Five Finger Death Punch are a band that still values the artistic expression of the music video, and today they’ve returned with not one, but two new videos, that are part of an overarching storyline. The clips are for the current single “Times Like These” as well as “Welcome to the Circus.”
To help set the mood, FFDP start off the “Times Like These” video with a series of news reports that start in 2023 with the headline, “Privacy? What? What Are You Hiding?” and continue to evolve over the years to discuss issues such as digital safety, the implementation of a national curfew, a change in the national currency, hacker groups, artificial intelligence, the replacing of the Supreme Court and human cloning before settling in the year 2060 in the city of Megapolis One.
It’s there that a black hooded Ivan Moody looks out over the hologram city landscape with drones circling the city and messages emblazoned on big screens that read “See Something, Say Something.” Deciding to leave his domicile, Moody hits the dangerous city streets where denizens are being rounded up for being out past curfew. Escaping detection, he eventually risks everything, meeting with Zoltan Bathory in a park who hands him a mysterious instrument while both men are surveilled. The singer flees from two men tailing him, tests out the instrument and mysteriously vanishes as the initial video comes to an end.
The action picks up in the “Welcome to the Circus” video, as Moody has escaped into a club with the two pursuers hot on his tail. But once again, this special instrument comes in handy as Moody enraptures the crowd by playing it, seemingly stuns his pursuer and signals the other FFDP members. Where does it go from there? More action is teased to follow in whatever their next video may be.
The two videos are supposedly tied to the band’s upcoming AfterLife graphic novel that will follow the recently released album of the same name. Guitarist Zoltan Bathory, who has handled many of the band’s visual representations, is responsible for the story and screenplay, and he co-directed the videos with Dale Restigini.
Both songs are featured on the band’s recently released AfterLife album, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and helped the band set a Billboard record by becoming their seventh chart-topper on the Billboard Hard Rock Chart.
Check out the two new videos below, pick up the AfterLife album here. Meanwhile, you can catch FFDP currently wrapping up one headline tour and kicking off another before years ends. Get your tickets to catch them live here.
Five Finger Death Punch, “Times Like These”
Five Finger Death Punch, “Welcome to the Circus”
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