Kingcrimsonprog Five Finger Death Punch have absolutely nailed their formula, mixing commercial metal accessibility with the very heaviest metalcore and slapping in a great deal of guitar solos; if Slipknot’s ‘Volume 3…,’ and ‘All Hope is Gone,’ albums were a genre of their own, that is the genre Five Finger Death Punch would belong to, however its all too easy to compare Five Finger Death Punch to Slipknot or whoever based on surface similarities, instead of on Five Finger Death Punches individual musical output.

Some fans have complained that War is the Answer is more commercial than the band’s awesome debut The Way of the Fist, and to a large extent its hard to argue; the sound is more polished, there are more radio friendly moments in the heavy songs and there are more radio songs in general, so if you thought Five Finger Death Punch were too melodic or too cheesy last time around this album isn’t going to change your mind.

The thing is; you can academically disagree with the direction the band have taken, but just try listening to ‘Bullet Proof,’ with its catchy chorus, heavy breakdowns and lead guitar prominence and you’ll find it hard to complain. The mixture of melodic catchy choruses, awesome guitar solos and chugging riffs is pretty much the Modus Operandi for the rest of the album with the very enjoyable ‘No One Gets Left Behind,”Burn It Down,’ and especially ‘War Is The Answer,’ taking the ball and running with it; another very enjoyable moment on the album is the brief but intensely enjoyable ‘Canto 34.’

The ballads are very well written and not nearly as cheesy as some of the bands out there release, ‘Crossing Over,’ sounds more like a Bush Era Anthrax ballad than some poor metal ballad you’d hear on TV and ‘Far From Home,’ is just a good song, its really as simple as that.

The only problem the band really have are that they don’t exactly have the greatest lyrics in the world, but that’s pretty easy to ignore when they come out of Ivan Moody’s great voice and formed inside the catchy vocal patterns, you’ll find yourself singing along either way.

If you like heavy songs full of double kick drum flailing, chugging heavy riffs, numerous guitar solos and the odd radio ballad then you should definitely give Five Finger Death Punch a try.