Learn more about the Las Vegas heavy metal band’s 2026 celebrations in this interview, along with a video Top 10 roster of must-see August shows and festivals across West Michigan.
Five Finger Death Punch: Capturing ‘every shade and color’ of a 20-year career on the band’s new album. (Photo/Steven Jensen, Wornstar Studios)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Writer Bill Forman recently interviewed Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory ahead of the band’s summer tour that stops Aug. 15 at Acrisure Amphitheater. Check out the story and the group’s latest music video below, along with Local Spins’ Top 10 concerts and music festivals for August 2026 — part of Local Spins’ monthly roundup for EightWest on TV8.
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Five Finger Death Punch will hit several milestones this year.
The Las Vegas hard-rock band are celebrating their 20th year together, during which time they’ve landed 14 consecutive No. 1s at Mainstream Rock Radio, racked up 29 Top 10 hit singles and topped 15 billion streams worldwide.
They’ve also released their 10th studio album, “Legacy,” and its lead single “Eye of the Storm,” which Loudwire called “a driving, furious banger that kicks off what’s expected to be a new album cycle in grand fashion.”
Last but not least, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the band receiving the U.S. Army’s Soldier Appreciation Award, which is voted on by active-duty military personnel, rather than chosen by a committee.
“Elvis Presley was previously the only musician to receive it,” Five Finger Death Punch guitarist and bandleader Zoltan Bathory said in an early July interview.
“Decades later, we received it because we have quietly toured military bases all over the world for years, playing unpublicized shows in active combat zones like Iraq and Kuwait. The troops often remarked that while they had to be there, we didn’t, yet we showed up anyway.”
The band currently is showing up at cities across the country, part of a summer tour that plays Grand Rapids’ Acrisure Amphitheater on Aug. 15, with Cody Jinks and Eva Under Fire also on the bill. Tickets, $35-$134.80, are available online here. “Summer of Live” two-packs of lawn seats are $55; four-packs are $99.
Beyond performing, Five Finger Death Punch also has established nonprofits and run campaigns addressing post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries to help veterans reintegrate into civilian life.
“We utilize our platform to advocate publicly and to politicians that veterans were being failed by the system,” says Bathory. “We always maintain a strict distinction between politics and the actual men and women serving, who are simply following orders to defend their country. Our goal was to make that distinction clear and use our megaphone to ensure steps were taken to improve the VA and veteran care.”
Blast from the Past: Five Finger Death Punch at DeltaPlex Arena in 2014. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
In the years since release of 2022’s “AfterLife,” the band came up with dozens of songs in various stages of completion. That four-year gap — the longest of their career — gave them more raw material than ever, and one of the biggest challenges was deciding what to keep and what to leave on the cutting room floor.
“We wrote roughly 30 instrumental tracks for this cycle because we had a four-year gap since our last record, which is the longest break we’ve ever had,” Bathory said.
“When assembling an album, you have to prioritize the cohesive flow and narrative journey over individual tracks. If we simply chose the 10 heaviest songs, or the 10 most radio-friendly ballads, it would offer a false and unbalanced representation of the band.”
Instead, the band made a conscious effort to sequence the record for pacing and contrast, rather than genre or tempo alone. Each song was weighed against the tracks around it, not just on its own merits. The result is a track list built around variety rather than uniformity.
“Our goal with ‘Legacy’ was to capture every shade and color of our 20-year career on a single record, balancing heavy tracks, mid-tempo songs, and ballads so it serves as the definitive introduction to the essence of Five Finger Death Punch,” Bathory explained. “An album needs a musical landscape with emotional ups and downs, very much like the pacing of a live concert where you alternate high-energy moments with opportunities for the crowd to catch their breath.”
A WORLD TOUR FOR AN ‘EXTENDED TRIBE’ OF DEVOTED FANS
All of which is evident during the band’s 20th Anniversary World Tour, which runs through October in the United States, heading to European arenas with Lamb of God in early 2027.
“You can listen to the pristine recording at home, but you attend a concert to partake in a shared collective energy with 30,000 people,” said Bathory. “Five Finger Death Punch does not really have casual listeners. Over the last two decades, we have deliberately cultivated a dedicated community that functions more like an extended tribe or family centered around shared values.”
It may be an old-school approach, but it’s one the band is proud to carry on.
“In pop music, an artist can have the biggest hit of the year and completely vanish two years later because the relationship with the audience was superficial. In contrast, our tribe remains permanent. And when you attend our live shows, the shared focus suspends outside reality entirely, creating a lasting tribal connection that allows the band to keep growing 20 years into our career.”
From Bathory’s perspective, the rapid digitization of the music industry did more than just dismantle traditional record stores. It also led to a psychological shift in how artists interact with the public.
A Devoted Community: Five Finger Death Punch has forged a lasting connection with fans. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
“We’ve had to navigate the evolving psychology of mass online connectivity and anonymity,” Bathory said. “In 2007, MySpace was the center of the digital universe, followed by Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and now the emergence of AI. Living through these continuous technological shifts teaches you that high visibility inherently attracts detraction. Artists must develop a thick skin to survive the modern psychological toll of constant public scrutiny.”
For a high-profile hard rock band like Five Finger Death Punch, social media’s immediate, anonymous connectivity has brought with it an unprecedented influx of public scrutiny. Bathory views this friction not as a modern distraction, but as a reliable indicator of an artist’s cultural weight.
“You have to understand the behavior of people online,” he says. “The anonymity encourages people to say things they would probably never say to your face. And the more successful you are, the more visible you become and the more people (who) will dislike you, it becomes a thing where if you don’t have haters, you’re not messing with the right people.”
It’s a compass, Bathory believes, that only points in one direction.
“Hate and dislike always flow upward,” he said. “A successful person is not going to hate on somebody who isn’t successful. That is just not how human nature works. If people are actively investing energy into hating what you do, it means you are either highly successful or you are doing something very important. If you were insignificant, they would simply ignore you.” – By Bill Forman, Last Word Features
VIDEO: Five Finger Death Punch, “De Oppresso Liber”
VIDEO: Michigan’s Top 10 August Concerts & Music Festivals
The Local Spins Roundup for EightWest on WOOD TV8 w/ John Sinkevics
VIEW THE TOP 10 LIST WITH LINKS TO SHOWS HERE: Michigan’s Top 10 Concerts & Festivals for August 2026
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