An album called Legacy might sound like a band winding down. Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory wants to put that idea to rest right away: the group is nowhere near finished.
Speaking with Alena Hamberger of Germany’s “Rock Antenne“, Bathory dug into the meaning behind the title of the band’s tenth studio album, Legacy, which lands digitally today on July 31 with CD, vinyl and cassette editions to follow on September 18. For him, the name is about marking a rare milestone rather than closing a chapter.
He explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“Well, basically, the title is Legacy because — it’s kind of a milestone, but it’s a big one. Tenth album, which not many bands get that far, that they get to make ten albums and successfully. Ten album, twenty years, it just happens so that all these numbers coincided.
Bathory acknowledged that some fans read the title the wrong way, assuming it signaled the end — a theory he was quick to shut down:
“I got this question. People told me before, like, ‘Legacy, it sounds like you guys are retiring.’ I go, ‘No, not even close.’ But it’s more like a marker, like, ‘Wow, we got this far.’ And it was us kind of talking about how when you were a kid, did you think, growing up, you’re gonna be a musician — because we all want it to be, obviously. But when you were dreaming of the band in the future you’re gonna be, did you dream of that, that you’re gonna create a band that will actually have a legacy? A legacy, that means 20, 30, 40, 100 years from now, if they write a book about this era of where we lived in and heavy metal and hard rock, we will not be forgotten. We will be in the book. We have a legacy. We’re not gonna be left out. It mattered enough. It mattered to millions of people, so we do have a legacy.”
For Bathory, that legacy is inseparable from the band’s audience, which he sees as something closer to a community than a fanbase:
“We have a different fanbase than most bands. This fanbase is a tribe. It’s a family. Some of them are with us literally from the first album. And so this legacy is ours combined — meaning theirs and ours. We grew up together, and even multi-generational. There are fans who… Sometimes I run into people who say, like, ‘Hey, I was on stage with you guys when I was 10 years old.’ And, [I’m] like, ‘What? You, you look like you’re 30 and you have two kids.’ And, like, yeah. And then that’s when I realize, ‘Oh my God… We’ve been around so long.’ And he’s, like, ‘My son is a big fan now.’ So it’s generational as well. So that’s kind of what the record title means — it’s a celebration [that] we got this far, that we actually have a legacy.”
He went on to stress that the band’s success is a shared achievement, pointing to the sprawling, fan-built network that has grown up around the group over the years:
“I’m not saying you’re nothing without your fans, but you’re not successful without fans, obviously. So, you can’t get there. You can’t become successful if you don’t have a massive fanbase. Those fans carry you. You’re giving them something. You’re giving them something special that obviously matters to them and they love, but they give you their love and support, and that’s how this works. That’s what I meant by this is not just our legacy — it’s ours, as in us and the fans. In fact, look, we have a lot of fanbases all over the world. We have a massive one in Germany, Norway, U.K. Not a single fan club we ever started. It was always started by the fans for themselves, and they communicate, they get together. So there is a huge network, a global network of Five Finger Death Punch fan clubs. They are completely self-made, self-run. We never made any of them. They did it, and they’re with us for decades, literally. That’s pretty amazing… That takes time and investment of your time and efforts that they literally build web pages. And as I said, they communicate to each other. So all right, sure, and I can see the flags. The U.K. club, the German and the Norwegian club are all there with their local flags that they convert their country’s flag into a Death Punch flag. I mean, it’s insane. And just the fact that they did it. They actually made this fan club, and they built their online presence, everything… I mean, that’s the best fanbase you can imagine. It’s insane.”
Backing up his point that the band is still in motion, Five Finger Death Punch have just launched the opening leg of their 20th Anniversary World Tour. The North American run, produced by Live Nation, spans 48 cities with Cody Jinks and Eva Under Fire along for the ride. It kicked off in Camden, New Jersey and is set to wrap on October 23 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia. From there, the band heads to Europe in early 2027 with Lamb Of God and Bleed From Within.
The tour also carries on the band’s long-running charitable streak. Widely regarded as one of the most philanthropic acts in rock, Five Finger Death Punch have spent years supporting causes tied to U.S. military veterans, first responders and their families. For 2026, the group is throwing its weight behind Team USA ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, with a portion of the North American tour’s ticket sales going toward high-performance programs for U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
The 2027 European leg with Lamb Of God and Bleed From Within begins in Manchester, U.K. on January 16 and runs through 21 cities, closing out in Helsinki on February 22.
