Darkness Settles In

Album: F8 (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody developed a serious drinking problem in 2012 while the band toured in support of their American Capitalist album. By 2016 his alcoholism had become too much for the group to tolerate and All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte replaced him on tour. The next year Moody checked himself into rehab, and by December 2019, the now-sober frontman had returned to touring with Five Finger. This one of several tracks on F8 that chronicles the wild ride to sobriety taken by Moody.
  • Moody speaks about the insecurity, anger and helplessness he felt during his near-fatal struggle with alcohol addiction.

    Waiting for someone to save me
    But everyone just runs away
    Waiting for someone to change me
    But no one ever comes


    Guitarist Zoltan Bathory acknowledged there were some who wanted Moody to fail. "When it seemed like he wasn't going to make it, there were some vultures, there were some negative people," he said to Billboard. "He's definitely lashing out against them. He saw that some people left him in the ditch, so to speak."

    Bathory added that the song's message can be applied to other circumstances as well. "It's all in the lyrics, and I think either everybody has gone through something like this or knows somebody like this," he maintained. "And the lyrics are vague enough that you don't have to equate every single lyric with alcoholism. They fit all kinds of situations in life. That's when lyrics are great, when you can get adopt them to different scenarios so it will mean something else. It's not spelled out so strictly that you cannot take it in any other way than what it is."
  • The song appears on the soundtrack to the 2021 high-octane horror/thriller The Retaliators. The band members feature in special cameos during the movie.
  • The music video combines epic performance shots with footage from The Retaliators.
  • "Darkness Settles In" reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, becoming Five Finger Death Punch's 11th song to top the tally. The previous ten were:

    "Coming Down"
    "Battle Born"
    "Lift Me Up"
    "Wash It All Away"
    "Sham Pain"
    "When The Seasons Change"
    A cover of Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue On Black"
    "Inside Out"
    "A Little Bit Off"
    "Living The Dream"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he Inspired

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he InspiredSong Writing

Before he was the champ, Ali released an album called I Am The Greatest!, but his musical influence is best heard in the songs he inspired.

Michael Sweet of Stryper

Michael Sweet of StryperSongwriter Interviews

Find out how God and glam metal go together from the Stryper frontman.

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoungSongwriter Interviews

Dennis DeYoung explains why "Mr. Roboto" is the defining Styx song, and what the "gathering of angels" represents in "Come Sail Away."

Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.

Evolution Of The Prince Symbol

Evolution Of The Prince SymbolSong Writing

The evolution of the symbol that was Prince's name from 1993-2000.