Got your six

Record

In January 2015, the group announced that it was starting to create a new studio album, the release of which was scheduled for the end of the year ^[2] .

On May 2, the group revealed the name of the new album and published a sample from the song “Ain't My Last Dance” ^[1] . On May 19, the cover of the new album appeared and the release date was announced: August 28 ^[3] (later the date was moved to September ^{4 [4]} ). At the same time, the dates of the joint tour of Five Finger Death Punch and Papa Roach were published with the participation of In This Moment and From Ashes to New in support of the albums Got Your Six and FEAR and a video message was posted containing the preview of the single "Jekyll and Hyde" ^[3] . The single itself was released on June 15 on the radio and was available for streaming on MonsterEnergy.com ^[5] . On July 24, the song “Hell to Pay” was released ^[4] .

Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer described how he felt before recording the album:

I admire the album. It is more rigid and dynamic. It has both very melodic soft parts and extreme trash. In general, the full variety of sound.

Original text

I'm digging it, man. It's actually more brutal, with more extreme dynamics. There are some really mellow parts and then some really brutal parts. So we're running the whole gamut of sounds.

- ^[3]

Title

The name of the album, as well as the track of the same name opening it “Got Your Six”, is an expression from the army slang meaning “to cover [the rear]” ^[6] . According to Jason Hook , the band's lead guitarist , the name was suggested by rhythm guitarist Zoltan Bathory ^[6] , who at one time received the rank of instructor of the American army ^{[7] [8]} .

Commercial Success

Got Your Six debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 . Thus, the group repeated the success of two previous albums ( The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 and Volume 2 ), but did not reach the first line of this chart (at the same time, Volume 1 at the time of the release of Got Your Six since then was on the chart at 83 weeks) ^[9] . In the first week, 119,000 copies of the album were sold, with net sales of 114,000 , which allowed the album to occupy the first line of Billboard Top Album Sales and break the record of the previous album, which had net sales of 112,000 copies. Also, the album took the top lines of two other charts: Top Hard Rock Albums and Top Rock Albums ^[10] .

Chris Kail, bass player for Five Finger Death Punch, said that while the band was playing at a time when people started buying noticeably fewer records than before, they managed to keep a fan base that was ready to download the album from iTunes or buy their discs in music stores ^[11] .

On August 8, 2016, the RIAA certified Got Your Six as Gold ^[12] . By September 14 of the same year, net album sales exceeded 390,000 copies. ^[13] On August 3, 2017, Music Canada also assigned the album the status of gold ^[14] .

Reviews

The album received mixed reviews from critics. Chad Bovar of Loudwire wrote that Five Finger Death Punch “was able to become one of the most successful bands playing heavy music, but not spoiled by the special love of critics and fans” and confirmed her status on Got Your Six ^[7] .

Browser House Lawson of The Guardian rated the album positively. He wrote that vocalist Ivan Moody has a secret weapon: his "heartbreaking" baritone and roar. Lawson noted that the album is not creative and is unlikely to attract new fans, but “when it comes to melodic metal anthems, Americans are at their best” ^[17] . Metal Hammer reviewer Stephen Hill delivered 4 out of 5 stars. In his review, he wrote that, thanks to Got Your Six, the group consolidated its status in the world of heavy music along with such groups as Slipknot , Iron Maiden and Metallica . He also noted that although the Five Finger Death Punch tried to repeat all the tricks of the previous albums, it still sounds quite peculiar, and highlighted the track “My Nemesis”. Nevertheless, he drew attention to weak lyrics, especially on the track “Boots And Blood” ^[16] . A similar opinion was shared by Chad Bovar of Loudwire , who wrote that the group was able to maintain the aggression of the previous sound and create several potential radio hits, but at the cost of this was a weak text component ^[7] .

The Ultimate Guitar website team rated the album 6 out of 10. Reviewers noted high-quality guitar solos and riffs on tracks “Jekyll and Hyde”, “Meet My Maker” and others, but rated the album’s text component very low, highlighting only the “Question Everything” track and Noting that the songs “Digging My Own Grave”, “No Sudden Movement” and “Boots and Blood” were hit hard by weak lyrics. In the verdict, they wrote that Got Your Six is a “below-average release” ^[18] . Tom Jurek from AllMusic rated the album 2 out of 5, noting that the recognizable sound of the group as a whole has not changed compared to previous albums, and the lyrics are so “youthful and clumsy” that they prevent the listener from enjoying the album. As an example, he cited the song "Jekyll and Hyde", on which high-quality guitar parts and solos could not pull the track because of " old-school rap Ivan Moody." Nevertheless, Tom wrote that horrible lyrics are not the only problem of the album, since it does not contain the fury and energy that was in the previous recordings of the group ^[15] .

Rock Sound magazine ranked the album 44th in the list of “ Top 50 Releases of the Year 2015” ( ¹⁹⁾ .

Data from the AllMusic website ^[41] .