Music / Five Finger Death Punch

L-R: Jason Hook, Ivan Moody, Chris Kael, Zoltan Bathory, Jeremy Spencer

Five Finger Death Punch is an American Groove Metal band from Las Vegas, Nevada—formed in 2005. Since their debut studio album in 2007, they've released nine studio albums, including the two-volume The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell.

Their song "Dying Breed" was featured in the 2010 remake of Splatterhouse, and "Hard To See" was used as the theme song for TNA's show Reaction.

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Discography:

• The Way of the Fist (2007)
• War Is the Answer (2009)
• American Capitalist (2011)
• The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Vol. 1 (2013)
• The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Vol. 2 (2013)
• Got Your Six (2015)
• And Justice for None (2018)
• F8 (2020)
• AfterLife (2022)

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Lineup:

Current members:

• Zoltan Bathory - rhythm guitar (since 2005; also played lead guitar and bass the same year before switching to rhythm guitar)
• Ivan Moody - lead vocals, piano (since 2006)
• Chris Kael - bass, backing vocals (since 2010)
• Charlie Engen - drums (since 2018)
• Andy James - lead guitar (since 2020)

Former members:

• Caleb Bingham - lead guitar, backing vocals (2005-2006)
• Darrell Roberts - lead guitar, backing vocals (2006-2009)
• Matt Snell - bass, backing vocals (2005-2010)
• Jeremy Spencer - drums (2005-2018; also briefly did vocals in 2005)
• Jason Hook - lead guitar, backing vocals (2009-2020)

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I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of tropes:

