Peel back Five Finger Death Punch’s modern metal trappings and you’ll find a straight-down-the-line rock band underneath. This much is evidenced by the cover of Bad Company’s Bad Company that appears on this ‘best of’ album, which tastefully notches up the heaviness rather than galumphing all over it with titanium-plated guitar.
Bad Company is an apt choice for Five Finger Death Punch – the Las Vegas band have positioned themselves as modern-day outlaws, six-string rebels sticking it to the establishment.
They walk it like they talk it on Trouble and Lift Me Up – the latter featuring a cameo from Rob Halford – setting Ivan Moody’s warthog bellow on concrete foundations.
However, there’s an unlikely musical conservatism to The Bleeding and the billowing Battle Born, which owes as much to early Nickelback or prime Queensrÿche as it does Slayer or Metallica. Best of all is Gone Away, which is essentially an 80s power ballad in army camo drag.
It’s at moments like this – when they let the tough-guy mask slip and stop beating their chests to assert their alpha maleness – that Five Finger Death Punch are at their most intriguing. It’s a side you wish they’d explore more in future.
