Zoltan Bathory shares all things touring with Metallica from adapting to playing in the round to revealing the band aspirations of becoming a stadium act in their own right.
Once you’ve captured the hearts of the German fans, you can play in Germany countless times – that’s what Zoltan Bathory shares in this exclusive Rock Antenne interview.
Watch the full interview to find out why he thinks this, his experience playing alongside Metallica at Munich’s Olympic Stadium and on the wider M72 World Tour, and his vision for the band’s future – including light shows and immersive experiences.
On playing in the round with Metallica:
You know what, it is a little bit unnatural. [This is the first time that Five Finger Death Punch has ever played in the round.]
In your whole career as a band you are on stage and there’s this idea that you project energy in a linear fashion so to speak. That means a good band is generally aware of who’s where in the audience so we’re moving around, we’re projecting in every direction making sure that every part of the arena is entertained. There’s an exchange of energy. A good band understands that and I like to think that we’re a good band (laughs). That’s what we do.
Our live shows are powerful because we understand this but all of a sudden you take away this linear fashion of projecting and there are people behind you, there are people from any direction you see. For a moment we thought like man, the first time you go on the stage it’s like okay this is going to be different but three minutes in the first song [we were like] okay we got this. It’s just a little bit more moving around – I can lose some weight anyway, I eat some home cooking (laughs) so that’s kind of like a track around the arena, like if you just run around it probably I can shed some calories, maybe even break a world record if I run fast enough – I mean it’s a giant, giant stage. Communicating with each other would be difficult so the fact that we’ve been playing together for 19 years [means] I don’t have to think about where the other guys are. I know exactly where they are and what they’re doing because otherwise, oh my God, you can barely see the other guys side on the stage, like where is everyone? It’s giant stage. It’s crazy!
On the bands reception in Germany throughout their career:
It’s Germany. Germany was always good to us. German fans are discriminating in a sense of they’re not casual listeners. They want to know who you are. They want to know the band and they want to know what you’re about.
They’re not easy to lend their support to a band, you have to win them over and you have to prove yourself. You have to come to Germany, play the shows, they will stand there and they’re like [Zoltan poses with crossed arms on the video chat] Okay, I don’t know, alright, maybe. You have to do your thing but once you win over the German fans, but generally Europe, and German fans especially and Swedish fans are very similar in this sense, once you win them over you can come over 100 years from now. I can wheel my wheelchair over here or my cane when I’m an old man and they’re still be there. It’s difficult to win them over but once you do you have them and they will not leave you. They will stick with you, that’s real. I guess we’ve got that.
Since the last two years we’ve been coming [to Germany] all the shows have been sold out and they know all the words to the songs. We have a big, big fan club in Germany. They run the fan club we don’t even have to be involved, they run the whole thing. It’s pretty amazing.
On how many songs are in 5FDP’s “Vault”:
It’s kind of like there are songs but they’re ideas. For example, if you look at songs like ‘Wrong Side Of Heaven’, one of our, if not the biggest song we have, I wrote that piece of music probably like 15 or 20 years ago but it just wasn’t time yet. I feel like everything has its time when it’s time to put that music [out] and it’s also really true for lyrics.
Ivan [Moody] has books and books of lyrics and everything has its time. For example if you look at ‘AfterLife’ and what that record is about, it’s a subject and a conversation. We’ve been having these conversations about afterlife and what happens when you die. Do you really die? I had a near death experience, a couple of them, Ivan also had a near death experience, he flatlined and had to be resuscitated, so we’ve been on the other side and we’ve been having these conversations, but it’s one of those things, remember 20 years or so if you were talking about UFOs people were like okay(!), tin foil hat, now you have government agencies talking about UFOs, see what I mean? So sometimes there’s a time to talk about certain things and I feel like there is a spiritual evolution and revolution that’s happening in the world.
Everything has its time. I feel like it’s the same with music. We have bits and pieces of music and I’m like ‘not yet, not yet’ [so] it stays in the vault.
On how far ahead the band has to plan its schedule:
About a year. Sometimes like for example, the Metallica thing, that was a two year schedule. So the moment we were announcing what’s happening with Metallica we knew our schedule for two years ahead because you’re moving an entire city around the world, like trucks and hundreds of people, it’s a big production moving around the world. So the logistics… and nothing can fail. One mistake can end the show. These things have to be planned out and that takes time.
We usually have about a one year maybe 18-months where we see what’s happening in 18-months that’s about it. That’s the schedule, now as for what we’re going to do, I could probably tell you what’s the next record and the record after that will be and that’s like a six year schedule. We kind of have an idea of what we’re going to do and what we’re going to talk about.
On whether the band aspires to be a stadium act in the future with Metallica as the opener:
I would say this. Definitely there is something in our mind, like okay one day this is going to be our stadium that we headline, one day this is going to be our festival that we headline. Already we’re headlining arenas around the world, we’re headlining giant festivals but when it comes to stadiums, that’s a whole different story. We’re on the cusp. We play some stadiums on our own, especially in America, where we can sell out a stadium, but you know what, being a stadium band is the next step and yeah comes to my mind man, one day, probably not in the far future, we’ll be that band that will play the stadiums.
As for Metallica being the opener, no. That doesn’t come to my mind. There is no way in this universe that Metallica would open for anyone. They don’t need to. They don’t want to. They’re the biggest band in the world. They’re thinking like man. we’ve played in Antarctica, can we play a show on the moon. I’m think that’s what they’re thinking. Can we play one in zero g, at least on the international space station or something. I think that’s what they’re thinking about. My head fits into this camera, even with a pineapple I don’t have that big of a head, that I would think that Metallica would be the support for us.