Oh Joy… Five Finger Death Punch is “About Six or Seven Songs” Into Their Next Album
Depending on how you feel about divorced dad rock band Five Finger Death Punch, the headline above either excites you or it really, really doesn’t. (We’ll let ya guess which camp we’re in.)
News of the band’s 10th studio effort coming along was made public during bassist Chris Kael’s recent appearance on the Kilpop podcast. During the conversation, he was asked how things were going within the band as of late, at which point he dropped the (un)fortunate news.
“We have a photo shoot tomorrow, actually, here in [Las Vegas]. Yeah, so we’re all getting together… But, yeah, big five-hour photo shoot, getting ready for the next line of things. We’re here in town working on new stuff as well. Going back to the old days, like the very first record. [On that album] I believe it was Zoltan [Bathory, Five Finger Death Punch’s founding guitarist] just in his apartment in Los Angeles, writing and recording right there in his apartment. He said that he didn’t get a bed, he didn’t get none of that, ’cause he didn’t want anything to hold him down. He wanted to be able to go in there, record, be uncomfortable, and then get out and go do it. So, he’s got a bed now and a much bigger house. But we’re essentially doing it the way that it was done on that first record, just in the living room — set up and record and go.”
Truth be told, that’s a pretty interesting way for a major band to get working on their next album. Usually you’ll find established bands won’t get rolling without an expensive studio and pampered locales before they even begin working. But for a band as big as FFDP to apparently work on and record demos for their 10th full-length like they were kids in high school is kinda cool. And fitting given the level of brain development some of their more… vocal… fans tend to display.
Speaking of the difference between this album and their 2022 release AfterLife, Kael said they’re taking a more laissez-faire approach to getting everything done before they actually head into the studio.
“I think there’s about six or seven songs at this point. Yeah, [we’re] just kind of working on that and taking our time and really just kind of enjoying the break, with no rush. There’s no deadlines, no impending tours. We’ve got six shows this year. I know we’re doing Arizona Bike Week, playing up in Anchorage, Alaska, Sturgis, a couple shows in Wisconsin. We just announced Rocklahoma as well. And then other than that, we’re just gonna be here writing and recording, going out to do those shows to get the live vibe again, get excited and then come back and bring that live energy back into the studio.”
