Today is the day. Five Finger Death Punch’s third album, “American Capitalist” has been released. We thought the best way to celebrate the metal band’s release would be to share our interview with 5FDP’s guitarist and backing vocalist, Jason Hook, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We are metal “newbies”. So we need a quick 5FDP recap.

The metal band released their debut album, “The Way Of The Fist”, back in 2007 and their sophomore album, “War Is The Answer”, in 2009. Both albums were certified gold. With a few line up changes between the years, 5FDP currently consists of Hook, guitarist, Zoltan Bathory, bassist and backing vocalist, Chris Kael, vocalist, Ivan Moody and drummer, Jeremy Spencer. The quintet stole our metal hearts once we heard the single, “Under and Over It”, off of “American Capitalist” and the track’s video locked our love away permanently. We are forever indebted to 5FDP because it is the first metal band we felt we could connect with both vocally and instrumentally. As we have said in the past, normally we are drawn only to the instrumentals of a heavy metal track due to our lack of interest in and understanding of the aggressive vocals. Thanks to 5FDP, we can break free of this fear.

With the outfit ranked number one on our metal list, you can only imagine how excited we are to hear the remaining tracks off of “American Capitalist”. October 11th is a day to rejoice and the best way to party is to read our interview with Hook below while listening to 5FDP’s recent release. We are only giving you Shockya readers a suggestion, but we doubt you’ll have a problem with this multi-tasking.

by Lonnie Nemiroff

I am looking forward to your upcoming album, “American Capitalist”. Can you tell me about where the album title came from?

A meeting in the back lounge of the bus! We do a lot of thinking, especially Zo and I … always tossing ideas around. “American Capitalist” was his and when he explained how it works with our mentality we all said yep … perfect.

Is there a general theme throughout the album? Or does each song have its own specific one?

Well there is definitely anger as an underlying feel, but I believe the story lines vary. Just to be clear “American Capitalist” is not a concept album. It’s more Detroit Rock City than The Wall (laughter).

Was the writing and recording process for this album similar to that of “The Way of the Fist” and “War Is The Answer”

I wasn’t in the band for “The Way of the Fist”, but for War it was similar. Zo, Jeremy and myself cram music till we get a song structure we like then we pass it to Ivan.

How does “American Capitalist” fit in and/or stand out against these two prior albums?

To me, it could easily be side 3 and 4. “War Is The Answer” came out Sept 09 and we started writing “American Capitalist” Dec 2010, so I feel like our hearts and minds are in the same place.

The first single off “American Capitalist” is “Under and Over It”. What’s the story behind the track?

The lyric was a direct response to some of the Internet haters. Without going into it too much, we just wanted a song that made light of some of the rumors we read. That’s why the verses start with “have you heard the one about me” etc etc.. The music is a 4 on the floor stomp designed to get the crowd surfing started (laughter).

Have you guys been playing the single at your summer shows? How has the crowd been responding?

Yes and awesome.

Your ‘Share The Welt’ tour started in October? Will the set list be primarily songs from your upcoming album?

We’re going to bring in 3 or 4 new ones to start. I personally think playing too much new stuff is a mistake. The audience wants to hear stuff that’s familiar.

Do you guys still get nervous to play songs for the first time live?

Nope.

Are you looking forward to touring with All That Remains, Hatebreed and Rev Theory?

I really like all those guys. We played a show with All That Remains the other day and Oli came up and introduced himself and we were talking gear etc. I think he’s such an amazing player and thought he was a super cool guy. I’m going to have him show me all his licks on this tour (laughter).

To wrap up, 5FDP has such a tough exterior. Have any fears we don’t know about?

Fears? The only fear I have is having this end, for some reason that is beyond our control. Other than that I don’t like spiders.