5th Column is an American heavy metal band from Poughkeepsie, New York formed in April 2003. They took the name 5th Column after a military manoeuvre by Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, in which nationalist insurrectionists within besieged Republican Madrid, called 'the fifth column', would aid the four columns (north, south, east and west) outside the perimeters. A fifth column refers to any clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity.