Five Finger Death Punch’s Ivan Moody and Zoltan Bathory joined Japanese metal sensation BABYMETAL at a recent sold-out show in LA to celebrate two major international milestones for their collaborative single “The End”.
On Saturday (November 1st) the pair graced BABYMETAL’s Intuit Dome show in Los Angeles as “The End” reached No. 1 on the Japanese iTunes Metal Chart and climbed to No. 18 on the Japanese All-Genres Chart — a landmark achievement for an international rock release.
In addition, the song is making history in the US as the first song featuring Japanese lyrics to chart in US Rock radio, where it has already broken into the top five.
The artists honoured this cross-cultural breakthrough at a special plaque presentation.
Bathory said: “This was such an amazing way to celebrate a collaboration that turned into a chart-topping moment for both of us.
“We’re working on our 10th studio album right now, and with the 20th anniversary world tour coming up, we were already planning to go back to Japan… a place that’s always shown us so much love. But with how well this song connected there, let’s just say the story might not be over yet. Who knows… maybe we’ll even share a stage with BABYMETAL. Life’s a wild chain of coincidences, and sometimes the next chapter just writes itself.”
The song was the first single from Five Finger Death Punch’s Best Of – Volume 2 album, which features re-recorded version of the band’s biggest anthems, created in response to their former label’s sale of the original song masters — made without the band’s knowledge or the opportunity to reclaim their legacy.
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Turning that setback into something powerful and positive, Five Finger Death Punch chose not to simply remix or remaster, but to fully re-record fan favourites across two volumes of greatest hits, both as a tribute to the songs and to the fans who’ve stood with the band over the last two decades.
BABYMETAL’s vocalist, SU-METAL said: “We were invited to take part in a 20th-anniversary collaboration project featuring guest artists on past songs. Five Finger Death Punch and BABYMETAL had performed at the same festival overseas back in 2015, so I was really happy thinking they might have remembered me from then.
“I sang Japanese lyrics inspired by the original lyrics of ‘The End’, and spent a lot of time experimenting to find the voice that best fit such a deep, cool track. My favourite moment is the flow from ‘Negai o kakete’ into the break, where my voice is gradually engulfed by Ivan’s growl — it gave me chills. I hope listeners feel that too.”
