Five Finger Death Punch - And Justice For None (2018)

So I am still sitting here wondering why the hell the immensely popular Five Finger Death Punch chose "And Justice For None" as the title for their 7th full length record. The band claims that they ended up with the title after the legal battle they have had with their previous record label Prospect Park, which sort of makes sense since that event did influence the album, but did they really have to be this close to the classic Metallica record "...And Justice For All"? Why not name it "Justice For The Blind", "Justice Inc.", or "Give Me Justice Or Give Me Death", just do not make people question your title!

Well, the title does serve one purpose at least, telling the listener what you should expect of this 13 song disc. It is more or less the exact opposite from the Metallica record, so instead of being a complex and innovative album with piss poor production, "And Justice For None" is a very straight forward album with very predictable 5FDP material, all presented with sparkling clean production. In other words, it is exactly what you would expect from the band, even with the chaos that has surrounded them in recent years.

Seriously, there is very little evolution here from last album, it is the same type of macho metal that we have gotten to know from the band, only that it is not as impactful as before. The impact is gone because the band is using the same techniques over and over again, without making any significant changes, which steers the mind to better, similar tracks from the guys. You will definitely not find anything in here that will match up to what songs like "Lift Me Up", "Hard To See", and "Under And Over It" achieved.

Now, I would not say that the entire album is under qualified, we got a couple of songs in here that certainly stand strong. "Will The Sun Ever Rise" and "When The Seasons Change" are two great tracks, with some real nice emotional performances that do show what the band is capable of at their best, and "Top of The World" show the other end of the spectrum, a heavy party track with some nice weight behind it. I would also recommend "Fake" in that latter category, but only if you ignore the extremely juvenile lyrics that uses the word motherfucker more often than Samuel L Jackson. It is one thing when a band like Strapping Young Lad, a very childish and angry band, does it, but these guys are supposed to be serious. God damn.

In some way, I almost wished that they would just go full "fun mode", because you never know how it will turn out when the band goes more serious in its expression. Some times it works, some times it does not, and some times it is all over the place, like in "Sham Pain" where they try to hit back at all their haters (including Prospect Park), but it has this rap aura over it that makes it kind of... interesting, to say the least. If they would just ease off a bit more, then it probably would be easier for us to swallow their music.

What makes me the most mad about this album though is not the macho style, not the uneven quality, not even the childish lyrics, but the two covers. 5FDP feels more and more like a cover band in the making, because they do make some great covers, but it starts to take over from their own music a little too much, and it is very telling when the two covers ("Blue On Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and "Gone Away" by The Offspring) are arguably the best tracks of the record. They have passion, great instrumentality, everything you would love to see in any original material they make, which is just strange to think that they put all this heart and work for two useless covers. It would be one thing if they were a part of the deluxe version of the album, but nope, they sit nicely in the official release as well, taking up two spots that could have been used for something more original instead.

So yeah... this album is sort of a mess I am afraid, but it is a step forward at least from the really lack luster "Got Your Six". It feels more and more like the band's original style is being watered down more and more for each release that surges up to the surface. It probably will not affect the band's popularity, but they do secure their spot as the 10's perfect gateway band for young and hopeful metal heads, and that is not too bad at all. Another positive thing, President Knucklehead has a bigger button than Trump, and more muscles too.

Songs worthy of recognition: Will The Sun Ever Rise, Top of The World, Blue On Black

Rating: 5,5/10 Rock Bottoms

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More reviews of Five Finger Death Punch
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 1
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 2
Got Your Six

Live review: In Flames + Five Finger Death Punch at Scandinavium, Gothenburg

In later years, the whole Co-headline concept has become more popular, with two or more bands joining forces throughout a tour, sharing the work load to bring a great experience to the fans. I think it is a great way to get a lot of value for your money, getting to watch two fantastic acts in the same evening to make your night complete. So I was obviously excited when In Flames and Five Finger Death Punch decided to tour together through Europe, giving me a chance to finally get to see two bands that are known for explosive shows.

It also made sense that exactly these two got together, because they are sort of in the same spot in their careers (even though one of them has been active for a longer time). Both are insanely popular acts that have released several big hits over the years, but they have also been receiving a lot of hate for various reasons, even to the point where some do not even consider these band to be metal at all (which is ridiculous, what else are they? Techno?).

