Five Finger Death Punch If you go

he said. “It’s a bluff. We didn’t want to do that, but we had to say that. We had to say, ‘Listen, if you don’t do this now, you’re done. You’re out.’

“Also there was a fear that if this doesn’t work, this is the last card in my hand. If he doesn’t care and he’s not going to go to rehab, then we’re going to lose him. He’s going to be gone.” Gone as in dead. Two years later, Bathory can look back on that time with a sense of relief and gratitude. Moody fought back against his addictions and today is clean and sober (as are the other members of Five Finger Death Punch).

The band has been touring extensively. In addition, Five Finger Death Punch is finishing a new studio album due out next year. It will be the eighth full-length effort from the band, which has become one of the most popular heavy metal/ hard rock bands going. All seven previous studio albums have gone either gold or platinum.

Bathory says not only is Moody like a new man, excited about his life and his music, the band as a whole has re-emerged better than ever and is completely hitting on all cylinders.

Not surprisingly, much of the new album finds Moody, who is the band’s primary lyricist, chronicling his struggles with alcohol and his journey to recovery and sobriety.

“He came through hell. He came back. And that journey, that message, is there in the lyrics,” Bathory said. “A lot of it is about that, his experiences of what happened to him when he was down, how people treated him. He came back, and how › What: Five Finger Death

Punch

› Where: McKenzie Arena,

720 E. Fourth St.

› When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23

› Admission: $87-$27, VIP

packages $202 and $502 › For more information:

423-266-6627

people doubted that he could come back. And when he comes back, the world is different and he has a different attitude. He can process what happened as a person. So all of those phases, lyrically, are definitely on the record.”

The shows this fall don’t figure to include songs from the next album. Instead, the group unintentionally crafted a greatest-hits set list.

“It was pretty funny, actually. Yesterday we were talking, ‘How about we just play our hits?’” Bathory said. “And we go into the set (list) and we go ‘OK, I guess we’re playing one song that wasn’t (a hit). It was just funny because it was a conversation and not a plan. Then we realized ‘Oh, we’re already doing it.’ But it’s a good problem to have, right?”

And it’s a small problem compared to the challenges Moody and Five Finger Death Punch overcame to get to this point.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO FROM FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Five Finger Death Punch