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Video premiere: Five Finger Death Punch's 'Battle Born'

Brian Mansfield
Special for USA TODAY
Five Finger Death Punch, from left: Jason Hook, Ivan Moody, Chris Kael, Zoltan Bathory, Jeremy Spencer
  • %22Battle Born%22 celebrates the band%27s success and offers thanks to its fans
  • It%27s the first single from %22The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell%2C%22 out Nov. 19
  • The band%27s fall tour returns to the U.S. Oct. 4 in Fargo%2C N.D.

Five Finger Death Punch wrote its new single for those with a warrior's soul.

Battle Born's video, premiering at USA TODAY, is a celebration of the California-based rock band's success and a thank-you of sorts to its fans, who include martial artists and members of the military and law-enforcement communities, all of which are represented.

"Everybody in the band's a fighter," says guitarist Zoltan Bathory. "That's the mental image of the band, and that sneaks into the lyrics, obviously. What kind of people will connect to that? Obviously, people in the military, law enforcement, martial arts, people who have a similar take on life."

If the Battleborn video shows the band's triumphs, the verses of the song show the other side of a touring rock musician's life.

"Successful bands will tell you bright side," says the Hungarian-born guitarist. "From a rock band, everybody expects the girls, the cars, the yachts, the airplanes, the high life. They don't see that some days you wake up with the flu. When you wake up with a 102-degree fever and you can barely walk, you cannot stop the show. You crawl out on stage and, no matter what it takes, you have to fight through it."

Bathory recalls having to go through one tour, for instance, with broken ribs from his martial-arts training. "So people are looking at me, saying, 'Wow, you're making crazy guitar faces.' No, man, I have two broken ribs."

For Bathory, the moment the chorus of Battle Born kicks in is like the moment on tour when the band's intro starts and the stage lights go on. "This one hour makes everything OK," he says. "This is what it takes — the pain and blood and sweat that goes into that one hour of glory."

Battleborn is the first single from The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Vol. 2, due Nov. 19. Bathory says the band recorded the new album's songs at the same time as Vol. 1, released in July.

"It's not a concept album," he says. "The songs are not connecting because we wanted to write a rock opera. We just simply wound up with so many songs that were dear to us. This is the strongest material we've ever written, so it has to be out there."

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