Five Finger Death Punch Support of PTSD Veterans "Not Gone Away"

Five Finger Death Punch Chronicle Plight of the American Soldier in 'Gone Away' Offspring Cover Video
Loud Wire
Joe DiVita
December 22, 2017

Throughout their career, Five Finger Death Punch have aligned themselves with the U.S. military, supporting the troops in a number of ways. Their latest homage to the brave men and women who serve in the armed forces comes via an emotional gut check of a video for their cover of The Offspring's "Gone Away."

The incredibly somber take on the song works in conjunction with the imagery as we first witness a service member surrounded by billowing smoke and the scene of a fatal wreckage. Throughout the video, we see the toll the loss of life takes on family members as they grieve, clutching picture frames and embracing one another. 

Flashbacks provide the background as a group of friends enjoy a day at home. A news break reveals an attack, spurring the male friends to enlist in the military. During active combat, one of their vehicles rolls over a trip wire, killing those inside as one man looks back in horror and disbelief. He struggles to process what has happened and even contemplates suicide at home, but he eventually he channels his inner strength and returns to war, ready to lead a young new group.
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Five Finger Death Punch - Gone Away (Official Video)

Five Finger Death Punch Taking Care of PTSD Veterans

Five Finger Death Punch frontman vows to perform at Illinois State Fair

The State Journal Register
Steven Spearle
August 18, 2017

Members of FFDP have long-supported U.S. military and veterans issues. In addition to doing USO tours, the band set up a website (www.5fdp4vets.com) that sells merchandise to raise money and awareness for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Zoltan is also a founding board member of the Las Vegas-based veterans non-profit organization Home Deployment Project, which also assists combat veterans with PTSD.

What version of Five Finger Death Punch shows up at the Illinois State Fair is anyone’s guess.

Mercurial frontman Ivan Moody didn’t make it past the band’s first show during a June tour of Europe. After threatening to leave the group during a brief and chaotic onstage performance in Tilburg, Netherlands, Moody announced afterwards that he had “fallen off the wagon again” and was headed for another rehab stint with the support of band members.

Spokespersons from 10th Street Entertainment, who handle Five Finger Death Punch’s (FFDP) publicity, wouldn’t say whether Moody would be back for the Springfield show, the band’s first since the European tour ended June 24.

FFDP management told Illinois State Fair that there is “no reason to believe the concert will be canceled.”

Then in July, Moody released a statement thanking his fans and his bandmates for standing by him during his rehab stint.

“At this point, I am on track to return to the band with a vengeance in Springfield, Illinois, when we begin the next leg of our North American tour dates,” he said in the statement. “It’s my intention to sing at each and every future show we are committed to, in North America and in Europe. I can’t wait to put all of this behind me and move forward."

Five Finger Death Punch Just Punch Out Hopelessness

Five Finger Death Punch just made me cry again.  Not normally a fan of heavy metal, since I'm old and listen to music from the 70's and 80's, but this group has won me over. 

After "Wrong Side of Heaven" about homeless veterans, I am so glad they are out there trying to do what they can with a great amount of talent and surprisingly tender hearts.  You can't put out videos like theirs if you didn't care about the subject.

Well, it seems as if they've just done it again.  They just made me cry. This time My Memesis is about people falling apart.  At the end of the video is this, “Grief is an irreversible current of sadness when you miss your last opportunity to be there for someone.”

If you've been following the "suicide awareness" folks screaming about 22 a day, it is a safe bet you haven't learned anything.  Nothing has changed and the more people I talk to, the more sick to my stomach I get.

So just getting facts out of the way, since the "awareness" folks don't like them very much here's the truth.

CDC Suicides in America 
"There were 41,149 suicides in 2013 in the United States—a rate of 12.6 per 100,000 is equal to 113 suicides each day or one every 13 minutes."

For veterans, reports from all over the country put veterans committing suicide double the civilian population rate, which means that there are over 26,000 veterans committing suicide in this country every year.  Sorry but if you believed the bull of "22 a day" then you've just missed over 50 more. 

