If there was ever a time for you to pick a side, it’s right now,” sings Ivan Moody on “De Oppresso Liber”, the second song here.
The title means “to liberate the oppressed”. Seems like a good idea right now, when the oppressed are apparently prepared to vote for the very people keeping them down.
Before that, though, comes the title track, and has anyone got the modern metal thing down better than Five Finger Death Punch? Swagger, aggression and a sound big enough for stadiums. There’s even the Stone Sour trick of putting a spoken-word section before the chorus. Everything about “Legacy” is enormous and designed to hit immediately.
“Eye Of The Storm” is a perfect example of what FFDP do. There’s the anger of a thrash band mixed with the melody of a hard rock one. Then there’s the solo, which is absolutely magnificent.
“Nails In The Coffin” is widescreen metal that gets close to power metal territory in places. Yet, when Moody wonders why people cannot forgive if God can, it feels like a song looking deep inside itself beneath all the bombast.
These songs, like so many across the Five Finger Death Punch catalogue, appear to be catharsis. “In Time” suggests that eventually the pain will go away, but it doesn’t sound as though Moody believes it. The ballads are always the ones that get you with this band, perhaps because the vulnerability seems as genuine as the anger.
“Unscathed” reasons that if crazy knows crazy, then Moody must be insane – and somehow turns the thought into an enormous, catchy chorus. That is a true gift.
If Five Finger Death Punch are going to keep coming back for more, then you’d better believe they are going to shake the arenas. “Joke’s On Me” was built to do precisely that.
“Everybody Lies”?
I’ll lie, then: this song’s shit.
“Shelter” lays bare the mental health struggles brought on by the modern world. Of all the machines Moody has raged against, he concludes that none were worth the consequences. It is a superb line because this time the anger is directed inwards.
There is one final venting on “Scapegoat”. Maybe this is the last stand or the first sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. Either way, its closing “fuck you” sounds like someone finally drawing a line underneath everything that came before.
About 13 years ago, I found myself at the NEC watching A7X. One of the bands on the bill was Five Finger Death Punch, and it was as plain as the nose on your face that they were going to be huge.
They were.
“Legacy” doesn’t sound like a band looking to complete its legacy. It sounds like one with plenty left to say.
8/10
