Five Finger Death Punch - The Way Of The Fist

Rating:

* * *

Knuckle Sandwich would have been a much better band name don't you think? That would be too funny, because these Los Angeles lads are serious about their mainstream-leaning metal. Although, FFDP show they have a funny bone on

White Knuckles

with the hilarious line "I'm taking back control of my knuckles", and, even better, their fans are known as Knuckleheads.

Band and nicknames aside, this sort of melodic bludgeoning metal, with roared versus sung vocals, can sound dated - a hang over from nu metal if you like. But as Slipknot showed on last year's

All Hope Is Gone

it need not be.

The problem is Five Finger Death Punch walk a fine line. On the dated and cliched side there's

Salvation

, with dire lines "like a puppet on a string" but then they launch into the fluid crunch of

Can't Heal You

, the serenading guitar solo of

The Bleeding

, and the violent pairing of

A Place To Die

and

The Devil's Own

.

Singer Ivan Moody's roar is powerful, if lacking in mongrel, but the real weakness is his singing which is often limp and earnest compared to the soaring might of someone like Slipknot's Corey Taylor.

Scott Kara