In a new interview with 102.9 The Hog‘s “The Afternoon Program”, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH bassist Chris Kael revealed that he wrote a song called “Gold Gutter” which will appear on the band’s ninth album, “AfterLife”, to be released on August 19 via Better Noise. Regarding how his songwriting contribution came about, Kael said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Over the break, when the pandemic was happening, I kind of lost my mind a little bit and channeled that energy of being alone at home — no touring, no nothing. I just got to work and started doing a whole bunch of writing, not really knowing what would end up with the songs that I was writing. And at one point, I had been sharing them with Ivan [Moody, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH singer], and Ivan asked me to send over another couple of instrumentals. So I sent over instrumentals of songs I had been working on, and he picked one of those songs and it’s on the new record. It’s called ‘Gold Gutter’.”
As for what “Gold Gutter” sounds like, Kael said: “[It’s got] a real cool groove to it, kind of old-school vibe. It almost has a CORROSION OF CONFORMITY [feel] from back in the day, off of ‘Deliverance’, I guess, kind of, but maybe a little heavier than that. It’s got a breakdown in the middle that reminds me a lot of old-school DEATH PUNCH. So it worked out well. Ivan put his magic touch on there. Andy [James, guitar] went in there and put some amazing guitar lines in there. And then, of course, you’ve got Zoltan [Bathory, guitar] with his incredible rhythm style that he’s got, his playing there. I basically just cut and paste drums while I’m demoing, and I had Charlie [Engen] do the drums on there. My Lord.”
He added: “It’s wonderful to take something that I was proud of into a group setting and let it go and just kind of see where it went. And as much as I liked my original version, having the magic of the rest of the dudes in FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH adding their stuff, it just really solidified the song.”
The “Afterlife” title track, which was released as a single in April, recently gave FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH the most consecutive No. 1s on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The song was the band’s 13th total No. 1 and eighth entry on the chart in a row. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH broke out of a tie with DISTURBED and SHINEDOWN, each of whom has seven consecutive No. 1s on the chart.
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH‘s follow-up to 2020’s “F8” was once again recorded at the Hideout Recording Studio, the Las Vegas, Nevada facility owned and operated by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who has worked on all of FIVE FINGER‘s albums beginning with the band’s sophomore release, 2009’s “War Is The Answer”.
“AfterLife” will be FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH‘s first album with its latest addition, renowned British virtuoso Andy James, who replaced Jason Hook in 2020. James was previously featured on “Broken World”, a song that was included on the second installment of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH‘s greatest-hits collection, “A Decade Of Destruction – Volume 2”, which came out in the fall of 2020.
