Five Finger Death Punch is a Los Angeles-based Hard Rock/Metal band whose impact and success speaks for itself, with a string of gold and platinum sales since its beginnings in 2007. Following the album Got your Six, from 2015 – which incorporated the gold number one single 'Wash It All Away' – comes this 2017 celebratory collection of hits from the ten years the band has been together. A Decade of Destruction also incorporates two new songs. The full track listing is: 'Trouble', 'Gone Away', 'Lift Me Up', 'Wash It All Away', 'Bad Company', 'Under And Over It', 'Wrong Side Of Heaven', 'House Of The Rising Sun', 'I Apologise', 'The Bleeding', 'Jekyll And Hyde', 'Remember Everything', 'Coming Down', 'My Nemesis', 'Battle Born', and 'Far From Home'...

As a fan of Rock and particularly Metal, I would have had to have lived all my life on the Moon not to have heard of Five Finger Death Punch. However, it’s impossible to follow every band, and knowing the name isn’t proof of familiarity. Truth be known, I’m not a big fan of most American Metal bands, who seem to follow the same style and patterns of the Nu Metal Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Linkin Park. So, perhaps I’m not the best person to give this offering a fair listen. Alternatively, coming cold to this music might just be the best way to approach it objectively.

It’s ironic that a new rather than existing song is my first proper introduction to the band. But it is a good one. 'Trouble' is an entertaining song which contains drive, energy and melody; this last description is one that’s important to me, and is all too often absent from the heavier or Doom-laden examples of Metal. The more up-tempo tunes work much better, seeming to flow more naturally, unlike the token ballads. I enjoyed most of the songs (including the cover of The Animals song, 'House of the Rising Sun'), but none of them stood out as having an individual identity. I think the problem is it’s a set format of slightly growled verses and clean chorus lines. This has become the accepted process for so many American bands over the years. Those US bands which haven’t followed the Nu Metal family tree of influences have escaped this pigeon-holing.

I see the skill and further potential of Five Finger Death Punch, and can understand when fans enjoy a band’s style they don’t like them to change it. However – although I have my own favourites from over the years – I seem to be attracted most by those who combine sub-genres or simply do something fresh and original.

7

Ty Power