Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory reveals he dislikes metal sub-genres as it takes the focus away from the music.

And he says he misses the “brotherhood” that previously united bands before it was fragmented into divisive categories.

He tells Ultimate Guitar: “I don’t even know what genre we would fall into. We are coasting on our own edge of hard rock and heavy metal. I don’t really care much for these sub-genres and that’s one of my peeves with heavy metal.

“At one point it was all just one big genre and it wasn’t broken down to these crazy sub-genres – and all these sub-genres don’t like each other any more. It was just one big brotherhood but that’s gone – it’s segregated into these little sub-cultures.”

He adds: “We still incorporate other styles so in some ways it’s accessible to a lot of people as there are a lot of elements from everywhere. Some people don’t like it because they say it’s not true to one specific genre.”

The band will support Judas Priest on their nine-date European tour next year and will also play on the same bill at Download in June.

Bathory said: “Download is a bona fide global rock ‘n’ roll destination. Everyone brings their A-game – the bands and the audience. You rarely see crazy crowds like this. It’s the place where we may have broken the record for biggest crowd surfing in recorded history.”

Five Finger Death Punch are hoping to release a new album around the same time and stated they had four tracks recorded earlier this year.