Anyway, I was not alone in wanting to watch them, the show in the indoor stadium Scandinavium (located in central Gothenburg) was completely sold out, bringing some warmth in this cold Autumn evening. Let me tell you how the night was.

Opening act: Of Mice & Men

Opening up for the two big guns were Of Mice & Men, a metalcore group from Orange County, California that I have heard of before, but have never digged deeper into... which is also why I did not see these guys.

Now, it would have been pretty difficult to get in time for them anyhow because I live close to two hours away from Gothenburg and I cannot leave work how early I want. Besides, the group of guys I went to the show with did not really want to see them, so... yeah. It is nothing against the band, I simply did not have the time/peer pressure got to me.

I did more research since and I even listened to the songs that they did play, and to be completely honest, I do not think I missed much. While I believe most music does become better when you experience it in a live setting, I think I would be pretty bored with the band's predictable and unoriginal brand of metalcore (although I do have to admit that the new single "Warzone" has a really nice groove to it). All of the songs were nothing special, maybe heavier than your average metalcore band, but still fairly bland, it is close to just being needless noise infact. And once again, it is unfair of me to judge them solely by studio efforts, who knows, they might have killed it on stage. I will probably give these lads another chance when their fifth album comes out next year, but I doubt that the music will make me do backflips out of shear joy.

Setlist:
Unbreakable
Public Service Announcement
Pain
You Make Me Sick
Warzone
The Depths

Five Finger Death Punch

After all of what has happened with this band during the year, I was a little afraid that I was going to witness another massive meltdown, Fortunately, that did not happen, instead we got a band that was obviously pumped up, ready to kick some metal ass. And you could clearly tell that singer Ivan Moody was the happiest of the bunch, coming in wearing the jersey of the Swedish national ice hockey team Tre Kronor. Ivan was soaking in every moment of the show, really enjoying himself and playing with the crowd, despite very minimal small talk between songs.

The energy is obviously the band's biggest strength, but they tried to make it a very visually appealing show as well, and they did succeed... to some extent. There were a lot of lighting and lasers that tried to make the show more colorful, and while I do like lasers, it became pretty tiring after a while, being more of a gimmick than any real help. Then we had the huge prop that hung behind the band, which depicted their mascot Knucklehead and a couple of baseball bats crossing behind, making some kind of an urban Jolly Roger. It looked cool and all, but the way it was shaped and assembled made it look more like Vic Rattlehead from Megadeth, and that was an image I could not get out of my head. Why did they not just paint a hand palm on the right side of the face, like in the album covers? So yeah, it looked cool, but it did not look like it belonged with the band.

Go home Vic, you are drunk

Anyway, the music is still the main thing in a concert, and without a new album in recent time, the setlist was pretty well versed between all of the band's releases. I was a little surprised to hear that their latest single "Trouble" (from the upcoming best of record "A Decade of Destruction") was not in the setlist, because even if I think the song is pretty meh, it is kind of a missed opportunity for the band to not market it. It was also surprising that the band went acoustic on two songs, with also Ivan sincerely apologizing for his behaviour the last year. It was a touching moment for sure, but when you think of 5FDP, you do not think of slow songs that you can play around the camp fire. No, you think of adrenaline pumping songs that gets you incredibly hyped up, and that is what I wanted to see, so that acoustic part was kind of a buzz kill.

Oh well, I got enough macho metal to go around anyway, and the band did a fantastic job in getting the crowd going (seriously, the front mosh pitted during songs like "Bad Company" and "Wash It All Away", how is that possible?). So despite some weird things here and there, it was a pretty good show the Americans presented us with. No matter if you like them or not, you gotta admit, their energy is extremely contagious and exhilarating.

Best: "Burn MF" certainly has a lot of power to it

Worst: I did not come to see this band for their acoustic bit

Rating: 7,5/10

Setlist:
Lift Me Up
Never Enough
Wash It All Away
Got Your Six
Hard To See
Bad Company (Bad Company cover)
Jekyll And Hyde
Burn MF
Wrong Side of Heaven (acoustic)
Remember Everything (acoustic)
Coming Down
Ain't My Last Dance

Encore:
Under And Over It
The Bleeding

In Flames

Going into this show, I was not worried that In Flames were going to phone it in or not give it their all. After all, Gothenburg is their city of origin, and for a band that travels the world year after year, there simply is no place like home. Sure enough, one of Sweden's biggest metal exports surely gave their home crowd a lot to cheer about with a show that a lot of people are not gonna forget in the near future. Simply put, In Flames love Gothenburg, and Gothenburg loves In Flames.

