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Lighting The Way With ZOLTAN BATHORY From FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Yes, this is this is a way way supper. This is it's already
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  doing it, creepy expect my name and the game it's get all right.
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  So this is Ulta Battery and the pineapple is with me. It's like,
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  ah, you know, that's part of the story here and I'm the guitar
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  player the five fingers that much beautiful Sulta and thanks for joining us today,
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  brother, uh huh. So we're here today of course because this Friday,
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  April the fifth, these five figure Death Punch released a digital deluxe version of
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  your twenty twenty two album Afterlife. So how are you feeling great? Man?
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  This is this has been a long time in a you know, long
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  long it's we worked on it for a long long time. Basically, the
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  deluxe edition of this record is coming out because the time when we originally released
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  this album, we had this track that collaboration with Dmax everybody is talking about
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  today and the song was meant to be on this record. However, because
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  Dmax passed and you know, we have to have the approval of every single
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  person that was involved, the state, to the producers and the publishers.
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  You know, we realized that it might take longer than anticipated, and it
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  did take a year, a little bit over a year to completely clear everything,
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  and so we did one of ways. So we released the album with
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  this track. But this track was always meant to be on this album,
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  right, so just you know, and every record you was sampled kind of
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  like every song has a reason to be there, and every song has a
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  reason to be in that specific spot in the sequence, right, and so
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  you know, one of my favorite records we ever did after Life, but
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  still missed this song. This song was important and it was important to be
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  on this record. So basically, now that the Delax Edition coming out,
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  I feel like we completed the record. Yeah, So, like, is
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  there as much excitement from the band for something like this, like just the
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  the Lux version coming out, I guess is what there is when the original
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  album comes out. Yeah, as I said, it's it's because this is
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  how it was meant to be. This would be the way how they wanted
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  to record his Almvie, So so this song needed to be on there.
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  So everybody is obviously excited. And the fact that we got to do a
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  collaboration with one of the greatest hip hop artists of all time, and you
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  know, and then we threw a couple of you know, acoustic versions on
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  the on the on the record, acoustic versions of the songs, which is
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  also you know, they give a different perspective on the same song. So
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  they're not remix. Is there re recorded some parts and acoustic parts and you
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  know what I mean. So it has a reason to be there because it's
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  not a remix, but a different in the petition of the same song.
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  Sound feels different, and that's that's that's important. So I just try to
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  run through that a bit, mate, because like After Life, the like
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  speech is the twelve original songs from After like plus or four bonus tracks,
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  like you say, so three of them are acoustics. So I want to
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  run through these songs one of the time made and and just run us through
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  the new version and tell us a bit about it. So the first one,
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  of course is the end, so again same thing that I mean,
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  the end that was a that's actually one of my favorite songs on that record.
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  You know, we were thinking about that song could have been a single.
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  But there are you know, like there are just so many singles that
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  can be pulled off a record. After like the third one, you know,
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  it's single single singles that's maybe too many, but unfortunately that didn't become
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  a single. We kind of wanted it to. And yeah, that song
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  we kind of reimagine it acoustically. It did have a couple of guitar dives
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  that we did with with with the tuning kids. It was a challenge to
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  do those on acoustic guitar, but they managed. So even that part the
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  break the breakdown part of that particular song. Actually I prefer the acoustic version,
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  you know, So sometimes that happens, like you rework a song,
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  and and maybe just because it's New York, I might be that's why I'm
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  preferring that because I love the song end. But but when we you know,
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  when we when we did the acoustic version, I thought like, man,
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  I really really like this one. So I might be even favoring the
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  arcustic version of that. Yeah, and then you've got Judgment diacristic. So
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  Judgment the Judgment is a very different sounding song. To begin with, the
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  low story of that song is that Kevin and I was in the studio and
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  we had this idea of you know, both Ivan and I had some what
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  would you call it after sort of like an experience that is very spiritual from
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  the sense of they both died at one point or another. Right, so
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  what happens when you die? How things sounds like the process of dying.
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  Right, they all had this or you can call it near that experience.
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  I mean, the definition is kind of loose because did I really die?
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  Because I I'm back. I mean, you know, it's kind of a
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  question mark. But that need that experience. What happens with your mind,
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  how you bring disconnects from your body, and possibly what happens that it gets
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  into full capacity because now it doesn't have the sensory feel of the body.
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  It might turn on another frequency or focus on another frequency that otherwise you're not
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  aware of, like the sixth sense. We call that spiritual you know frequency
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  that I had a full on added body experience, for example, and I
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  even had his own you know, experience with this, and we wanted to
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  do a song that kind of sounds like there's a sound this sounds because what
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  happens that when you in that process, what I experienced at least, is
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  that you the resolution you hear sounds with enlarger, so it's almost like I
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  can hear that the sound is not a continuous wave, but there's a pulsation
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  even even high pitched note that you should not be able to hear that.
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  It's that it's a wave that it should should appear to you as a continuous
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  sound. You hear that, you hear that it's breaking that into these bits,
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  you know, like there's a sample rate almost like that you can perceive.
