LIKE CLOCK WORK
The man in the corner looks peaceful enough: a colourful eccentric in white patched overalls smeared with paint, nodding gently to the music around him, eyes shut tight. He is Ivan Moody, the explosive, baseball bat-wielding singer of Five Finger Death Punch, a leading force in our present universe of heavy metal, and he’s listening hard to a song about his inevitable demise.
It’s not easy listening here at The Hideout Recording Studio on the outskirts of Las Vegas, as he rests a hand on his shaved head, taking in a track from the new album. The tune begins as a piano ballad, but there’s also a meaty guitar riff to accent its message of hope and farewell to Ivan’s loved ones and bandmembers.
I’m writing this in case I’m gone tomorrow…’ his voice soars from the speakers.
Ivan isn’t about to depart this mortal coil, as far as he knows, but the singer almost didn’t make it to 2019. A lifetime of hard living and heavy drinking took a toll. This wasn’t the usual rock star shenanigans, or another round of bad behaviour, bad choices, bad press or any other fodder for your favourite metal gossip site. This was serious. Ivan was going to die.
Less than a week ago, Ivan marked 19 months of sobriety, and as he reclines in the shadows of Studio B to hear playbacks of the band’s new songs in progress, he seems almost cheerful. On his chest is a cloth patch of a cartoon unicorn with a flowing, golden mane picked out by his youngest daughter.
“To hear this takes me to places thatI’ll never be able to escape,” Ivan says between tracks that chart his most recent nightmares and unexpected survival. “This is as raw as I’ll ever be. It’s painful