It seems the "awareness" folks were unaware of the fact that the report from the VA stated clearly it was using limited data from just 21 states.

Ok, so now that you know that, what do you do about it? Learn to help them live instead of talking about something you don't have a single clue about. If you don't know, don't talk.  SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND LEARN if you really want to make a difference because if you can't listen to facts then how the hell do you think you're going to be able to sit and listen to someone opening up about the pain they are dealing with?

All they want at that moment is to be able to know they matter enough that someone actually took the time to spend with them and listen to whatever they wanted to share.

Don't look at your watch.  Don't look at your phone to see who did what on Facebook. Look into their face and see their eyes.  Hold their hand.  Give them a hug.  Whatever you do, don't try to fix them.  You're not qualified but you are more than qualified to give them what they need at that exact moment. Be someone to let them know they actually do matter!

Don't judge them.  Don't try to find an answer or come up with some stupid shit you read online like "God only gives us what we can handle" because then you are telling them God did it to them! 

Whatever you did yesterday doesn't matter because you just didn't know any better.  What you do from this point on is in your hands.

The CDC has a link to the most recent reports on suicide across the country. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention so you can get a better idea on anyone facing the choice of this being their last worst day by ending their life or ending the suffering by changing and living.

Five Finger Death Punch Reveal Powerful Video for ‘My Nemesis’
Loudwire.com
By Chad Childers
February 29, 2016

As we’ve seen in recent years, when Five Finger Death Punch make videos, they make sure they use the art form for maximum impact. Whether it be driving home a point about post-traumatic stress disorder for soldiers or delivering a cinematic, movie-like clip for entertainment, Five Finger Death Punch rarely disappoint. So with their new video for “My Nemesis,” you knew the band had something pretty special in store.

The band reunited with director Nick Peterson, who also helmed their “Coming Down” and “Wrong Side of Heaven” videos. In the new clip we see multiple storylines playing out with a teen girl leaving home and hitting the streets to get away from her drug abusing mother, a teen boy exiting his home to escape his abusive father and a man dealing with extreme grief after losing his wife and walking in on his son and his friends using drugs. The three central characters all end up at the beach staring longingly at the ocean as a message appears on the screen. “Grief is an irreversible current of sadness when you miss your last opportunity to be there for someone,” reads the message.
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Five Finger Death Punch Live Stream For "Military Guys"

Five Finger Death Punch: Rockin' for the Troops
Yahoo Music
By Craig Rosen
13 hours ago

On Saturday, Oct. 11 at 6:35 p.m. PT/9:35 p.m. ET, Yahoo Live will live stream Five Finger Death Punch's show from the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA. Tune in HERE to watch!
For most, Veterans Day comes once a year. But for hard-rockers Five Finger Death Punch, concern for our troops and veterans is part of everyday life.

"Basically, with the band from the very beginning — I'm talking about before we even had a record deal — it just so happened that a lot of our fans were military guys," explains Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory. "We've always have had songs that have had military themes.

It's just something that's close to us. It's a special kind of person who signs up and does what these guys do, and we have a fight-for-yourself and stand-up-for-yourself attitude, because none of us was born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We have to fight for everything we have, so our lyrics our similar to their mindset. They can't run away. They have to do their job, so we're kindred spirits, so to speak."

With that sort of connection, it was only natural for the band — which also includes singer Ivan "Ghost" Moody, drummer Jeremy Spencer, and relatively new recruits guitarist Jason Hook and bassist Chris Kael — to begin playing gigs for the troops at military bases around the world, including Iraq. During those visits, the band began to form a special relationship with their brothers in arms. "It became a symbiosis," Bathory explains. "These guys are our fans and became sort of our families. We heard their stories and saw what was happening to them. And once we heard these stories, we started to research PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] and found out how common it is and how serious it is. There's staggering numbers and statistics. We figured the best way to deal with this is to help raise awareness."
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