• The Alcoholic: Ivan Moody is known for being this, which took a very significant public toll on both himself and the band as a whole. Moody said that the lead single for F8, "Inside Out", references his problems with alcohol.
  • Even earlier, the video for "I Apologize" features Ivan walking around a graveyard, drinking from a flask as he honors the graves of past rock and metal stars. It ends with him finding his own grave and deciding to throw the flask into it.
• Anti-Hero: The lyrics to "Wrong Side of Heaven" suggest that Ivan is a cross between these this and Noble Demon, along with the album title referencing this.
• Atomic F-Bomb:
  • Ivan bellows out a massive "BURN, MOTHERFUCKER!" before the final chorus of "Burn MF".
  • The beginning of "It Doesn't Matter" features Ivan bellowing "FUCK YOOOOOOOUUU!!" twice.
  • "This Is War" ends with Ivan yelling a loud f-bomb just before the song ends.
• Badass Boast: Half of their output. "Ashes" deserves special mention, as does "Bulletproof".
• Call-Back: "Inside Out" from F8 has the line "I give a shit, I never did", calling back to a similar line in American Capitalist's "Under and Over It".
• Calling the Old Man Out: "The Devil's Own", perhaps the most vicious musical example in recent memory.
• Chronological Album Title: Got Your Six and F8, being their sixth and eighth studio albums, respectively.
• Cluster F-Bomb: To say the least...
  • The song "Burn MF" contains at least 40 instances of "fuck"—the vast majority of those being "motherfucker".
  • "Fake" contains 32 instances of the word "fuck." There's six uses of the word "motherfucker" in each chorus.
• The Cameo: Quite a few on Wrong Side of Heaven..., Vol. 1, including Tech N9ne on their cover of "Mama Said Knock You Out", Maria Brink of In This Moment on "Anywhere but Here", Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed on "Dot Your Eyes", Max Cavelara of Soulfly on "I.M Sin", and most notable Rob Halford of Judas Priest on "Lift Me Up."
• Concept Album:
  • War Is the Answer has a lot of tracks that seem to be military themed: "No One Gets Left Behind", "Far from Home", and "Bulletproof", to name a few.
  • American Capitalist is similar, having a very heavy patriotic theme—albeit with sarcastic tones in several songs.
• Cover Version: "From Out of Nowhere" (originally by Faith No More), "Bad Company" (from the band of the same name off the album of the same name), "Mama Said Knock You Out" (from LL Cool J—their version features Tech N9ne), "House of the Rising Sun" (a traditional folk song made famous by The Animals), "Blue on Black" (from Kenny Wayne Shepherd)...
• Creepy Circus Music: "Welcome to the Circus" uses the off-key, creepy circus music at the beginning, during the bridge, and at the end.
• Curse Cut Short: On "Under and Over It": "Did you know I don't care? You can suck my..." (alludes to rhyming with "prick")
• Dare to Be Badass: Their lyrics have a running theme of self-empowerment and dealing with people that have wronged you, ranging from 'you're so insignificant it's not worth being angry' to...somewhat less pacifist solutions.
• Determinator: "Back for More" seems to be about one.
• Driven to Suicide: In "Coming Down", the narrator feels suicidal because of past mistakes, bad relationship, and feeling that the world is caving in around him and nobody cares.
  Step away from the ledge
  I'm coming down
  • The video ends with an encouragement to seek help or to be that friend who will be there for someone in this situation.
• Hope Spot: "Judgment Day" has the lines: "Seems every time I think there's just a little bit of hope / Someone comes out swinging with a dead man's rope."
• Hot-Blooded: Damn straight.
• Jekyll & Hyde:
  • "Jekyll and Hyde", the lead single off of Got Your Six, is unsurprisingly about this trope.
    Oh, yo, yo, there's a demon inside!
    Oh, yo, yo, just like Jekyll and Hyde!
    Oh, yo, yo, all this anger inside!
    Oh, yo, yo, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde!
  • Also mentioned in "Welcome to the Circus" from AfterLife, with the line "Everybody's got a Jekyll and Hyde."
• Kill It with Fire: "Burn MF" invokes this so much, particularly in the chorus.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Somehow, an older, evil version of The Blues Brothers were the bad guys in the video for "House of the Rising Sun".
• Mascot: The Knucklehead, noted for his skeletal head, red, hand-shaped Facial Markings with a 5 in the middle and the spiky, four-fingered brass knuckle clenched in his teeth. He was the subject of a video parodying The Most Interesting Man in the World ads.
• Morton's Fork: "Judgment Day":
  Damned if I do, damned if I don't
  Damned if I will and damned if I won't
  Doomed if I try, doomed if I fail
  Damn you all to hell
• Nietzsche Wannabe: The narrator of "White Knuckles".
• No Indoor Voice: Basically 4/5 of "Burn MF" is just Ivan screaming his balls off with every considerable F-Bombs available.
• No One Gets Left Behind: "No One Gets Left Behind" criticizes politicians for abandoning this standard, among other things.
• Omnicidal Maniac: "White Knuckles", "Burn It Down"—we'd be here all day if we tried to name them all...
• Protest Song: A lot of songs come across this way, particularly on War Is the Answer.
  • "No One Gets Left Behind" is an attack on politicians who exploit the military and start pointless wars for their own gain instead of actually respecting the troops and defending the country.
• Rated M for Manly: Their music consists of brutal, fast riffs over powerful percussion and enraged vocals declaring how Ivan wants to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Religion Rant Song:
  • "Salvation" is type 3: it criticizes religious conservatives rather than religion itself.
  • "Burn It Down" could be interpreted as one as well.
• Reluctant Psycho: "My Own Hell".
  My thoughts speak louder the more I resist
  Losing the battle I've waged on myself
• Rule of Cool: There really isn't a band out there more suited for good old fashioned wanton destruction.
• Sanity Slippage Song: Many of their songs could be taken this way, but "My Own Hell" is the most straightforward example.
  Twisting and turning unable to sleep
  Do the voices ever stop?
  My thoughts speak louder the more I resist
  And they're driving me insane
• Self-Referential Track Placement: The last song of AfterLife is titled "The End."
• Soprano and Gravel: Ivan provides a rare solo version. He can go from a smooth melody to an incredibly harsh growl, usually within the same song.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song:
  • "Far from Home" off War Is the Answer, especially after its use in Criminal Minds. There's also "Crossing Over", which contains none of their signature heavy riffs or screaming vocals whatsoever. "Remember Everything" is probably the biggest example of this trope, and "Battle Born" also deserves a mention.
  • Then there’s “I Refuse”. Even more than “Remember Everything”, this song is incredibly “gentle” for 5FDP, to the point that if one hadn’t recognized Ivan’s voice, they wouldn’t have thought it was them.
  • "A Little Bit Off" from F8, though the same can't be said about its lyrics.
• Take That!: They're quite... vocal critics, to say the least.
• Take That, Critics!:
  • While onstage, Ivan Moody has been known to attack "music nerds who badmouth Five Finger Death Punch on the internet from their mom's basements."
  • In the song "Sham Pain" from the album And Justice for None, one line of lyrics is "My label tried to sue me, TMZ tried to sue me, Blabbermouth can fucking suck it 'cause they never fucking knew me!"
  • "Under and Over It" tells their critics to suck something which rhymes with "prick".
• This Is the Part Where...: Mentioned in the lyrics that begin the bridge to "Gold Gutter."
  Hohoho-ahahaha! This is my favorite part of the movie!
  No, not fading to black.
  This is where you fuckin' scream!
• Title Drop:
  • The title track off of American Capitalist retroactively does this for their first two albums:
    Yeah, war is the answer like I told you before!
    You're a coward with no power, just a stain on the floor!
    If you're a man, be a man, stop running your lips!
    Round three, no mercy, it's the way of the fist!
  • Wrong Side of Heaven..., Vol. 1 also does this in the title track.
• Younger Than They Look: Ivan was born in 1980, but he has always looked like he's in his early-to-mid-40s. Which is strange, because he was in his mid-20s when the band's debut was recorded, and still looked that age. As of 2020, he now looks much closer to his real age.

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