Zoltan Bathory, the guitarist and primal songwriter of Five Finger Death Punch arrived to the USA in the middle ’90s from Hungary. A decade of perseverance led him to start a band, which sold 400, 000 units off their debut album. But the story isn’t that easy. 5FDP really keeps the metal in the true form, without compromising the rawness mixing with powerful melodies. Now they attack with the sophomore LP called „War Is The Answer” and Zoltan explaines us what it’s all about…

Metal Israel: Lets kick off with the new album, „War Is The Answer”. Can we say that the title/concept of the LP is that as the world goes even crazier literally/not literally we have to go to war every day to defend our integrity? Please describe this a little bit…

Zoltan Bathory: Yes absolutely. It’s the way of nature, one way or another we are all at war. Fighting for survival, a social position, a job, a better life, a belief, our immune system is at war. Or even a seemingly peaceful monk sitting up in the Himalayas is at war with his own mine trying to subdue his thoughts.  It’s perfectly ok though.. we didn’t make the rules. These are the rules we were given, and you have to embrace it. You have to be strong. Only the strong survives.

MI: „Bulletproof” is probably my favourite one. Its very powerful and on point. Could you describe the mindstate when you created it and the message of the song?

ZB: It’s in the same mindset as the whole record. No one can take you down. If you believe in your own power, you will fight till the end… and when the end comes it no longer matters because you dead anyway. Those who understand the cycles and aren’t afraid of dying are bulletproof. They can’t be beaten.

MI: On the new record, you’ve got Jason Hook as the lead guitarist. What are the main points where his style changed the sound of the band?

ZB: The core sound of the band is the same – however he added some more depth, he is an extraordinary guitarist and very easy to work with. Also the band got tighter – because his picking style is very similar to mine so we are like a twin machine-gun firing away.

MI: In the ’90s you came from Budapest, Hungary to the States. I’m Hungarian as well, so when I read this story was really surprised in a positive way. Do you get a lot of feedback from the mother country?

ZB: I get hit up here and there by musicians for advice… but I can’t really tell them anything else than what I already said in numerous interviews. You have to help yourself, that’s the point. It’s like going to the gym – you can only lift what you are prepared for… and nobody else can lift it for you. You have to work yourself up to the level to be able to take on the world. If you don’t speak English and only have a 3 song demo that’s not really good quality – then what do you expect? Bruce Dickinson quit Iron Maiden to work with you? Oh wait and, send you a plane ticket, pay your bills. There are realistic expectations and there are expectations that are completely idiotic. In fact because your disadvantages of being a foreigner – you have to have something that’s above and beyond… and it’s all your responsibility to get that extra ‘something’. Remember, Yngwie Malmsteen came to America as a foreigner but the guy could play guitar like no one else, Lars Ulrich came to America and he had the drive and the imagination. Still to this day he is the driving force of Metallica. It’s not impossible but you have to be realistic about it. Prepare… prepare… prepare. Plan it out – and execute the plan.

MI: What I like in Five Finger Death Punch is that you can be heavy as hell but able to write SONGS at the same time, mixing the brutality and melodies in a good balance. For you, as the main songwriter it was the main concept from day one?

ZB: Yes. Definitely. I like Heavy music that’s melodic and memorable. To me the ‘song’ is the most important – everything else – technical bravados, solos, all that stuff is just nice additives. But first and foremost the song has to have something special, something that triggers your emotions.

MI: After establishing yourself in the last two years in the States, you started to focus more to Europe as well. So far hows the main reactions of the Euro people at the shows?

ZB: We’re doing really good in the UK. Selling out all venues. We are headlining both Hammer Fest and Defender’s Of The Faith Festival this year. Also we managed to get a huge reaction at Download last year so they invited us again. But we still have a lot of work ahead on the rest of the continent. We simply didn’t play enough there yet, and 5FDP is a live band – our fan base grew really fast mainly because people were impressed by our lives shows.

MI: If I know well, you are a black belt master in Judo and doin some other martial arts as well. While touring do you try to keep the trainings and condition or its kind of impossible to do those periods?

ZB: It’d difficult to train because I barely have time – on the summer tours I carry my Judo mats with me…and roll when I can. I have a lot of friends in the MMA and Jiu-Jitsu world. It will be always something that’s exciting to me. But music comes first.

MI: How much you think fighting sports helped you to being more focused in the music carreer?

ZB: Essentially all things are the same. You can be a musician, a martial artist, a snowboarder, the basics are the same. You need focus and discipline. And then you can do just about anything. A lot of people have this backwards… it’s not that martial arts enables you to be focused and disciplined. Your focus and discipline enables you to do martial arts, or anything you chose in life.

MI: In the USA UFC is more popular, who are your favourite fighters? And do you like K1 as well? Any favourites?

ZB: I like Anderson Silva, Cro-Cop, Machida, George St Pierre… and one of my absolute faves is the “Prodigy” – BJ Penn. I like to watch Karo Parisyan too because he is a Judo guy.

MI: Did you play before in Israel? If so, please tell some of your experiences about the show(s), the scene etc.

ZB: No, we didn’t get to go to the Middle East Yet.

MI: This level of success you already earned, it was a conscious, focused road for you startin with takin the step to go to the States or how would you describe it?

ZB: Well, success can not be calculated. The only thing you can do is to become the best version of yourself. Leave no stone unturned – train, prepare, stay sharp… and just keep fighting. So when the opportunity comes you will be ready to take on it. But you have to truly love what you’re doing, otherwise it won’t work. You can’t guess what people will like, and if you just copy a formula people will see through that. You have to do what you like, and just hope other people will like it too. And if they don’t.. well, you are still having fun because you’re doing what you love to do. But – you do have to be impeccable. Set your standards as high as possible and live up to them. Challenge yourself.

MI: Who are the songwriters and guitar players that influenced you the most?

ZB: I grew up on old school metal. Accept, Iron Maiden. Listened to a lot of German metal bands and a lot of Bay area stuff. Guitarists? A lot of Malmsteen, Rocky George, Vinnie Moore … and I can appreciate a lot of songwriters – from the Beatles to Ennio Morricone.

MI: For you personally what is the ultimate goal/mission in this music thing and with Five Finger Death Punch?

ZB: To have fun. To create music we love… and it’s a lot of fun to see other people liking our music as much as we do. We are traveling the world, and do what we like to do. So we just want to keep doing it. Of course the bigger our audience gets, the more fun it is… and it enables us to put on even bigger and better shows.

MI: What are your next future plans?

ZB: We are pretty much booked up for the rest of this year. We are working on some crazy stage shows, if we can pull it off it’s going to be insane. We want to do something that will absolutely amazes or shock people. We want our shows become more than just a concert, we want to create something that’s an event you can’t afford to miss…