Five Finger Death Punch was an underground phenomenon even before they exploded onto the Family Values Tour in 2007. Their “old-school-meets-new-school” metal was the talk of the scene, creating quite a ripple in the underground and online. Upholding traditional songwriting values with the support of today’s modern sound and dynamics has paid off for FFDP.  The band’s 2007 debut offering, The Way of the Fist, has sold nearly 230,000 copies to date and has spawned two Top 10 Rock Radio hits. The album has never left the Billboard Top 200 chart and is a Top 5 mainstay on the New Artist chart.

Prior to the album’s release, the band shot to the top of the MySpace charts, bypassing the heavy duty icons of the genre, creeping onto radio play lists without the support of a record deal and had absolute mayhem on their sold out shows.

“This record is as pure as it gets,” says guitarist and founder Zoltan Bathory. “There was no media training or record label or management twisting our arms. We play music that we like, that we wanted to hear, and the amazing part is how many people embraced it right away. We had a big underground buzz—we put songs on MySpace and had 4,000-5,000 downloads every day. We didn’t have a record out and people were already getting the logo tattooed on them. The record was self-funded and completely done by the time The Firm contacted us.”

The message was clear: the world was ready for FFDP’s blend of melodic Euro-thrash and American heavy-handed groove assault, which their fans were already labeling as “true metal.”

Formed by members of such established bands as U.P.O., W.A.S.P., and Motograter, and based in Los Angeles, CA, Five Finger Death Punch came together with the simple goal of making music they felt had faded from the mainstream. Bathory pulled together his ‘dream team’ of musicians, (Ivan Moody – vocals, Darrell Roberts – guitar, Matt Snell – bass, & Jeremy Spencer – drums) and they burst into the studio to record their blistering 2007 debut, The Way of the Fist.
“Early on, I recorded a bunch of songs,” says Bathory. “That way I could say, ‘This is what I want to do.’ From there, I went to musicians I’d seen before, that I knew were good. I went after Jeremy and Ivan first. I met Ivan before Ozzfest, and I thought he was an unbelievable front man. Jeremy brought Darrell with him. I saw Darrell in W.A.S.P. and thought he was amazing. It was kind of like a Christmas list, and I got everything I wanted.”

Once the band inked a deal with the powerhouse combo The Firm/EMI, there was nothing going to stop FFDP’s meteoric rise. Their critically acclaimed debut album The Way of the Fist landed on the Billboard 200 chart on its first week of release and has been a mainstay since. Their first single “The Bleeding” spent an unbelievable 7 months on Rock Radio’s Top 40 charts, eventually breaking into the top 10 where it remained for months to come.  Their video made the top 5 on MTV2’s Headbanger’s Ball’s best metal videos. Their second single, “Never Enough” followed suit as a top-10 Active Rock hit.  Meanwhile, the band did what it does best, tearing up stages nationwide. 

 In just over a year since their album’s release, FFDP has toured with the likes of Korn, Disturbed, Slipknot, Dragonforce, HELLYEAH, Mastodon, Trivium, Atreyu and appeared on both the Family Values and Rockstar Energy MAYHEM Festival tours. The album has already sold over 230,000 copies in the US alone, and the band recently signed distribution deals in both Canada and Europe.