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  And that was the idea, like how do we recreate this? And
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  so we created this, this song that was meant to be the song the
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  afterlife, that the near that experience. And when the song was done,
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  it gave it to Ivan and the first reaction of ivand was kind of like,
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  I'm not recording this, and I know he picked it up immediately,
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  like I know what this is and it puts me back into that place when
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  I die. So he picked up on it immediately, right, So that's
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  how we knew like we nailed it right. And then eventually he was like,
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  you know what this is? This is, this is this is a
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  very interesting song. It sounds very different from most five things in that point
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  soon and it's like I'm gonna record it. I think I think I can
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  do this too. To add lyrically, also that that feeling, that passing
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  over feeling. Right. So that was that song, right, But because
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  it sounded so different from all the other five things in that point song,
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  there's a lot of electronics in there, we thought, you know what it
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  cool, Let's see if he can break this down to you know, acoustic
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  instruments, Let's see how it will sound. So that was an interesting process
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  to us because that song was very electronic and we had to strip it down
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  to an acoustic version where it's still holds that this still shows that vibe,
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  that vibe is still there even though it's accoustic. That was a little bit
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  of a challenge, but I think we pulled it off. Fascinating. That's
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  fascinating. And then you've got thanks for asking, Yeah, thanks for asking.
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  Was Britain and acoustic guitar to begin with it? Right, So when
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  when I was working on that song, I had that riff man for two
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  decades. Probably it happens a lot like you know, I have a riff
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  and it just doesn't it's not yet. I call it that not yet reuse
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  the fault because you know, Wrong Side of Heaven that song, I had
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  it for a long long time, that that lick I had it forever,
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  and it just never there was never time. Like you know, as I
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  said, the record has to be a complete, coherent piece of work and
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  the song has to fit that, and it just before that, it just
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  didn't fit on the record. And when we did the Wrong Side of Heaven
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  that record, obviously that's the title song. But then it made sense,
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  and then the same thing with one with this with this one, thanks for
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  asking. I had that live for a long long time, probably twenty years,
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  you know, I just never find a place for it. And then
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  this record was eclectic enough and different enough, and I was like, Okay,
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  I think this is the time to record this song. So we did
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  it. But the original version of that was written and acoustic guitar, so
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  it just made sense to do the acoustic version as well of that partyers song
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  because it was starting it started off an acoustic guitar, very cool. And
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  then of course the song everyone is talking about, this is the Way,
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  which pages is the l like DMX, Yeah, I mean that's you know,
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  that's the that's the big one. So you know, when we when
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  we got the master recordings of the MX and the event wrote the music around
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  it, we knew instantly that we have something in our you know, something
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  special, you know. And and then when ended job that guitar solo,
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  only that man, that's that's a massive song. All of that was also
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  like a highlight. I thought that we really mashed the two worlds together,
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  you know. Heavy metal hard rock was always sort of the tool of that
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  revolution, the tool of disagreement, you know, and it was always a
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  tool of rebellion, so to speak. But so is hit if you think
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  about one butter came from that is also the voice of rebellion, the role,
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  but the voice voice of dissatisfaction. And it always had a rebellion sto.
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  Now what it developed into, that's that's another story, like where it
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  is today. But it started there, you know. And so to me,
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  these two genres were always parallel anyway. And I like to write on
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  hip how beats to begin with because I like the swing. So I usually
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  start you know, music with with hip how beats, and the later we
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  changed the beats. But I like that because of this, so you know,
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  so it was something natural to us, and we did, you know,
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  alas Mama said Nakia, before we had tech nine guestsing or not one.
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  So so this is not injured alien to us, but men doing one
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  with DMX of us like Holy Cora. Unfortunately it wasn't around to hear it,
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  and you know, and then we went through the whole process as I
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  just said, to approve it. But in that process, actually an amazing
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  piece of that process was that the feedback, the feedback from the greeds of
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  that genre. I mean, when you know they're all from aroun DMC listen
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  to it or Jurassic five listen to it or send now listen to it.
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  You know, these guys are that's their world hip hop and when they do
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  the heads off, like, guys, this is special. This is something
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  different. This is this is stands up for the legacy of DMX. You
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  guys did good. You know, I don't need another person, you know,
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  to to validate me, but man, it feels good. I mean,
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  these are these are the giants of that genre. And when you get
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  the green light and that tombs up from those guys, that that actually means
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  a lot, you know. And and so we got all the terms off
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  from all these guys. So you know, can't wait for the audience to
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  actually hear this because I can't fay for well, you know, it's like
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  the Christmas man like you know what I mean, like you put the present
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  and can't wait for somebody openings. You know it's gonna be interesting to see.
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  Well, but you sort of touched on this might like that the two
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  music. That's why the attitudes of them do you guys together. But when
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  it came time to actually melting your music with that DMX, like, how
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  difficult was that process? So, I mean we have to reverse because we
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  had the master tapes with you know, some lyrics that various stakes and we
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  had to figure out which one. So we had to assemble the vocal track
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  and from those, you know, we had to reverse entering the whole thing.
