F8 by Five Finger Death Punch
F8 is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch, released on February 28, 2020, by Better Noise Records. It is the first Five Finger Death Punch album to feature drummer Charlie Engen, who joined the band following the departure of founding drummer Jeremy Spencer. F8 is also the band’s first album to be released through Better Noise Records. Written and recorded from May to October 2019, F8 is considered a "rebirth" of the band, according to guitarist Zoltan Bathory. Background On May 9, 2019, the band released a video announcing a "new record in the making". On December 2, 2019, the band released the single, "Inside Out", announcing that their upcoming eighth studio album would be titled F8 and would be released on February 28, 2020. According to the band's lead vocalist Ivan Moody, when talking about lead single "Inside Out" he describes it as his own story about his addiction struggles. As for the record itself he called the record to be his pardon after what he's been through in terms of his addiction and of his friends that he lost during that time of struggles such as the late Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington.
“This is not a test,” vocalist Ivan Moody intones on “Full Circle”, one of the key tracks from Five Finger Death Punch’s appropriately titled eighth album, <i>F8</i>. It’s a song about previous civilisations destroying themselves, which is a fitting metaphor for a band that almost imploded in recent years under the weight of substance abuse. But guitarist Zoltan Bathory has said that sobriety prevailed for the recording of the album, bringing sharp focus to tracks like the crushing “This Is War”—one of the heaviest songs in FFDP’s ever-expanding repertoire. Elsewhere, lead single “Inside Out” distils the Las Vegas-based crew’s twin strengths of anthemic choruses and thudding riffs into a beefy metallic groove, complete with radio-ready bonus version. Meanwhile, “Living the Dream” name-checks a litany of superheroes and fictional royalty in the service of social commentary. All told, it’s a triumphant return for a band that could’ve easily fallen by the wayside.
