Label: Better Noise Records
Released: 28th February 2020
Rating: ★★★
For all you can say about Five Finger Death Punch, being unafraid to present themselves, especially frontman Ivan Moody, with all their sins bared, is certainly undebatable.
It’s a full-on embellished abolition for Five Finger and their past on eighth outing ‘F8’ (see what they did there?). With dirty hands digging deep into the neck-in-vein brutality that propelled them to their current top-dog status. It’s still chockfull of the same frenetic atmosphere as they’ve always exuded; music for kids who consume energy drinks with the same abandon as oxygen.
Wrestling with the world and their position in it, ‘F8’ as defensive as it is offensive. There’s still elements of safety in the onslaught, dying for crowd singalong’s (‘A Little Bit Off’), but its the poignancy which strikes like lightning; all predominantly dabbling in Ivan’s struggles with alcoholism, and everything else which has contributed to the Five Finger story thus far.
‘Brighter Side of Grey’ goes for a force of sheer emotion, reflecting the encroaching shadow of death that loomed over the band for so long. While ‘Bottom Of The Top’, and’ Making Monsters’ are the Five Finger all the haters have been yearning for; unbridled, the clink of broken restraints coming in the form of musical vehemence.
‘F8’ is an album that will undoubtedly stand as an important milestone for the band on a personal level given the demons it’s exorcising. Still, more significantly, it reinforces the Five Finger behemoth is indeed far from finished.