So instead of lasers and tons of lighting, In Flames put their chips on more technological stuff, putting together several screens and creating two pillars for the keyboardist (who I could not find out who it was) and drummer Joe Rickard. This allowed a lot of really cool and some times disturbing imagery to play around with the songs, feeding both your ears and eyes of course. We also got a big puppet prop as well that was revealed during "Alias", a recreation of that human with the bird head from the "A Sense of Purpose" record. It was pretty cool, but it just stayed the for the rest of the show, not doing anything besides staring at everyone with its glowing eyes. Kind of creepy if you ask me.

Damn Jesterheads, please leave the little guy alone

The setlist was mostly based around the last year release "Battles", and no matter what your opinion is on that album, it does show that the band knows how to make incredibly memorable sing along choruses. Songs like "Save Me", "Drained" and "The End" all work extremely well in a live setting, giving the crowd an excuse to sing their lungs out. Otherwise, there were few surprises in this setlist. All of the band's biggest hits were in here, mixed in with some old favourites. To be completely honest, the only real surprise was "Everything's Gone", the only representative from "Siren Charms" (thank god for that). It was placed in the first half of the setlist, where the band just went full on mad mode, almost burning off all of their heaviest materials with "Take This Life", "Trigger" (renamed this evening as "Twitter"), and "Only For The Weak".

While I did enjoy myself during the entire show, and I saw that the chemistry between the crowd and the band was good, there were more or less no small talk in between, even less than in the 5FDP show. The songs were fired with a machine gun, bam bam bam bam bam, close to no break at all. At the very end we probably got the answer to why it was so, because they had to be done before a certain time (because of Swedish law), and they wanted to maximize the time as much as possible. So that explained it, but it still felt weird the way the band handled it.

Oh well, no matter what, In Flames still delivered an impressive performance that echoed out into the Gothenburg night. The band were in their element all night, they simply felt like they were home, playing for all their relatives and friends. They were comfortable, but they made sure to not relax all to much, keeping laser focus. It is no wonder why this band is considered as one of Sweden's biggest bands, they delivered big time here in Scandinavium.

Best: "Everything's Gone" and "Take This Life" is an amazing one two punch

Worst: The setlist was way too predictable

Rating: 8,5/10

Setlist:
Drained
Before I Fall
Everything's Gone
Take This Life
Trigger
Only For The Weak
Dead Alone
Darker Times
Drifter
Moonshield
The Jester's Dance
Save Me
Alias
Here Until forever
The Truth
Deliver Us
The Mirror's Truth
The Quiet Place
The End

Five Finger Death Punch - Got Your Six (2015)

There comes a time in your life when you just wonder why you even started to listen to a certain band in the first place. To see a band that you used to love to death become boring, stale, or simply immature. A band that at first sight looks cool, has an edge to it, but cannot stay among your favourites in the long run. For me, and I guess to a lot of other metal fans out there, Five Finger Death Punch is starting to become one of those bands. They are still a strong force in the industry and has a good following to every show they do, but their music works more like a gateway portal to the wondrous world of metal. You enjoy it at first, but you quickly discover other bands that simply makes better music.

Because for every year that passes, I am starting to realize why most of the metal community despise 5FDP. They are loud, close to obnoxious, and does not seem to evolve too much, neither musically nor in the lyrics. So when I first saw the cover to the band's sixth album "Got Your Six", I almost puked. Just look at Knucklehead! How much steroids did has he been taking? He made a complete Axl Rose, going from a sort of skinny, cool character, to a humongous joke. I really do not even here, seriously.

And it does not get better whenever I get into the music that is inside. The title track does not make any sense to me, like when Ivan Moody sings that he got my six, I have no freaking idea what he is talking about. Does he mean a six pack? Has he six fingers in one hand? Somebody tell me! Well, the band has never been well known for writing intricate lyrics in the past, and that reputation will not change one bit with this album.

