Review Summary: The year's best (so far) and worst (by far) albums both come out in the same week. Go figure?
After an outstanding week of top-notch releases for heavy metal (Nile, Ahab, Soilwork and Motorhead), Five Finger Death Punch comes out with an abomination that stops this freight train right in its tracks and sucks the life out of it completely. What's more is that this goes without mentioning an interview with Five Finger drummer Jeremy Spencer, who claimed he was "digging it. It's actually more brutal, with more extreme dynamics." Well, Jeremy, you got the brutal part right on the nose. My narrow-minded skinny jean wearing friend who loves some of the worst in the genre said this album was one of his all time favorites. (brain cells lost by typing this) You got the extreme part down too. This album is chock full of heavy hitting swear-fests that will make moshers sweaty and bloody. What's missing? The dynamic aspect. Nothing here is absolved of the contrived and lackluster identity of this terrible album. But c'mon, did we expect Five Finger Death Punch to actually release a solid album when so many of their contemporaries are putting out masterpieces?
I'll mince words here, ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst album, not only of the year, but the worst to hit store shelves since Attila's "Guilty Pleasure", which was released nine months ago. "Jekyll and Hyde" played like a track that could garner some positive recognition. But that's as a standalone single. When mixed in with these abhorrent offenses, you'll forget you even liked "Jekyll and Hyde" in the first place.
And this abhorrent nature of the album comes at a bad time for Five Finger Death Punch. Lead vocalist Ivan Moody has been tagged with accusations of alcoholism and domestic violence, and he hasn't exactly done a lot to debunk these claims. He did cut his drinking, but the domestic violence accusations further question if he's sober. Either way, when a singer's image goes down the tubes, so does the band's. Radio play dies like a fish out of water and it raises little hope for future discography.
Maybe that serves reason why this album is so abysmal. Eponymous track "Got Your Six" is a swear-fest with one explicit word following another and proceeding another and so on and so forth. And it's been shown in recent heavy metal releases like this; when you have nothing else to write about, go with explicit language that would make you want to replace the "Parental Discretion" sticker with a "Warning: Do NOT Purchase. You Will Lose IQ Points" label. I know I sound very arrogant and snarky, ladies and gentlemen, but this is the only proper explanation of how I feel about this.
"Hell to Pay" plays like your typical radio-friendly rocker. Boringly written and unamusingly sung makes this another skipper that takes mainstream rock to the same place the album is trying to take heavy metal; into total obscurity. "My Nemesis" is another track that merrily charts into offensive territory as if nothing's wrong. But it's nicely executed. Surprisingly enough. "Jekyll and Hyde" has a catchy enough hook, but when it sets the pins up, only it itself falls down, flat on its face. "Wash it All Away" isn't terrible. The solos are nearly competent, or at least competent enough to compete with the other radio friendly rockers that make you cringe. All of this is so disappointing, that it's actually presented as a Five Finger staple. Their 2013 double album was like walking a tight rope for the band. Risky, but potentially rewarding. It appears as though everything that proceeded this album was slowly regressing towards what we would eventually have here. Long story short, don't buy. Save ten bucks and 20 IQ points. Good day to all of you.
