FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH // A Five Fact Death Punch

I found a job as a low-level music business scumbag around the same time the world was taking notice of Five Finger Death Punch’s brash brand of post-Pantera groove metal.

This put me in a position where as their career blossomed… well mine has pretty much stagnated, but I’ve interviewed them a bunch of times and learned a thing or two about the dudes. One thing I’ve learned is that every single time I’ve gleefully pitched the headline ‘What did the five fingers say to the face?’ to editors and they’ve told me to fuck off*, but here are five actual things.

1. They took their name from Kill Bill

After the break-up of his previous band U.P.O., FFDP guitarist Zoltan Bathory was looking to do something more aggressive and cool. Naturally, he thought of Quentin Tarantino’s movies which are, if nothing else, aggressive and cool. This lead the guitarist, who emigrated to the US from the Eastern Bloc and fought his way into the music business with about zero connections, to decide on a name that would be as deadly as the band’s music would be, thus he took influence from Pai Mei’s five-point palm exploding heart technique. SPOILER ALERT, if you haven’t seen Kill Bill. But you probably definitely have, so watch on…

2. Zoltan was a missing person right before the band needed to go on tour

Just around the time the band was releasing their second album War is the Answer, their guitarist went missing right before they were scheduled to head out on a tour. Understandably, the band freaked out and posted on their website.

“We have not been able to locate Zoltan from Five Finger Death Punch since Friday night’s show in Las Vegas. He has not responded to calls, text messages, or emails, and he was last seen around 2:00 a.m. Friday night at Wasted Space in the Hard Rock Casino, taking tequila shots at the bar with a group of guys from a bachelor party who came to the show.”

Everything turned out alright in the end, but the panic felt pretty real for a minute there. A few years after the commotion, Zoltan said in an interview: “I just went off to a party and my phone went into the pool because it was in my pocket so it happens and it died. So people were calling me and I wasn’t answering so they panicked because I’m the responsible guy – they didn’t hear an answer so they thought, ‘Oh something must be wrong, he’s not answering his phone.”

“So by the time I went home, I was a missing person. It just got out of hand, the web guy who ran our website at the time got hold of it and posted it on our Youtube or Twitter or something and it just exploded from there.”

3. They covered LL Cool J and it was as fantastic as that sounds

This one speaks for itself. Enjoy.

4. They do not give a fuck

You’ve gotta have some serious stones to throw a fight-metal version of LL Cool J on your album. When I interviewed Zoltan about this back before the album was coming out, he gave me the following quote evidencing how little Five Finger Death Punch gave a fuck.

 “We do whatever the fuck we want. Because that’s what heavy metal is about. It was originally the middle finger to the man… The world’s changed, and rebellion’s changed because of that. So now you can really only do whatever the fuck you want to do, that’s the only rebellion that matters now.”

5. But they’ve got a social consciousness

For all their singing about violence, Five Finger Death Punch are very active supporters of the American troops. In addition to playing concerts for soldiers in Iraq, the band launched the website 5fdp4vets.com that raised over $200,000 for veterans suffering from PTSD through the sale of a custom-designed hockey jersey. Bathory has even served as a chairman for developing a Las Vegas-based veteran’s charity.

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BLACK SABBATH – THE END FINAL WORLD TOUR

With special guests Five Finger Death Punch and Rival Sons

Friday, 15 April – Perth Arena, Perth

Sunday, 17 April – Entertainment Centre, Adelaide

Tuesday, 19 April – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

Saturday, 23 April – Allphones Arena, Sydney

Monday, 25 April – Entertainment Centre, Brisbane

Tickets and VIP Meet & Greet packages available through Live Nation

*This actually happened.