FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH spent the early part of this week filming a video for the song “Darkness Settles In”. The track is taken from the band’s latest album, “F8”, which was released in February 2020. The follow-up to 2018’s “And Justice For None” capped a turbulent period for FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH in which singer Ivan Moody finally got sober after a near-fatal struggle with addiction, while co-founding drummer Jeremy Spencer bowed out of the band due to physical issues.
Much of “F8”‘s lyrical content deals with Moody‘s battle with addiction, its aftermath and his recovery. The singer celebrated three years of sobriety in March.
Ivan discussed the inspiration for “Darkness Settles In” during a March 2020 interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3. He stated at the time (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[That’s] definitely one of my top three on this [album], and I’ll tell you why. Anybody who’s going through recovery or has been through recovery knows that we have these things called ‘addict dreams’ or ‘drinking dreams.’ I was in a deep REM [sleep] one night and I had this dream about… I grew up in Colorado near a whole bunch of railroad tracks, and I had this dream where I was sitting on these railroad ties. And it was just this glistening moon, it was beautiful — I mean, it was so vivid. And I looked over to my left, and my grandmother was sitting next to me, who, to me, was the biggest influence in my life. And she whispered something to me, and I could not tell you what it was, but it struck a chord in me, and I shook and I woke up. And the second I woke up, those lyrics came to my head — I just started penning them out in the diary I keep next to my head. And then the melody fell into line. And I didn’t know where it came from, so I couldn’t explain it to you — it fell in my lap. And I called Kevin [Churko, producer] and Zoltan [Bathory, FIVE FINGER guitarist] and Jason [Hook, then-FIVE FINGER guitarist] — I left ’em each a voicemail — and, actually, the first verse of that song on the CD is the voicemail I left Kevin. So it really shows how organic this record really is and the places it’s come from.”
Several photos from the set of the “Darkness Settles In” video can be seen below.
Last October, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH confirmed that it officially parted ways with Hook back in February 2020 during the band’s sold-out European arena tour. He has since been replaced by renowned British virtuoso Andy James, who is featured on “Broken World”, a song that was included on the second installment of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH‘s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”.
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH‘s new disc was once again helmed by Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who currently lives in Las Vegas, where he works out of his private studio, The Hideout Recording Studio. The drums on the LP were laid down by Charlie “The Engine” Engen, who made his live debut with the group during its fall 2018 tour with BREAKING BENJAMIN.
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