Get ready to learn about favourite albums, Japanese spa music, B.C Rich inspo and the time the band did a Five Finger Death Lunch.
The floodgates were opened and Five Finger Death Punch fans had the unique opportunity to to ask Zoltan Bathory anything they wanted via an open Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ styled interview.
Zoltan personally answered over 100 questions from Reddit-ers and fans alike, and although the Q&A is no longer live and taking questions, fans can still take a look at the full list of questions and answers over on Reddit. There’s loads covered on there from BJJ moves and whether the band will get a female clothing line the future among other topics so we’d recommend checking it out in full. It’s a great read.
But without further ado, here’s just ten of the things we learnt from the 60-minute AMA threads.
1. The album he had the most fun making was “definitely ‘AfterLife'”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the bands latest album is the one Zoltan says he had the most fun making – especially with landing the dream collaboration with ‘This Is The Way ft. DMX’ and having it finally released to the world. What’s more, in response to another user asking about his favourite riff from the ‘AfterLife’ album, Zoltan replied saying he ‘Loved them all’!
Sine the Reddit AMA, Zoltan’s backed up this statement in other interviews making the claim that ‘AfterLife’ and ‘F8’ are the two he’s enjoyed making the most. These two albums saw the band enter calmer waters with their self-proclaimed rebirth, inject new energy with two new members and ride the COVID and post-COVID world.
There’s a lot to unpick and with any luck future interviewers will follow up on this one because we’d love a deeper dive into this question!
2. He has a few personal favourite songs from ‘AfterLife’ and wrote the riff for ‘Thanks For Asking’ TWENTY years ago
Following on from point number one, we loved hearing Zoltan try to pick his favourite songs and explain the meanings behind them. His answer on Reddit was pretty lengthy so we’ll just go ahead and post the full thing so you can read it.
“It’s hard to pick one as they all have a meaning. ‘Judgement Day’ however was written about a near death experience. I also love the song ‘The End’, the chorus says let the arrows fly. [This] means whatever comes our way, we’re going to keep going. It’s a song for the achievers and the survivors. For me it’s a warriors anthem. And ‘Thanks For Asking’. I wrote that guitar piece over 20 years ago, and I was waiting for the right time to use it, and was it!”
3. He no longer thinks so negatively about ‘Never Enough’ from the bands debut album ‘The Way of the Fist’
In the past Zoltan has been pretty open about ‘Never Enough’ not exactly being his favourite Five Finger Death Punch song. In an interview with Louder sound back in 2019, he recalled that back in the day he went as far to say that the song was everything he despised with Ivan [Moody] even chiming it that Zoltan “never liked it and never will!” It sounds like in the decade that’s past since the song was released his opinion has changed – possibly due to the overwhelming love the track receives at concerts. Here’s his response to the bold Reddit user to asked him what he would change about the song if he were to redo it.
“A lot of people LOVE that song, so we play it live. The reason I don’t favor that song is more about its history. We work together as a unit, very well, A well oiled machine. This was the first time we had outside producers involved. It was a different experience and at the time I didn’t agree with it as an artist I have plenty more to say so I didn’t feel I needed outside influence. It’s been over a decade ago I don’t think of it the same way, and if fans want it we’ll play it.”
4. He recommends ‘Wrong Side of Heaven’ as a good starting point for people who’ve never heard the band before
We won’t argue with Zoltan over this one. You’d be hard pressed to not be moved by the video for ‘Wrong Side of Heaven’. It’s a great entry to the band and we’ve personally seen loads of people get into the band from signposting them towards this track. So there you have it, a fool-proof way of getting your non-knucklehead friends into the band.
5. If you hear South American flute music or Japanese spa music backstage, it’s probably coming from Zoltan’s dressing room
It’s widely known that most musicians and especially composers have a wide music taste that breaks stereotypes but even we were surprised by the flute and spa music!
Here’s what Zoltan wrote on Reddit in response to a question on what fans would be surprised to catch him jamming to, “It’s probably no surprise but I do ‘jam’ to DMX, I have a very eclectic taste. I listen to Nigel Stanford a lot. I listen to South American Flute music, Japanese spa music, So nothing is off the table.”
6. He can play ‘The Way of the Fist’ riff for an hour straight
If you’ve seen the videos of Zoltan blitzing his way around the neck of the guitar and doing his trademark ‘Zoltan, open the sky!’ wizardry, this won’t come as a surprise, but we’re still definitely impressed and would probably pay to see him do it to be honest. On answering a question connected to his practice regime he chimed in, “The faster stuff is pretty easy for me, [I] can play the way of the fist for an hour straight. Mechanically and technically it wouldn’t be a problem. However, we as people are evolving, changing so we like the diversity between the songs, we don’t and never wanted to be a one trick pony.”
7. The band hasn’t had a Five Finger Death Brunch (yet) but once had a Five Finger Death Lunch
Apparently it was a meet and greet with fans! And if we’re recalling this correctly it was actually hosted in London by Rocksound Magazine during the Wrong Side of Heaven Tour in 2014 and fans got to meet the band interview them for a double page spread. We vaguely recall Rocksound claimed Zoltan had love for chocolate hobnobs in the post advertising the competition to attend said meet and greet.
8. The first time he saw a B.C Rich guitar was in the hands of Blackie Lawless (widow bass) and his guitarist Steve Riley
If you wondered what the inspiration behind Zoltan’s infamous guitar which he built himself out of his parents coffee table (Yes, really!) here’s the answer – Blackie Lawless and Steve Riley . Apparently Zoltan tried to copy the Warlock shape and even painted the skull on it when he was just 12 years old. On the AMA he went on to share a fun fact that decades later he searched for the guitar and found it in the hands of a collector and bought it. So today he actually owns Steve Riley’s original custom warlock that inspired him in the first place.
9. The band is his ‘baby’ and there’s no band he’d rather be in than Five Finger Death Punch
Someone tried to be clever and asked Zoltan ‘Which band would he rather be in’ and his response was perfect! “well.. I started this band, so it wouldn’t make sense to be in any other band. We came from the absolute bottom, always been on smaller indie record labels, played over 200 shows a year. It was a struggle all the way to the top but it’s OUR struggle, OUR band – this is our history – I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Another Reddit-er asked if he’d ever venture down the side project route similar to how Trivium’s Matt Heafy has joined forces with the likes of Ihsahn and Gerard Way but Zoltan’s pretty sure that as Death Punch is so full on and takes up his life 24/7 that he doesn’t think he would have the time or desire to do something else musically. Which means the [once jokingly mentioned] ‘acoustic death metal’ project is probably not going to happen any time soon!
10. Misinformation, rumours and fake accounts are the biggest challenges the band has faced since gaining popularity
We picked this one so we can issue a friendly reminder to check you’re following the real members of Five Finger Death Punch on social media. It’s a massive issue and every day innocent fans are being scammed. So as Zoltan says, follow his advice below, be careful and don’t get catfished! You can check out a list of official pages in our handy blog post right here if you’re not sure of the real accounts.
“The bigger the band gets , the more rumor and misinformation is out there masquerading as facts. There is no way to correct the narrative, down the point that people argue about my name, or my age or any part of my life. What I said or didn’t say even though I kinda know better than some blog somewhere. The other challenging part are the fake profiles. we are deleting hundreds of them, there’s no way to stop it Unfortunately these fake accounts are catfishing fans ALWAYS BE AWARE – None of us have secret or private accounts. So if you get anyone claiming to be us, and it’s not an official check marked account it’s 100% fake. We are trying to protect our fans as much as possible, but all I can do is keep repeating this. Don’t be gullible.”