Spinefarm Records reports:

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, one of America’s hottest new metal bands, have signed a deal with Spinefarm

Records/Universal Music. Based in Los Angeles but with strong European ties in the shape of Hungarian guitarist Zoltan Bathory, this heavy-hitting new act will have their debut album, The Way Of The Fist, released outside the US on January 19th, 2009.

With American sales in excess of 200,000, radio support holding firm, and tours with SLIPKNOT, DISTURBED,TRIVIUM and ATREYU already notched up, Five Finger Death Punch – the blow with which ‘The Bride’ dispatched her mentor in Kill Bill Vol 2! – are now poised to make a full-scale assault on the international market; this assault will get underway in February 2009 when the band take their place on the Defenders Of The Faith live UK extravaganza, playing alongside LAMB OF GOD, DIMMU BORGIR and UNEARTH.

Blending the classical overtones of European Metal with the hard-drivin’ Blues-based groove of US legends like PANTERA, 5FDP have achieved success on their own terms – self-funding the album, identifying Logan Mader (Machine Head, Soulfly) as The Man to handle the mix and putting the mastered results up on Myspace where the response was overwhelming.

The affectionately-dubbed ‘Knuckleheads’ spoke (make that shouted!) their approval first, and it was this grassroots explosion that led to the band signing a US management/ recording contract with The Firm.

Further success was quick to follow, with The Way Of The Fist hitting the Billboard charts in its first week of release

and lead-off single ‘The Bleeding’ (dubbed ‘the concert anthem of 2007’ by the aforementioned Billboard) spending seven months on Rock Radio’s Top 40 charts, before taking up residence in the Top 10.

Follow-up single/video ‘Never Enough’ made an equally strong mark, a Top 10 Active Rock hit, and now – with the group still Top 5 on Myspace – it’s time for Europe and the rest of the world to take the ‘Death Punch’ on the chin; not only will the international version of the album come with revised artwork and bonus audio/visual content, but it will carry the support of 150,000 Myspace friends plus a US chart profile that continues to blossom. Let Round Two begin…