Two Decades Of Dominance With ZOLTAN BATHORY From FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

Celebrating twenty years in the music industry is a great
achievement in itself, but celebrating 20 years of sustained
success is even better. 
Bursting out of the blocks with their 2007 debut album The Way Of
The Fist, Five Finger Death Punch were on a collision course with
the rest of the world, laying the foundations for a turbulent yet
continual upwards trajectory.
By the time War Is The Answer followed two years later, the band
were notorious for their rebellious spirit and ruthless approach to
music, but love them or hate them, there was no denying Five Finger
Death Punch were the real deal. For every one person who hated the
band, there was another ten who loved them, and despite the public
perception that 5FDP were the bad boys of metal, they maintained
their belief and integrity and stayed on course.
Now, 20 years later, that trajectory is available for the world to
share when Volume 2 of the band's Best Of double header is released
on October 24 via Better Noise Music. Both albums feature music
entirely re-recorded, with 5FDP tenaciously clinging to the notion
that their music was to be celebrated, not recycled. On the eve of
the release of Volume 2, HEAVY sat down for a chat with guitarist
Zoltan Bathory to relive the journey that has been two decades in
the making.
"It's kind of crazy, because by doing this little exercise of
recording these songs, we got to sort of revisit our past, you
know?" he began. "Because we are a forward-facing band, like what's
next? Where are we going? What's the next thing we're doing? So
it's not really that we're looking into the rearview mirror so
much, and so this was kind of crazy, looking back… 20 years… if I
had to put some money in and bet, I probably would bet against us
(laughs). I would have lost, because not many bands make it that
long. It's difficult. And from all bands, this was like… it was a
fire tornado or whatever for the last 20 years (laughs)."
We ask Zoltan which of the two Best Of albums is his personal
favourite.
"Each record has amazing moments, and both records have a song that
has a feature," he measured. "The first one had Maria Brink, and
that song became a number-one song. And it made a lot of sense. A
lot of people don't know this, but In This Moment, and Maria and
Five Finger Death Punch, our history is kind of intertwined. Not
many people know this, but there was a band in Los Angeles that was
a local band that was fairly big locally, but never really made it.
And when this band fell apart, half of the band became In This
Moment, and the other half went to Five Finger Death Punch. Then
they got the record deal, I think, with Century Media. Then we got
ours and we sort of grew in the same time. They were heavier, so
they kind of went into that direction. We had radio songs, so the
band obviously blew up."
In the full interview, Zoltan takes us into both albums in greater
detail, highlighting the guest artists on each and why they were
chosen. He explained the band's decision to re-record everything
rather than re-mix it or touch it up with technology, and relayed
some fun stories from their studio time.
We spoke about the never-before-released live songs on Volume 2 and
how the band chose which songs to put on each album and why. Zoltan
shared insights into changing certain bits of the songs, and if
that was a rehearsed or jammed in the studio decision, what songs
he may have fallen back in love with again during the process, plus
he also revealed details of planned new music and more.

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