It has always been the music that got me into 5FDP, and I do admit that "Got Your Six" has some good power to it, something the band never fails to deliver. But judging by the cover, I expected a shit load of power running me over like a steamroller. But no, "Got Your Six" is surprisingly calm, containing several 5FDP styled ballads, and is actually also missing that insane, double bass pounding face crusher a la "Dot Your Eyes" and "Under And Over It". This makes "Got Your Six" seem a lot softer compared to its predecessors, something you could either see as a sign of maturity, or just a lack of energy from the frequent album releasing (6 albums in 8 years is quite a rate).

Another thing this album lacks of is memorability. For a new listener, it might be easy to remember the songs, but for one who have heard the band's entire discography, it is easy to forget these tunes in favor of early, similar material. The only song I can really remember on the top of my head is "Jekyll And Hyde", a boring, sluggish ice hockey anthem that should go well on live shows, but just feels all around lazy in disc format. The worst part about it though is that it is the only song in the album that shows some kind of evolution in the music, so the future does not look very bright.

But are there any gems in here that should be mentioned? Yes, in fact, there are some good tracks in here that does save the album from total annihilation. "Question Everything" does a nice job in balancing between the heavy and the beautiful aspects of the band, "Wash It All Away" has a fairly nice flow to it, and even if I do not understand the lyrics, I do feel like "Got Your Six" is the only song that does have some big balls to it, making it an instant stand out among weaklings. Those are the only few highlights in the entire album, which absolutely sucks since the band has a history of creating some great catchy songs, both heavy and slow.

I will probably never give up entirely on 5FDP, just because they are a powerful bunch of men that brings their own thing to the world of metal, and can create some stellar music when everything clicks together. Unfortunately, there is not much in "Got Your Six" that works all too well. It all feels stale and unimaginative, a big brick of washed up ideas and nonsense. I think the band needs to slow things down a bit (not musically speaking) and take their time with their next album, just to make sure that they do not toss out some half finished projects. This is the worst 5FDP album up to date so far, but if they stay in the loop that they have gotten themselves into, it might be overtaken in the near future. Let us hope that it does not happen.

Songs worthy of recognition: Question Everything, Got Your Six, Wash It All Away

Rating: 4/10 Steroid Junkies

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twitter.com/FFDP

More reviews of Five Finger Death Punch
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 1
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 2

And Justice For None

Five Finger Death Punch - The Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 2 (2013)

Three months have gone since the first volume of this double album was released, but the time has finally come for the hard hitting quintet from LA to reveal the second half of "The Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell" (I still think that the title is way too long). So what have changed since? For starters, there are no guest artist in this second volume, only Ivan Moody, Zoltan Bathory and the rest of the band. We also have a new color palette on the cover and no questionable covers of any rap songs (only a cover of a traditional folk song). So it looks pretty good from the start, but with the strong song line-up from the first album in mind, it would be obvious that this album had to knock it out of the park to triumph over its predecessor.

Musically speaking, there is not much that separates the two album apart from each other. We got fast and catchy power songs, some slower and more delicate tunes, but sadly no ultra heavy song that has only one goal, to crush your brain into smithereens. Now, I understand why the band made these albums similar to each other, but I would have appreciated it if they tried to make two different albums that would have shown the band's diversity. The only real difference I see between the albums is that it feels like Ivan Moody is not as angry in this album as he was in volume 1. If that is supposed to represent the albums as a "good" and a "evil" album is for you to figure out.

One thing that makes this volume superior compared to its predecessor is that it is more even in its performance. There is no real shit song to be found here, but there is also no real masterpiece here either. The best picks from this album is the fast crunching "Wrecking Ball", the fast starter "Here To Die", the beautiful "Battle Born" and the nicely paced "Cradle To Grave". This evenness brings however a big flaw to this album, and that is that it does not take much time before you get tired at the album. That is the main reason why I believe that the band should have put in either "I.M.Sin" or "Dot Your Eyes" from the last album to give this album some much needed variation.

Then we also have that cover of the traditional American folk song "House of The Rising Sun", a song that has been covered several times in the past by The Animals, Dolly Parton and others. Compared to the horrible cover of "Mama Said Knock You Out" on the last album, this is at least 50 times better. 5FDP really made this song their own with the blasting double bass and the smooth riffing. The only problem is that most of the younger audience will probably think that this is a 5FDP original, something that has already happened with their cover of "Bad Company".

