With 15 billion streams to his band’s name, Zoltan Bathory is understandably in confident mood as he talks about the new Five Finger Death Punch album.
Bathory, the group’s guitarist and leader, tells MusicRadar: “It sounds so fake when bands hype a new record and go, ‘This is the best thing we’ve ever done.’ All I’m going to say is: this is a monster of a record.”
The album, titled Legacy, arrives on 31 July (digital) and September 18 (CD, vinyl cassette). It is the tenth album of the band’s career and marks the 20th anniversary of their formation.
“It’s a massive milestone,” Bathory says. “That’s how we look at it. Even though people generally use the word ‘legacy’ after they’re done with their career, we look at the past like, ‘Okay, this is how far we’ve come.’
“It’s kind of crazy that we’ve been here for 20 years. And in my opinion, this whole record is a snapshot of our 20-year history.
“As a musician and as a guitar player, I don’t want to repeat what I have done before, but we have a sound and we wanted to really showcase what Five Finger Death Punch is. We wanted to create a record that says if you never heard us before, this is it right here. This is Five Finger Death Punch.”
Legacy is the second 5FDP album recorded by the line-up of Bathory, vocalist Ivan Moody, guitarist Andy James, bassist Chris Kael and drummer Charlie Engen.
The most notable change is in the choice of producer. Legacy is the band’s first album without Kevin Churko in the producer’s chair. In his place is Drew Fulk, whose previous clients include Motionless In White, Knocked Loose and Ice Nine Kills.
“We made this record with Drew in California,” Bathory says. “We had never worked with him before, but I personally did with other projects, so that’s how we knew each other.
“And for this record we actually had a little more time to write it. This is the first time when we had maybe two or three years to write the record, so we could really really think about what it is. The songs that you hear were picked out from almost 30 songs.”
He continues: “The riffs were always the core of this band. There’s a specific style of playing that I have, and that was always the sound. And it’s the same with Ivan’s vocal, it’s a very specific thing, his voice, his timbre. Those things together made the Five Finger Death Punch sound, and this record is the perfect showcase of that.”
Asked to pick a couple of songs that best represent this album, Bathory says without hesitation: “Nails In The Coffin would be definitely a good one. Eye Of The Storm, too.
“We have some really heavy songs, like De Oppresso Liber. We have a couple of them that are slower. Nails In The Coffin and Eye Of The Storm are sort of in the middle – where there are massive riffs in there, but it’s not a barn-burner.”
Looking back on his band’s two-decade history, he states proudly: “We did a lot of good. Not just the music, not just bringing the tribe together – we also raised a lot of money for various charities. I think we made a difference. We had a voice. We still have a voice, obviously. I’m saying these things in past tense, but only because I’m reflecting back on this.
“It’s amazing that we’ve managed to stay around for 20 years and actually build a legacy. You know, sometimes I’m standing on stage in front of 50,000 people and I’m just shaking my head. I’m like, what is this? I’m just making noise, right? I can’t believe you get paid for this shit.”
Bathory admits that his band might not have made it this far.
“What was going on inside the band back in the day, we hid it from the world, we hid it from the press as long as we could,” he says. “The band was getting bigger and bigger but inside it was an absolute tornado with flying cows and cars and debris!”
He recalls a conversation with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, who saw in Five Finger Death Punch the kind of self-destructive madness that the Crüe were famous for.
“When we played with Mötley Crüe, Nikki came to our dressing room and said to us, ‘We did some dumb stuff in our career, but man, you guys need to step on the brakes!’ So you can imagine the insanity.”
Ultimately, Bathory views his band as a force for good.
“We got this megaphone,” he says, “and we’re using this megaphone for positive things.”
To illustrate his point, he tells a story about the song Coming Down, from the band’s 2011 album American Capitalist.
“We were doing a meet and greet and this teenage kid came in, maybe 14, 15 years old. He gave me a red pen and said to me, ‘I wanted to give you this because I wrote my suicide note with it. But after I wrote that note, a friend who knew I was in trouble sent me the video for Coming Down.’”
Bathory explains: “That song is about suicide, and the theme of the video is a friend can save a friend – you just need to pay attention. So this suicidal kid didn’t go through with it because of that song. That’s a heavy hitting thing. For us as a band, that’s your existence justified.”
And the story doesn’t end there.
“Ten years after that kid spoke to us in the meet and greet, this guy comes up to me at another show and says, ‘Hey, remember me?’ I gave you a red pen that I wrote a suicide note with.’ Ivan goes, ‘Yes! Hold on for a second!’ Ivan runs back to the dressing room and comes back with that pen. He kept it because of what it meant.
“So when I talk about what makes me proud about this band, it’s moments like this. You look back on that and think, okay, we made a difference.”
