IVAN MOODY QUITS FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH AS HUGE ARENA TOUR IS ANNOUNCED 13th June 2017
Five Finger Death Punch vocalist Ivan Moody quit the band onstage in Tilburg, Netherlands last night, Monday 12th June, during a gig that was marred by issues.
This morning, an arena tour across Europe and the UK beginning in November, stopping in most major cities and finally concluding on December 21st at the iconic Wembley Arena in London, UK, was announced but this is now clearly in doubt after last night's events.
Five Finger Death Punch performed the first two songs without Moody, who eventually took to the stage and played from the third song onward. Moody's place was taken for the first two songs by Tommy Vext. The show reportedly lasted only forty minutes before the band suddenly left the stage, never to return. Aapparently guitarist Jason Hook threw his guitar down during 'Burn MF'.
According to BD.nl, the band "played out of time, disappeared after every song [for] minutes from the stage and seemed to quarrel among themselves."
BD also say that sources claim there was a big fight between Moody and his bandmates and while onstage Moody claimed:
"There's only one fucking singer of Five Finger Death Punch, and I am."
But Moody's key words are in the video here where he clearly says:
"I'll let you know ahead of time — this is my last show with Five Finger Death Punch."
It was reported in April that Moody was leaving Five Finger Death Punch to focus on another project but the singer claimed he was not leaving the band in a lengthy statement.
Late last year, Moody was replaced by All That Remains singer Phil Labonte for a number of shows following an onstage meltdown.
And this morning, what is being dubbed as "the biggest and most exciting arena rock tour of autumn 2017", was announced. Five Finger Death Punch and In Flames will unite to play a one-of-a-kind tour partnership featuring exclusive pre-sales, packages, and content from both bands. The full tour dates are as follows:
Additional show dates are anticipated to be announced in the near future, provided Ivan Moody changes his mind about leaving the band.
In Flames singer Anders Fridén said:
"We've been lucky to play for so many Jesterheads around the world this year and can't think of a better way to end 2017 than touring Europe with Five Finger Death Punch. We'll see you soon Jesterheads and Knuckleheads. It's going to be a tour to remember."
5FDP guitarist Zoltan Bathory stated, before last night's gig in Tilburg:
"We are currently playing all the European festivals and are having an amazing time. As these massive crowds are singing along every word of the lyrics, it feels like Europe is truly becoming the second home of Five Finger Death Punch. We can't wait to come back this autumn and especially with In Flames which is one of my favourite bands. This will be something special to see..."
Support on select EU dates and all UK dates of the tour comes from Of Mice & Men. The Orange County, CA-based band recently returned with two brand new songs, 'Back To Me' and 'Unbreakable', via Rise Records. They performed a successful main stage set at Download Festival this past weekend and will be on tour across Europe throughout July.
FFDP have a number of June dates remaining on their European tour, including tomorrow night, Wednesday 24th June, at the Nova Rock Fest in Austria, as well as having been announced as headliners of a number of US festivals later this year.