In the end, I think that the two volumes are good, but that the first volume is the superior one. The first volume had more power and more of a personality while the second volume was more even in its performance, but it also has a shorter life span. Both albums have their strengths and weaknesses, but even if they are two good individual albums, I would have liked it more if the band had made one big album with the great songs and left some good songs on hold so they could be included in a future album. Anyway, both "The Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell" albums are worthy a check for fans of both angry/powerful metal and more commercially approached rock. But for the next album, please keep the title at 20 characters maximum.

Songs worthy of recognition: Wrecking Ball, Battle Born, Here To Die

Rating: 7/10 Weights Beneath My Sin

fivefingerdeathpunch.com/
twitter.com/FFDP

More reviews of Five Finger Death Punch
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 1
Got Your Six

And Justice For None

Five Finger Death Punch - The Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 1 (2013)

The band with one of the coolest names in metal is once again back, and this time they have created so many songs that they have decided to make a double album. "The Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 1" is the first part of the double album while the other half will be released in November. Even if it is exciting that the band is trying this out, they are not alone on attempting this method. Last year, Green Day released a triple album, Stone Sour released a double concept album and even Soilwork released a double album. So 5FDP is just another band that keeps this trend up.

The album itself is typical Five Finger Death Punch. A overflow of bad ass attitude, heavy riffs and memorable choruses. Actually, the only surprising part with this release is that the band has invited several guest artist to back them up. We have Max Cavalera (ex-Sepultura, Soulfly), Maria Brink (In This Moment), Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) and rapper Tech N9ne. But they all fade out compared to the Metal God himself. That's right, Rob Halford from Judas Priest makes an appearance on the first track and first single "Lift Me Up". I did not care too much of the song when I first heard it, but it grew on me and now I can still catch me hum the chorus from time to time. Halford only makes an effort in the second verse, second chorus and in the ending, but he still does a good job and shows why he is called the Metal God. Otherwise I think that the rest of the guests are just redundant, especially since 5FDP made a version with and without the guest in every song they participated in (except "Lift Me Up" and "Mama Said Knock You Out"). The worst part with this is that the band has put both versions in the CD. I would not have minded if they had put one of the versions in a deluxe CD, but they did not.

One of the strength with 5FDP is the variety. The band can create anything from heavy and fast metal songs to emotional rock ballads, something that definitely shows in this album. The heaviest piece is "Dot Your Eyes" that crunches you with its heavy riff and hard stomping lyrics. A clear favourite in this album. Two other heavy tracks are the melodic and epic "I.M. Sin" and the fast, but not so strong "Burn MF".

If we go from "hell" and go to the "heaven" part of the album, then we will first see the title track that is the most beautiful song that the band has created so far in their career. I also like the lyrics in the song, which shows that the band has matured a lot since the last record. The other ballad, "Anywhere But Here", is the only song in the album where the guest artist is doing some service. Maria Brink does a great job together with Ivan Moody to create a tender and fantastic duet. The song itself is also good and holds a surprisingly groovy rhythm.

I also want to give a shout out to my personal favourite "Watch You Bleed". This song has a addictive beat and a epic chorus that really encourages the listener to sing a long. The guitar solo is also the best in the album.

Does this album have any bad sides then? Well, I would say that the naggy "You" and anonymous "M.I.N.E (End This Way)" does not help to lift the album up, and the semi instrumental "Diary of A Deadman" is okay as a closer, but overall nothing special. But the rotten piece of the album is the LL Cool J cover of "Mama Said Knock You Out". I understand that the band wants to turn a song from a completely different genre to a heavy metal song, but they failed miserably with that mission, especially since rapper Tech N9ne (what kind of name is that?) takes the song back to its origin. If the band did create 20+ great songs, why the hell did they leave this cover in the album? It makes no sense.

Five Finger Death Punch is with this release taking their music another step up the ladder. The music is still the same up your ass attitude, but the lyrics has improved a lot since "American Capitalist" and the variety is still at an all time high. This album may have a title that is way too long for comfort, but it is a album that has a lot of quality, but unfortunately also a shitty cover and two versions of the same songs. The second volume will be released in November, so until then, I will keep listen to most of this record, since it is another proof that 5FDP knows what they are doing.

Songs worthy of recognition: Watch You Bleed, Lift Me Up, Dot Your Eyes, Anywhere But Here

Rating: 8,5/10 Deadmen

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twitter.com/FFDP

More reviews of Five Finger Death Punch
Wrong Side of Heaven And The Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 2
Got Your Six

And Justice For None