Death Punch return in 2015 with their sixth full-length studio album, Got Your Six, showing no signs of fatigue, letting-up or diminishing returns. The band have released another barn-storming collection of stompy, groovy, catchy melodic Metal equally as high in quality as the best of their existing discography to date. Five Finger Death Punch are the kind of slow-evolution band that don’t mess with their formula too much, if you liked their previous albums then you’ll love this because its pretty similar sounding, but with enough of a twist that it doesn’t get boring. Its not suddenly a jazz record or a dubstep album, but that doesn’t mean you’ve heard it all before.

The production job by Kevin Churko is excellent as usual, the man just gets this band and how they should sound. The musicianship is strong, with the lead guitars better than ever, singer Ivan Moody stretching himself and exploring new vocal ground, and the rhythm section delivering the same kind of powerful post-Pantera stomp the band is known for. Performance-wise this record is one of their most intense and exciting performances since their debut album, there’s a renewed enthusiasm and a bit of a harder edge than the last two or three records… its just got a little bit more of an umph.

Highlights include the excellent and varied Title Track, as well as the fun and fast-paced ‘No Sudden Movements’ which has a different feel than you’ve heard from the band before, as well as the very fun ‘Boots And Blood’ which is honestly one of my favourite songs the band have come up with to date. There’s also a fun little acoustic guitar solo in the middle of ‘Question Everything’ which is a delightful surprise and makes it stand out on the album.

Sure, the artwork is cheesy and the lyrics are adolescent (even I can’t defend them), but when the music is this good, the songs are this catchy and it sounds like a million bucks… who really cares? This is a damn strong, damn entertaining and completely reliable band, and Got Your Six is among the best of their output to date. If you hate them on principle it won’t change your mind, but existing fans need not hesitate for a moment – Got Your Six is excellent and worth a place in your collection without question.

If you can, try and get yourself a copy of the edition with bonus tracks by the way, because for my money, the bonus tracks are even better than the majority of the album… more in the direction of The Way Of The Fist; ‘You’re Not My Kind’ in particular is an excellent song and one that draws my attention. If there’s a negligible price difference, opt for that version.

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.

Kev Rowland My son in law came up to me one day and asked if I would like to borrow the latest 5FDP album, ‘The Wrong Side of Heaven and The Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1’. Having been a fan since their debut I of course thought that it would be a great idea and started playing it a great deal. Then, at work one day a colleague gave me a couple of CDs (I work for a retailer and I am the only metalhead she knows so sometimes I get some samples), one of which was the latest 5FDP album. Great, I thought, that means that I now have two versions of the same album so I returned the first back to my son in law. But it was only when I was examining the packaging that I realised that I had been given the second version of what was quite a special release indeed. Each of the two albums come with an additional disc, Volume 1 contains a live CD whilst Volume 2 has the second disc as a DVD of the same recording. But, in each case the first disc is different. So, onto Volume 2 later, but what about Volume 1?

5FDP have a very simple approach to music, which is produce something that is commercial, appealing, infectious, with a killer bassline and drums so that the listener has no option but to bounce around like a lunatic. It may not be clever, it may not be new, but boy is it fun! If I had to describe the music then it would be an amalgam of nu-metal, hardcore, Beastie Boys and metalcore. But who cares? It is music to jump along to, and as Ivan says on the live disc he is often accused of being angry, but that is just the hardcore animal in him. While the first disc contains some different styles and tempos, the live disc captures the band in their home environment, blasting out in front of an audience who do their level best to sing louder than the amplifiers.

Infectious, fun, this is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any metalhead who doesn’t take himself or his music too seriously. Put it on, play it loud, end enjoy it for what it is.