American Capitalist is the latest Five Finger Death Punch release. Prior to its release this record was hyped as “The album that will define the Five Finger Death Punch sound”. And I pray to god it does. The guitar is in that classic FFDP drop B and the solos have new reign on this album. The bass is unbelievably solid and the drums are aggressive and hectic. Finally the mix of clean vocals and growls is remarkable and the lyrics are intelligent and angry as always. On this release Five Finger continues to create amazing no bull heavy metal. From the starting words “I'm a red blooded rough neck son of a bitch /I'm a god damned American Capitalist” you know what this album is going to be, one of the greatest records of the year.
The guitar is the first thing to draw one in to any Five Finger Death Punch record and American Capitalist is no exception. The riffs are as brutal as ever on this latest disc. One of the most notable riffs is probably the one in The Pride which features hardcore death metal guitar. Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook team up to create a formidable death metal sound. The problem with these guys is that occasionally the riffs become to repetitive and the guitar gets kind of meh. Yet the overpowering might of the drop B tuning typically compensates for this. One of the interesting advancements of this album over previous releases is that here there is more solo friendly material. I feel that on this record the guitar solos get a lot more respect than on previous records. Now the solos are explosive and beautiful roaring waves icons and not hidden streams. Another interesting development is the addition of more acoustic intros, this makes the album feel a lot more intelligent yet loses none of that good ol' FFDP brutality. All in all the guitar work on this album is amazing, it features brutal riffs and explosive solos and even a few more acoustic bits.
The rhythm section is tight and spot on. The solid drum/bass synchronization is one of the things that makes songs like Menace so amazing. Bassist Chris Kael makes a great debut with FFDP and Jeremy Spencer continues to live up to his name. The rhythm players even get their own little solos on this record. For bassist Chris Kael its the intro to Generation Dead. For drummer Jeremy Spencer its at the end of the solo on American Capitalist. In both cases these guys show their skills to the utmost and prove they can do more than their repetitive but awesome synchronization. I do feel that the one thing that might add to the brutality to the music would be more aggressive drumming. Overall though the rhythm section of Five Finger is one of the greatest in modern metal.
Now on to the vocals, and boy can Ivan Moody rip it up. His growls and clean vocals are both top notch. The growls in 100 Ways to Hate are probably the key example of his down and dirty vocals. Conversely his clean vocals are demonstrated in the surprisingly light but awesome track Remember Everything. One of my favorite things about FFDP has perennially been the sheer anger captured in Ivan's growls. Take any one of tracks from the record (apart from Remember Everything) and the sheer aggression and hatred will blow you away. Yet once this horrible anger has blown you away the melodic clean vocals kick in and your mind is blown again by the sheer contrast. The vocals match these evil growls at the same time as the melodic vocals by having extremely angry but intelligent lyrics. Some of the words on this album can only be described as poetry. In short the vocals, melt your face and take you to a whole new level of metal glory.
In conclusion the new Five Finger Death Punch record is one of the greatest things you'll hear this year. With the sheer might of the guitar with its brutal riffs and shredding solos this album draws you in. The powerful drum/bass combination helps to make the album even more brutal. Finally the vocals are amazing with both growls and clean vocals that are top notched Five Finger can not be beat. My favorite track is probably American Capitalist I just love those lyrics. So go check out this record today. You won't regret it.
OVERALL 10/10
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