Brat Summer? Five Finger Death Punch Solidified This as a Heavy Metal Summer (At PNC Bank Arts Center)

August 5(FDP), 2024: Four bands ripped a hole in the Holmdel, NJ atmosphere due to their shredding and screaming and slaying on stage at PNC Bank Arts Center, the Central Jersey town’s crowd-drawing amphitheater. Roaring to life with The Funeral Portrait was this goddamn must-see modern metal show, soon followed by Slaughter to Prevail and then the generation-defying Marilyn Manson. Headliners Five Finger Death Punch sauntered onto the stage with energy that was calm, cool, collected, and grateful. The audience was warmed up and then some by the time they tore into “Welcome to the Circus,” and you can just feel how much fun the band was having from that very start. Terrifyingly grateful and infectiously heavy was the theme of the night with these four (surprisingly photogenic, just see the shots Ehud Lazin took for us) acts who performed down and dirty one after another.