AMERICAN CAPITALIST is a perfect gift to a oven-fresh metalhead friend of yours. It is nothing new – musically. But it packs the punch in terms of melody and catchy songwriting and has the essential “rawrrr” element to it. The songs are easy to pick in the first listen itself and you might find yourself humming them unknowingly. Their first release WAY OF THE FIST lacked the mainstream sound that they were trying to find (I think). But after their second album WAR IS THE ANSWER they finally found what they actually wanted to make.
Songs like UNDER AND OVER IT and COMING DOWN are good getaway if you have saturated your head with complex bands like MESHUGGAH or OPETH and will leave you pleasantly surprised with their heaviness yet catchy outline. THE PRIDE could be America’s National Anthem in these difficult times since the lyrics and song production seem government funded – superimposing the goodness of America.
When you have commercial success in just two releases bands tend to either crack in pressure or come out with “just another album”. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH did manage to up the ante a little bit but doesn’t give fans a reason to look forward to their next release. The brutality combined with chunky melodic patches in WAY OF THE FIST or the brilliant war-ballad FAR FROM HOME in their second album WAR IS THE ANSWER would make fans revisit their prior work rather than give this one a second listen. Although the vocals are the best part of this band. Every album they just get getting better and better – probably the only reason why I go back to their previous work and could pass comfortably through this one.
Bottom Line
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH do what they do best - combine mainstream melody with hard hitting lyrics and double bass stomps but lack a tiny bit on the aggressive front and over-all album flow.
