It's hard to believe there has been 20 years of FFDP! They have come such a long way with Ivan Moody celebrating seven years of sobriety as of March 2025.

 

Are they are force to be reckoned with?

Hell yes! I have seen them do an Arena tour and they smashed it so far out of the park it is hard to believe that they have never Headlined Download Festival. As you listen to the songs on these albums, although the band is heavy they are also very melodic. Volume one has three live songs 'Trouble', 'Welcome To The Circus' & 'The Bleeding'. There are more heavy ballads then heavy metal.

 

On Volume Two, 'The End' is such an odd pairing with Ivan doing what Ivan does best and BabyMetal singing in Japanese. I'm not sure how I really feel about this, it is a great song but it sort of makes your mind concentrate more on BabyMetal's input instead of just enjoying the song as soon as a different language enters into it.

 

This also feature three live tracks in the form of 'Wash It All Away', 'Wrong Side of Heaven' & 'Jekyll and Hyde'. They are all well known songs but these have never been released before. They are songs that capture the live show perfectly especially 'Wrong Side of Heaven'.

 

If you are not familiar with FFDP and only know two or three songs then these two albums are a perfect gateway for you. For the fan, the live tracks are gold. There are some absolute classics on Volume one like 'Under And Over It', 'Wash It All Away', 'Battle Born' and 'Wrong Side of Heaven'.

 

On Volume two, the standouts are 'Burn MF' & 'Never Enough'. It's a great listen and a massive guilty pleasure for me. Play it loud, sing it louder and enjoy the ride. A must for anyone's collection.