At the end of October, Five Finger Death Punch released the album BEST OF: VOLUME 2. This compilation joins the first volume, which together contains re-recordings of some of the band's biggest hits throughout their 20-year career.
The decision to re-record some of their main tracks came after Five Finger Death Punch had their original masters sold without their consent. This practice – which is quite common in the music industry, but kept under wraps – became public knowledge when the same thing happened to pop singer Taylor Swift in 2020.
At the time, Swift publicly expressed her discontent and adopted a strategy of re-recording her sold albums as a way to regain control of her work and impact sales and streaming numbers for the material sold.
In an interview with Wikimetal , Five Finger Death Punch guitarist and founding member Zoltan confirmed that Taylor Swift's example inspired the band to act similarly when the same thing happened to them.
“For those of us who have been in the music industry for 20 years, it’s common knowledge that these things happen,” the musician comments. “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 has happened in the past with many artists, most of them simply did nothing about it and accepted their fate. But when it happened to Taylor, she reacted differently. She said, ‘You know what? No, I don’t agree with this.’”
According to the guitarist, one of the main factors that helped the pop singer in her strategy was a loyal fanbase that understood the movement and stopped listening to the old versions to listen to the new ones. This revolutionary movement is what inspired Five Finger Death Punch to try a similar approach.
“This brought hope, I think, and a vision, and a kind of example for the rest of the industry,” she comments. “Now this happens daily to 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, as far apart as we are musically and in terms of genre, we have this element in common: our fans are incredibly loyal. They are like family.”
READ ALSO: Interview: Five Finger Death Punch talks about new album 'BEST OF: VOLUME 2'
