At the end of October, Five Finger Death Punch released the album BEST OF: VOLUME 2 , featuring re-recordings of some of their biggest career hits.
This project follows BEST OF: VOLUME 1 , released in July. Both albums were created in response to the sale of the original master tapes of FFDP's music – a sale made without the band's knowledge or the opportunity to recover them.
Instead of remixing or remastering, 5FDP turned the setback into something positive by completely re-recording fan favorites across two volumes – both as a tribute to the songs and to the fans who have followed them for two decades.
We spoke with guitarist and founding member Zoltan , who talked about how Taylor Swift inspired the band to re-record her greatest hits and expressed his desire to return to Brazil.
Wikimetal: Five Finger Death Punch is re-recording some of their songs because their masters were sold without their consent. I'm sure this happens a lot in the music industry, but the most famous example of this happened a few years ago with a big pop star, Taylor Swift. Did you hear about that back then?
Zoltan: For those of us who have been in the music industry for 20 years, it's common knowledge that these things happen. It's nothing strange, it's just something the general public doesn't necessarily know, but it happens behind closed doors. Record labels exchange artist catalogs, they sell artist catalogs. Like commodities. And you really don't have any say in it. It happens. It's nothing criminal because they're contracts, but you're kind of forced into these situations and you don't have the right to have a say. The difference is that, although it's happened in the past with many artists and with one big artist that everyone on the planet knows happened, most of them simply didn't do anything about it and they just said, "Well, it is what it is. I accept my fate." But when it happened to Taylor, she reacted differently. She said, "You know what? No, I don't agree with this."
So, Taylor decided she was going to re-record her entire catalog, and she had a very dedicated fanbase, and those fans understood what she was doing and stopped listening to the old versions to listen to the new ones. Because they understood that this was a game of chess she was playing. And that gave hope, I think, and a vision, and a kind of example for the rest of the industry. So now this happens daily with artists, and when it happened to us, we were aware of what she did. And the thought was kind of, “Well, you know what we have in common with Taylor in a way? We are very different artists, but we have an incredibly loyal fanbase, just like her.” So, however distant we are musically and in terms of genre, we have this element in common: our fans are incredibly loyal. They are like family.
That's why we always joke that Five Finger Death Punch is the biggest unknown band, because we have tens of millions of fans and they're very dedicated. They come to every show, they know every word of every lyric, but apart from that, we're practically unknown. So, this fanbase will follow us to the ends of the earth.
So we thought, “We can take this approach. Let’s re-record like Taylor did, because we have a fanbase that will understand and follow along, and then we can do the same thing.” And again, our old label didn’t do anything criminal. It’s just… it’s simply not that fair. And the fact that they didn’t even tell us, we only found out later, left us kind of like, “You know, at least you could have given us a chance or told us or involved us in this transaction or given us a chance to recover our catalog.” There’s nothing malicious about it because it’s a game of chess. They made a move, a business move. I don’t have any negative feelings about it. Okay, that was their move. Now let’s make ours, right?
That's more or less how it happened. But since it was our 20th anniversary anyway, it was a perfect opportunity for us to revisit our entire past and give the fans something that would be a compilation of these last 20 years. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Now we've gone back and re-recorded the catalog. And it's not necessarily replacing what we did before. We're very proud of it, and those magical moments can't be recaptured. But when we go into the studio, those songs are already written. So it's more of a performance because we've already written them. When you write originally, every detail matters. We've already written it, so now we're going to perform it. And when we perform it instead of writing it, it has a different energy, a performative energy. It's closer to a live show. And that gives us a different angle. So we thought, "You know what? This is going to be really cool." And that's how it happened.
WM: You released a new version of “The End” with BABYMETAL. What made you think of them to participate in this song, and what made you think that this particular song deserved a special guest appearance?
Z: As we revisited these last 20 years, we realized we have about 30 Top 10 hits, like successful singles. So, these songs are important to a lot of people, that's what makes a hit. There's this idea that the music industry can make a song a hit. No, the fans do that. So, that's a reality. That means it was very important to a lot of fans. Each album usually has a maximum of three singles that go to the radio and become singles. When you have four, that's more than usual. And that means you're doing very well. But people don't really have a fifth single. And on that last album we already had four singles and "The End" would have been one of them, but it just didn't make it. It wasn't the one that ended up being chosen. But we wanted it to be a single. So we thought it was a perfect opportunity, because if we put that song on this compilation, it could still become a single. And that was part of it.
The other part is why BABYMETAL. We met BABYMETAL a few times. We played at various festivals, met in Japan, in England, and we asked them to collaborate on this track because of the theme and the lyrics. So, generally we write the music first and then write the lyrics. Ivan (Moody) wrote the lyrics for this one, and he refuses to answer what the lyrics of a song mean. He has a theory, and I agree with him. He says that every time you're listening to a song, you hear what you needed to hear because you're in a certain place in your life, so each song will mean something different to each person. And if he's the lyricist and he explains what this song is about, then he makes that meaning fixed. He feels like he's robbing the fans and listeners of the ability to interpret a song in their own way. That's why he didn't explain what the song is about.
So, when I first heard the lyrics… I also write songs with images in my head. I’m always composing a soundtrack for a movie that’s playing in my head, right? So, when I hear the lyrics, the music video immediately starts playing in my head and I realize it. I let the arrows fly. For me, this [song] is an epic battle. And even better, it’s a battle between samurai, you know, between ancient martial warriors. Because there’s this code of honor that you fight to the absolute end. So, for me, that’s what I saw. And then, if I see a samurai battle in my head, having BABYMETAL singing in Japanese made this song complete for me.
Furthermore, we have a fanbase that is diverse, but it's a very large part of the fanbase, even though we're in the same genre – hard rock, heavy metal. We were exposed to a different fanbase, which is their fanbase. We're getting an influx of people who had never heard of us before, but who now listen to us because of BABYMETAL. So, we gained a huge fanbase. And I can also see that from our side, like, our fans saying, “I have to check out this band BABYMETAL.” So, it was a win in every sense. Every part of it was a huge win.
WM: It's been almost 10 years since Five Finger Death Punch last played in Brazil. Do you plan to return soon?
Z: I really hope so. Everyone knows that South America in general really, really, really likes hard rock and heavy metal, even back when it wasn't as popular. There have been ups and downs in the history of heavy metal, so there was a time when it wasn't really what mattered and these genres kind of fell underground. Brazil and Sweden, those two countries were carrying the torch. Actually, I'd like to say that South America was, because Argentina, Peru, and even central Mexico, they're still big fans, but Brazil definitely carries the torch. And we know that.
But still, when we went to Brazil, I was shocked by the reception. Everyone knew us, and the most incredible part was that they knew every single lyric to every song. That was crazy to me. They sang from the first to the last word. Especially in São Paulo, we had, I don't know, 50,000 people in the audience. Hearing that audience singing, my God, the feeling is unimaginable. The audience was louder than the amplifier, and I heard them singing. It was insane. So, of course, yes. I mean, actually, I don't even know why we never went back. It's been 10 years. That's a very, very long time. We had a global pandemic and everything, but still, it's… We should have gone back. I really hope we do.
And that's the thing. Personally, I've trained jiu-jitsu for almost 20 years and judo my whole life. But jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I'm surrounded by Brazilians every day, right? I'm freaking out. My wife is Brazilian. So for me, this is also personal. We have to go back, for sure. It's more than just a hope. I'm fighting for it. We need to go to Brazil.
