War Is the Answer

Five Finger Death Punch stormed rock radio in 2007 with "The Bleeding" (from debut album THE WAY OF THE FIST), a powerful, emotionally tense track that matched vintage, Metallica-style thrash with a throat-shredding chorus more typical of late aughts metalcore. The Los Angeles-based band's sophomore disc WAR IS THE ANSWER mines much of the same territory as that breakout song, keeping the flame of the classic `80s Four Horsemen sound alive with snap-tight chugga-chugga guitar rhythms, minor-key, classical music-inspired clean/acoustic passages, and vocals dripping with a James Hetfield-approved combination of sensitive angst and macho defiance. First single "Hard to See" backs a catchy, harmony-vocal laden melody with a syncopated groove so rhythmically engaging it could almost be called funky, while the closing track "War is the Answer" takes a classic-sounding headbanging riff seemingly straight out of the Anthrax songbook and uses it to drive home one of several ultra-aggressive sentiments ("to me you're just a cancer/war is the answer"). Elsewhere, Five Finger Death Punch delves into somewhat more diverse sonic territory; "Bulletproof" combines a throbbing industrial feel reminiscent of late-period Ministry with Yngwie Malsteen-esque melodic shred guitar solos and a vocal hook that recalls the `80s pop-prog of Asia and GTR, while "Far From Home" is a straight-up power ballad, complete with dramatic strings and a soaring chorus that could sit on a compilation album right alongside any big lighter-waver, from Staind's "It's Been Awhile" to Poison's "Every Rose Has its Thorn."