While I am a fan, I don’t quite know what it is that makes
them appealing over other current metal bands. They somewhat have the spirit of
classic metal bands such as Judas Priest,
while sounding as modern as possible with lead singer Ivan Moody’s distinctive growl. I never found their music to be the
most original, though I seem to stand alone with that opinion. I’ve found them
to be somewhat inconsistent with their albums.
The Way Of
The Fist was a very different piece of work. When I first heard it I
wasn’t sure what to make of it. It had anger, a lot of anger, but the melodies
that were blended in were terrific. War
Is The Answer, the first album to feature (my fellow) Toronto native Jason Hook on guitar, just seemed
boring at times. I get that Ivan is an angry fellow, but it was getting too
obvious that the songs were a means of him to get out his frustration and
nothing more. With such lyrics as “do you take me for a fool/how’s it feel to
be a tool” from the album’s title track, it goes to show how bland the album
got. The band redeemed themselves with American
Capitalist, arguably the best of the three albums. While it still had its
share of cheesy anger, it showed improved guitar riffs and brought back some of
the melodic elements that made the debut album so special.
It was announced at the beginning of the year that the
awaited fourth album by the band would be released in two parts. The first of
these two parts, The Wrong Side of
Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Volume 1, was released this past
July. I find the result to be somewhere in between War Is the Answer and American
Capitalist. It is better than the former, but not as good as the latter.
The album starts off with the first song that the band
revealed on May 2nd at the Revolver
Golden Gods awards. Lift Me Up
features Ivan maintaining his more clean vocals throughout the song and is a
promising way to start off the album. Did I mention that it features none other
than the Metal God himself, Rob Halford
on guest vocals?
Watch You
Bleed continues to show promise for the album. Ivan’s voice sounds
just as intense as it can be without resorting to his growl, which is something
I always wish he and other metal vocalists would do more. The only other really
comparable song on the album would be the track Anywhere But Here, which features a small guest vocal from In This Moment’s Maria Brink. Later on the album is a second version of the song
which features more of Maria on vocals, which I find better than the first
version.
The first song to really feature the growling guttural vocals
of Ivan Moody is the angry fast talking song You. This song brings back criteria heard way back on their debut,
with well thought out guttural vocals as well as terrific harmonies. I.M.Sin is another track with strong
usage of guttural growls and with a tremendously perfect melody in the songs
chorus, and as a bonus, a second version of the song is featured toward the end
of the album featuring thrash/groove veteran Max Cavalera as a guest vocalist.
The band has always been beyond exceptional at writing metal
ballads. Going right back to The
Bleeding from their debut album to Remember
Everything from the Capitalist album. This trend is followed on this album
with The Wrong Side of Heaven. I
don’t quite regard this to be as good as the two previously mentioned tracks,
but that doesn’t take away from this being a definite song to spotlight from
the album. The albums second heavy ballad, M.I.N.E
(End This Way) has much stronger passion to it and a lot more feeling than
the title track, more similar to a song like Remember Everything. It may even
be better, but that’s just my opinion.
As expected, the album does have the angrier than thou songs
that concentrate less on the music and more on the aggression. Burn MF and Dot Your Eyes are both good angry songs, a little too simple, but
by now fans of the band should expect this from them. The latter of the two
songs also has a second version heard later on the album featuring Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta.
If you see the track list, and noticed the track Mama Said Knock You Out, yes that is an
LL Cool J cover. I do applaud how
they turn the song in to a bona fide metal song, and replace the rapping with
screams. What I don’t like about the song is the inclusion of Tech N9ne rapping
the second verse of the song. It just doesn’t fit. The album could have done
without the song in general, but since they decided to include it, I suppose it
wasn’t a completely awful choice.
The album ends with the dramatic Diary of a Deadman. When I say dramatic, I mean arrangements and
breakdowns that are pretty much unheard of in any previous Five Finger Death
Punch song. The verses are spoken rather than sung, where I’d have preferred
them to be sung, but the music heard throughout the song makes up for it, being
what I believe to be the best musically written piece the band has ever
recorded. It does successfully leave me anxious to hear what the second volume
of this two album series will sound like.
I would still have to say American Capitalist is the bands best album, but after listening to
this album more and more, I don’t think the best is behind them. The album
keeps the band as a credible name to be mentioned when listing the top current
metal acts and does show some (unfortunately only some) maturing in song
writing. Listening to the album from beginning to end, it is hard to get bored.
Listening to some of the individual tracks however can be somewhat boring and
bland, but thankfully the number of these tracks is less so than on the War Is The Answer album.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Watch You Bleed” – The reason I
believe this to be a good highlight for the album is because it shows how
intense the band still is. Despite the song being predominantly a clean vocal
track, it has enough growls to please those who still find screaming/growling
to be relevant in music. Musically it is amongst the top tracks the band has
ever recorded, with noticeable guitar riffs that don’t get drowned out by any
sort of generic drum beat.
FINAL RATING
8.5 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
Lift Me Up (feat.
Rob Halford)
|
4:06
|
2.
|
Watch You Bleed
|
3:43
|
3.
|
You
|
3:03
|
4.
|
Wrong Side of Heaven
|
4:31
|
5.
|
Burn MF
|
3:37
|
6.
|
I.M.Sin
|
3:39
|
7.
|
Anywhere But Here (feat. Maria Brink)
|
3:45
|
8.
|
Dot Your Eyes
|
3:15
|
9.
|
M.I.N.E (End This Way)
|
4:06
|
10.
|
Mama Said Knock You Out (feat. Tech N9ne)
|
2:47
|
11.
|
Diary of a Deadman
|
4:44
|
12.
|
I.M.Sin (feat.
Max Cavalera)
|
3:39
|
13.
|
Anywhere But Here (Duet with Maria Brink)
|
3:46
|
14.
|
Dot Your Eyes (feat. Jamey Jasta)
|
3:15
|
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