FFDP Guitarist Says Band Is One Of The Gatekeepers Of Heavy Metal

Five Finger Death Punch recently did a posthumous collaboration with rapper DMX on the song “This Is The Way.” The song drew a mixed reaction from metal fans, and guitarist Zoltan Bathory was asked about the close-mindedness of some fans of the genre.

Bathory todl Summa Inferno: “There’s definitely that, there’s definitely the closed-mindedness, there’s definitely this idea… It’s almost like it’s funny because the more extreme stuff you listen to, the more of a gatekeeping is happening, like, ‘This is our music.’ And if anybody [who is] not into extreme metal likes a band, then that close circle will abandon the band.”

“This is what you see where any metal bands start to get popular, the original hardcore fans or that closed-minded circle will fall off because they cannot like a band that their parents also like or general people that are not completely metal would like a band.”

Bathory went on to say that bands like Five Finger Death Punch are exposing new audiences to metal. “This is what I would say to these metalheads,” he continued. “It’s, like, man, for your band that you love, especially the more underground the band is, for them to create art that you like, they have to survive. And if you want them to survive, that means they have to sell records, and they have to be able to sell concert tickets. And because it’s such a subgenre, they’re not gonna be able to do that. So you see these great, great artists who are in bands but also have a job or two, and they can’t tour sometimes. So what you’re getting is, like, if you’re fan of those extreme bands, they’re not making the money, they can’t survive from this.”

“So the only way they can do that is if the audience broadens — that’s the only way. And so what has to happen, metal in general has to be bigger, has to have more fans and more attention. So that way it trickles down, so the subgenres also get bigger, so your favorite artists can survive. So bands like Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch, these are what you guys call the gatekeeper bands, they absolutely need to exist. Because without us, you’re not gonna be able to recruit people to the genre. We are the kind of band where people are into metal listen to us, but people are not necessarily into metal, they might listen to us or we bring in a lot of people who are not into metal.

“And when we do these collaborations — this song is out there now in radio channels and in other Spotify listings and just other avenues where it wouldn’t be normally. So with this, we’re recruiting people to listen to hard rock, heavy metal, and that helps the entire genre. And if the genre is big and the subgenres are big… So by hating on the bands that are stepping out and collaborating with other genres or hating on the bands that you guys consider gatekeepers, you’re actually shooting yourself in the foot.”

Bathory’s full interview can be viewed below.