Ivan L. Moody

Ivan L. Moody (Ivan Lewis Greening)
Ivan Moody performing at Rock on the Range 2010 in Columbus, Ohio.
Background information
Also known as	Ghost
Born	January 7, 1980 (1980-01-07) Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal, groove metal, alternative metal, nu metal, hard rock, progressive rock, experimental rock, industrial metal
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, music producer, actor
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	Firm Music/EMI
Associated acts	Five Finger Death Punch, Motograter, Ghost Machine, Black Blood Orchestra, Toiz

Ivan L. Moody, (born January 7, 1980) also known by the pseudonym Ghost, is the singer for American Heavy metal group Five Finger Death Punch from Sacramento, California. He had performed for several bands before settling down with FFDP (or 5FDP.)

Career

Moody performed with a few small bands before joining the industrial metal band Motograter in 2002. They released their self-titled album Motograter on June 24, 2003. They gained some mainstream success playing the second stage at Ozzfest 2008 and touring with bands like Korn, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Nothingface, Slipknot, Mushroomhead, SkinCrawl, and Killswitch Engage. Motograter went on a hiatus in 2006 but then Motograter played a one time re-union show in 2006 at the Delicious Rox Festival in which Ivan made it perfectly clear to fans and band members alike that he was finished with the band. Ivan also made songs with old roommates and family members, and they called themselves Black Blood Orchestra.

Black Blood Orchestra got together a few years ago and wrote a handful of songs and recorded them with friends and family since 1994. They had all played together over the years and had written a large number of songs but for one reason or another couldnt get the project off the ground. Recorded songs can be found on their myspace page. Members: Ivan Moody (vocals), Ryan Morrow (bass), Bill Stonebraker (guitar), and Jim "Dugan" Demongey (drums)

Soon after, Ivan joined the heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch and his side project Ghost Machine released their debut self-titled album on July 26, 2005. Ghost Machine released their second album, Hypersensitive on November 21, 2006. On the same year, Five Finger Death Punch entered the studio to record their debut album at Next Level Studios and Complex Studios in Los Angeles, California with Steve Bruno and Mike Sarkisyan. The album was produced by guitarist Zoltan Bathory and drummer Jeremy Spencer and was mixed by former Machine Head and Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader. He also starred in the 2009 horror film Bled, playing the role of Incubus.

They achieved rapid commercial success: their debut album, The Way of the Fist (2007) has currently sold over 420,000 copies in the United States and spawned 3 top 10 hit singles. Their second album, War Is the Answer (2009), sold more than 44,006 copies in its first week of release, spawned 5 top 10 singles and has gone on to sell more than 500,000 copies to date. They have played many major tours and festivals including Korn's Family Values and Bitch We Have a Problem Tours, they played on the Jägermeister Stage (second stage) at Mayhem Festival in 2008 and played the main stage at Mayhem Festival in 2010. They also performed at Download Festival during both 2009 and 2010 and the Monster Stage (main stage) at Rock on the Range 2011.

He is featured in the new book Full Metal: The 50 Most Influential Heavy Metal Songs of the 1980s and the True Stories Behind Their Lyrics. In a new interview conducted exclusively for the book, Ivan Moody discusses the impact of Metallica's “Fade to Black” on him as a lyricist, in a full chapter about the song that also examines its social and cultural significance, both back during 1983 and today.

Prior to Motograter, Ivan was in a band called Black Blood Orchestra. They have a MySpace Music page with four songs for stream: "Cold", "Red Moon of Vegas [Rough Cut]" (a Demo Version of Ghost Machine's "Vegas Moon"), "Black Blood" and "Sunspot ("Cold" Reprise)" (basically an Acoustic Version of "Cold"). Moody co-starred with Shawn Crahan 2012 in Darren Lynn Bousman's short horror musical film The Devil's Carnival.

Awards and nominations

Motograter was voted the best band of 2003 by Hit Parader. Five Finger Death Punch has won several awards including The Best New Band award at the 2009 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, the Most Promising Artist award from FMQB’s 2009 year-end Metal poll. They were also nominated for the Best International Newcomer award at 2009 Kerrang! Awards and won the Best Breakthrough Band award at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.

Discography

TOIZ

• 2002

Motograter

• 2003: Motograter

There are also three Motograter Demos with Ivan on Vocals: "Flesh Burns (1999 Demo)", "Pile Driver (2000 Demo)", and "Failure {Live 2004)"

Ghost Machine

• 2005: Ghost Machine
• 2006: Hypersensitive

After "Hypersensitive", Ghost Machine started working on a Remix album that they had to put on the back burner because of the success of Five Finger Death Punch. Four Remixes were released for stream on the band's MySpace Music Remix page: "God Forbid (Black Cape Remix)", "Vegas Moon (Pete Murray Remix)", "Siesta Loca (Steven's Organic Drum Remix)" and "Burning Bridges (Depression Remix)".

Five Finger Death Punch

• 2007: The Way of the Fist
• 2009: War Is the Answer
• 2011: American Capitalist

Filmography

• Bled (2009) (as Incubus)

External links

• Five Finger Death Punch's official website
• Ivan L. Moody on Myspace
• Black Blood Orchestra on Myspace
• Five Finger Death Punch on Myspace
• Ghost Machine on Myspace
• Motograter on Myspace