Five Finger Death Punch Continues To Regress With "F8"

Five Finger Death Punch has released their 8th album, “F8” AKA “Fate”, and – spoiler alert – Ivan Moody is pissed off. Yawn. Been there, done that. The lead single “Inside Out” sounds like a petty twitter beef against former drummer and founding member Jeremy Spencer, as does “To Be Alone”, which is definitely throwing shade on somebody. New drummer Charlie Engen plays frantically throughout the album, possibly to prove a point, but rarely to bring rhythm to the song. 5FDP peaked creatively with “The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1” in 2013. That album took creative risks, explored new sounds, and had collaborations with Rob Halford, Tech N9ne, Max Cavalera, Maria Brink and Jamey Jasta. Since then, they have played it safe and repeated themselves. One positive note about “F8” for many is the absence of a cover song, unless you consider that the band is essentially covering itself. The sounds have been done before, and the lyrical themes have been covered before, with far better results on the classics from the first 4 albums. “Death Punch Therapy” literally pulls lyrics from previous songs. The “I hate everybody” well has run dry, with Moody resorting to just yelling “Fuck!” at the end of “This Is War”. The “Death Punch sound” is tried and true, so it’s not like this album is bad, it just pales in comparison to the earlier efforts. At this point in their career, they would be fine putting out greatest hits and live albums, and touring, where they truly shine best. There are other bands in the genre who continue to evolve and experiment with their sound, with excellent results: Godsmack, All That Remains, Killswitch Engage, Sevendust and Slipknot have all recently released new albums that rank among their best. Hopefully, Five Finger Death Punch will be more bold on their next album, and once again produce greatness.