FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH
Afterlife BETTER NOISE
Vegas metal heroes roll the dice on album No.9
THE BIGGEST STICK detractors like to beat Five
Finger Death Punch with is that the band’s sound has largely remained the same throughout their career.
Never mind that their swaggering lyrics and chugging riffs have netted them Gold and Platinum records and carried them into arenas around the world, apparently someone out there is holding out for 5FDP blastbeats and polyrhythms.
Afterlife doesn’t go that far, but it is more experimental than past efforts. Play singles Afterlife, IOU or Welcome To The Circus and everything is as you’d expect it to be; the riffs chug like a freight train, the lyrics are daft but insidiously catchy (‘Ticky ticky tasket / Time to burn the casket’ from …Circus will haunt your dreams) and even the loss of guitarist Jason Hook hasn’t stopped the band from breaking out some six-string wizardry on the title track for that proper stadium feel.
But then you move into the album’s mid-section, which brings in outside influences to merge with the 5FDP sound, for better or worse. Times Like These and
Thanks For Asking both use synthetic beats to introduce pop sensibilities, and the latter in particular feels like 5FDP taking on Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road. Judgment Day could be pulled from Korn’s Issues and Ivan’s vocal even veers towards rap. Closing track The End even introduces strings, providing a nice crescendo to the record and ending on a high.
While a sonic roll of the dice, Afterlife doesn’t bet everything on 5FDP changing overnight. The usual mix of chest-beating metal bangers and heartfelt ballads are still present and correct, but at this point it’s hard to tell whether the stylistic and production experiments that fill the album’s middle-ground are leading to something, or will end up as desert carrion. ■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Ice Nine Kills, Parkway Drive, Slipknot
RICH HOBSON