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  So this is like instead of writing music and then write the lyrics on
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  top of that music, we get to do it backwards. So we had
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  to listen to that you know, that song. You had to listen to
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  the lyrics and figure out the beat and the music that we can put under
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  it. Right, So it was it was a little bit different from our
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  general process how we work, which we generally write the music first and then
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  couples of lyrics. This one was different. I mean, we do have
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  some exceptions. I mean, for example, a little Bit Off was a
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  song that Ivan wrote just the lyrics right, and then we worked the music
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  under. There were a couple of songs where he literally phoned within right and
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  just left it on an answering machine, and then we took it up and
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  played music under it. So there were a couple of events. So that's
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  also not strange to us, but that's kind of what we had to do.
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  We had to reverse enjoin the whole thing and and write music around his
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  lyrics and then make sure that exactly that that this these two world perfectly mashes
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  like it had. It can't be weird, it has to be natural,
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  right, So that's the challenge. And obviously you know we are this is
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  what we do, so so it wasn't you know, we were up for
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  the task obviously, but you know, but that's that's what we have to
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  keep in mind, respect the artists, the legacy of the MX, and
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  do something that we thought he would have approved. He would have be he
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  would be happy with. Very cool. Now. Five Big Death Bunds are
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  known for progressing musically with each album mate. So on the album Marked Life,
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  like where does it fit into the the musical evolution of five big death
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  bunds. It's definitely you know, as you said, like there's that's the
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  challenge, right, you have to keep your sound. There is an original
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  sound that you have. The fans though that that's that's your sound. A
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  CD sounds like no whatever, right, But then how do you progress without
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  losing that sound? Right? And that's always the challenge, and so it
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  can be drastic, So you have to do this. This is by piece
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  so so basically basically what it is is like you have to gradually progress because
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  if you make a job a giant leap, then you lose the audience.
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  So there has to be an obvious evolution. And that's if you look at
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  our first record, how heavily that was and how hectic and you know aggressive
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  that was, and how from there the albums are evolving musically, lyrically it
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  becomes something else because as a musician you want to evolve, but also you
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  become a different person. I mean that's why you put at the record every
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  two years, because that's a snapshot two years from now, different person.
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  You know, at least if you live life correct way, you will evolve.
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  Right, So so the music and what you're talking about has to evolve
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  with society, and it has to evolve with your circumstances. It has to
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  evolve with you as a person. So that's the internal personal evolution that the
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  lyrics and the musically reflect. And there is a musical evolution like can I
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  repeat the same freaking rifts over and over and over and for two dega?
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  You kind of have because that's are sound, but you always have to push
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  it a little bit. And then I feel like this last record was perfectly
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  in line with that, you know, like it was an other step where
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  we had like, as I just said, Judgment is a very different song,
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  you know, So we had song on that, songs on that or
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  that was extremely you know different from well extremely actually you shouldn't even say that
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  word extremely significantly different from what happened before. But we had losing that the
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  sound we have. So I think when you listen to this record, you
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  would recognize, well, it's fifingking that much, but it's a little bit
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  different, and it's different enough for me to call it like, Okay,
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  this is an evolutionary step. Now would where would do they go from here?
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  Like let's say a nice record. I don't know, maybe the evolution
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  is going to be a devolution. Maybe it's a you know what, guys,
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  let's step back now, let's go back a little bit and let's do
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  something angry and heavy again because we are in that mood now whatever you know,
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  it really depends on it's circumstantial, what's happening in the world doesn't but
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  that also will af factor. Right, so, but it has to be
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  different than the preface one. It is different. All right, a table,
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  Thanks very much for your time. Maybe our time together has come to
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  an end, unfortunately, but best of luck with everything. Five th deadth
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  Punch Hour out on tour at the moment too. We've got shows coming up
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  the rest of the year, so check out the socials for that. All
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  right, all right, brother, thanks for your time. Thank you?
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  All right is enjoy This is a way, sup. This aready doing it?
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  Creamy expect I take the name of the game. It's getting listening man
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  jumping out the window. Man when he goes y'all right out the window,
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  whether it's rocking, boat locking, Lord, shut them down open. I'm
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  so hello angel love say the devil been the same. But I know I'm
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  not deferable because I still don't can't feel safe war the fire at the Rimstone
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  in the world of Early Game, I'll be shut to at the ball and
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  tell me, is this a suf? This is a say God, let
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  me go it go stack a bot me talk at the change. T want
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  soping so real, lady, it's scared the fight, scared to death to
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  shoot me, scared to fight in the street. Niggas is playing the wrong
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  game of being the real in your face, saying the wrong day real shift.
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  This is how talking down dancing there whenever talk you angel love her say
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  and I never fear the same. But I know I'm not the dif because
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  I still can't feel sad. You walk through fire at the Brimstone and the
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  wind of Berlie Gates, I'll be starting to have the found and tell me
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  this is a way. Ay, suppose this is the word that I said,
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  That is John, I'm going to the same girl. I never fear
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  the same, but I know I'm not the dimple because I still can't feel
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  the pain. You walk through fire at the Rimstone and the wind of Berlie
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  Gates, I'll be sot to laugh about and tell me this is away.
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  It's away. I supposed to be This is Away out saying that's not a bad