Five Finger Death Punch - The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Vol. 1

Published July 26 2013

*=Staff's pick	Lift Me Up* Watch You Bleed You Wrong Side Of Heaven* Burn MF I. M. Sin* Anywhere But Here Dot Your Eyes* M.I.N.E. (End This Way) Mama Said Knock You Out Diary Of A Deadman I.M. Sin (Bonus track) Anywhere But Here (bonus track) Dot Your Eyes (bonus track)

Genre	Heavy Metal	Ivan Moody	Vocals
Tracks	14	Zoltán Báthory	Guitar
Running time	52 Min.	Jason Hook	Guitar
Label	Eleven Seven Music/EMI	Chris Kael	Bass
Release	30 July 2013	Jeremy Spencer	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Kevin Churko
Similar artists	---

Additional vocals: Rob Halford on track 1. Maria Brink on tracks 7 and 13. Tech N9ne on track 10. Max Cavalera on track 12. Jamey Jasta on track 14.

This is volume 1 of two albums to be released during summer and fall of 2013. To me this is a daring move and I wonder if people will have full focus when volume 2 is released later. Well, we will see how this eventuates and if this first one do real good, perhaps this arrangement will work out well.

Five Finger Death Punch always starts controversy within the metal community. To be or not to be a part of us. We have the stubborn hard headed true metallers that loathe this to their cores, just because this band writes a good chunk of its music deliberately to generate air-time on various radio stations, as well as having a different dress code and therefore should not be reckoned as metal of any kind. Please someone explain to me why a band shouldn't try to make a living off their music.

I ask myself, what the hell should we label them as if they're not metal? They have heavy bone-crushing riffs, several blazing and screeching solos, a thunderous and pulsating drumplay and blasting bass cores, all topped by a vocalist so angry that his eyes will soon pop out and smoke will emerge from his ears. This seems like metal and legit to me, all right. One must also take in account that this music is stuffed with captivating and accurate choruses intertwined with this heavy environment and easy for the ears to catch.

Like with many new albums, I hear this and that about how we are changing or how we are taking things to new places or in different directions. I can tell you one thing for sure right away. If you dig this band's past releases, you might as well stop reading this and order this new record immediately. There are differences, though generally more a natural step to me.

To pick a couple of songs. I totally love the heavy, fast and crushing monster I.M. Sin, with its scream your lungs out-lyrics. That one should in my opinion have been released as the first single. Instead we got the opener, Lift Me Up, featuring none other than the Metal God, Rob Halford which is in the same vein though and also a stunning effort nevertheless. Dot Your Eyes is heavy with brutal, loud vocals and I grow fond of it. As do I with the title track Wrong Side Of Heaven, a FFDP-kind of ballad with strong and emotional parts.

The version of LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out featuring Tech N9ne is anything but cool and should have been ditched. Damn, I don't like that shit. About all guest vocalists, I think it's cool even though those versions hardly make this album any better and I could definitely have survived without their presence.

All in all, an album I find highly attractive and it's hard to not rock out to the major share of these tracks, whether they are crushing, powerful, emotional, mind-blowing or if it's one of few breathers in between. 8 chalices to an album with a way too long title.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	7	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tobbe