Five Finger Death Punch are a handful of mainstream metal bands that you could quite possibly give the title of “most-hated”. Considering the band’s popularity (countless #1 hits on the rock and metal charts) and lasting success, the mere name of the band manages to conjure up hatred for many metalheads. In fact, other than their first three records, a majority of their material since then (they’ve released a total of NINE full-length albums) has been met with serious critical derision, even from within their own fanbase (to an extent).
It’s hard to fault the formula, though. Clearly, it works – other than their debut album The Way Of The Fist, each of their full-length albums since then have landed a Billboard 200 debut in the Top 10. In fact, they had three consecutive #2 chart debuts, which is extremely impressive for any rock or metal band in the last 15 years. It’s obvious that FFDP could continue to coast and keep writing palette swap-esque mainstream metal records for the rest of their career.
According to a recent YouTube live video of the band’s recent show, though, it appears the band will need to find a new vocalist to replace Ivan Moody – in fact, apparently after their next album is released. Moody revealed this in a video which you can watch below, thankfully transcribed by ThePRP.com:
“I wanted to tell you this. And nobody else in the world knows, Denver, so this is where it’s going to start. And what you do with it is up to you. The last 15 years of my life I have toured the world, I have seen every country, every city on this planet at least twice—That’s a fact. And through that time as many of you parents know—hard workers—I have missed a lot of time with my kiddos. So I made them a deal today, and I’m going to stick to it. After this year, I am going to make one more Five Finger Death Punch album and then I am retiring from heavy metal.
But I wanted to start that here and tell all of you, from day one when I decided to be a singer playing places like… the Bluebird Theater, the Ogden, and we were supposed to play Red Rocks, we’ll have to do that one more time, right? Can I play Red Rocks one more time? You, I owe you everything, Colorado, Five Finger Death Punch and every knucklehead on this planet, thank you.”
His words, of course. It should be noted that Moody didn’t rule out playing or performing other styles of music entirely, and it’s possible that he won’t actually retire from heavy metal, as he said. However, considering his kids are growing up and he obviously wants to spend more time with them, that’s certainly an admirable thing if he chooses to retire from the road.
