Five Finger Death Punch don’t have the best relationship with their label at the moment. Prospect Park Records, who signed the band in 2012, have filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas group, claiming they’re looking to cash in on their bandmate’s addiction issues.
As Blabbermouth reports, the suit has accused the members of Five Finger Death Punch, who recently cancelled their Australian tour, of “shamelessly attempting to cash in before the anticipated downfall of their addicted bandmate”.
To understand where this is all coming from, you first have to understand a little bit about contract law. The contract FFDP signed with Prospect Park in 2012 stipulated that the band could not record a new album any earlier than nine months after the preceding album.
Such clauses are written into contracts to prevent artists who’ve become dissatisfied with their label for whatever reason from simply recording a bunch of albums in quick succession or releasing live albums or best-ofs to fulfil their contract obligations.
Five Finger Death Punch last released an album back in September last year, prohibiting the band from recording a new album until June of this year. However, Prospect Park claim in their suit that the band insisted on recording a new album with a different label before then.
The reason for this is rather disturbing if true. Prospect Park claim the band members want to record a new album as soon as possible to preempt what they see as the eventual downfall and self-destruction of frontman Ivan Moody, who is battling alcohol addiction.
In their suit, Prospect Park describe Moody as someone “whose escalating substance abuse is placing both the future of FFDP, and indeed his life, at risk” and accuse the singer’s bandmates of looking to capitalise on his situation for financial gain.
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The label cites communiqué from the group in which Moody’s bandmates allegedly wrote “it’s a matter of time before [Ivan] hits the wall – and once he does – it will be too late to sell” and describing the frontman as a “ticking time bomb… getting in the way of an 8 digit payday for FFDP”.
“If Ivan does something stupid – dies…, goes away to jail – then the catalog is a bust – then we won’t be able to sell and we’ll be trying to salvage what we can – IF we can… so to me it’s imperative to make a move and sell,” Moody’s bandmates allegedly wrote in a December 2015 email.
Of course, the label aren’t exactly the most stand-up guys either, claiming in their suit that the band they’re meant to be representing have a sound that is “getting stale, requiring greater creative input” and expressing concern about their future viability.
