Five Finger Death Punch‘s collaborative single with BABYMETAL, “The End,” has hit #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The Las Vegas metallers now have a total of 17 leaders on Mainstream Rock Airplay, including a streak of 13 in a row, while BABYMETAL becomes the first Japanese act to reach the top spot on the ranking.
Guitarist Zoltan Bathory tells ABC Audio how “The End” reflects the “visual” way in which he writes music.
“It’s almost like I’m always writing some kind of a soundtrack to a little movie that’s playing in my head,” Bathory says.
In writing “The End,” the image that came to Bathory’s mind was of a samurai battle.
“When we were talking about a possible feature, that, to me, was immediate, like, ‘Oh, man, if this would be BABYMETAL,’ because they could do it in Japanese,” Bathory says.
BABYMETAL vocalist SU-METAL sings on “The End,” and Bathory noticed how she adapted her voice specifically for the track.
“She didn’t sing in her style, she found a way to use her voice and sing something that would be fitting for this song,” Bathory says. “I see that in the comments … her fans are saying, like, ‘Wow, we’ve never heard her singing this way.'”
Not only was Bathory impressed with SU-METAL’s vocals, he and his bandmates had absolutely zero notes on BABYMETAL’s contribution, which he says is very rare in the world of collaborations.
“That’s unreal,” Bathory says. “We just got the tracks and we were like, ‘Yeah, perfect.’ There was nothing to say.”
“The End” is featured on FFDP’s new Best Of – Volume 2 compilation, which features rerecorded versions of some of the band’s biggest hits.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
