FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has confirmed that Charlie "The Engine" Engen is laying down the drum tracks for the band's eighth album, due later in the year. The new disc is once again being helmed by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who currently lives in Las Vegas, where he works out of his private studio, The Hideout Recording Studio. Engen made his live debut with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH during the band's fall 2018 tour with BREAKING BENJAMIN. He stepped in for FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's original drummer, Jeremy Spencer, who left the band in December. In a new video message from the studio, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Jason Hook explained how Engen came to be involved with the band. "It was actually Jeremy that found Charlie," Jason said. "Jeremy had reached out to [him] through Instagram." "Yeah, we had been just drum buddies for a while, talking drums and classic stuff, so we developed a relationship that way," Charlie confirmed. "And that was a year and a half before all this." Jason continued: "And so when Jeremy told us that he was thinking about hanging it up — he had gone through a couple of different surgeries and really thought that he wasn't gonna be able to play drums up to his standards — we understood. 'But the good news is I found the guy.' He said, 'Well, it's this fellow on Instagram named Charlie.' I immediately went and started checking out the videos online, and I was, like, 'Holy fuck! This guy's a beast!' And I think I reached out to [him]." "Yeah, we talked for a little bit before, leading up to everything," Charlie said. Guitarist Zoltan Bathory described Charlie as "an unbelievable drummer," adding that: "The funny thing was that Jeremy kind of found him, but I followed him, so when he said who it is, I'm, like, 'Oh, yeah! That kid is fucking amazing.' So I already knew about him. So that was pretty cool. So I guess you can say that Jeremy handed down the torch." Spencer co-founded FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH in 2005 with Bathory. Zoltan recently said that the new FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH material was "shifting back to that heavier side," and he compared it to 2007's "The Way Of The Fist" and 2009's "War Is The Answer". This past April, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH teamed up with Brian May of QUEEN and two of the biggest names in country and blues rock, Brantley Gilbert and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, to record a special version of "Blue On Black", a blues rock song originally recorded by the KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD BAND in 1998.
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