Keep The Faith
Jason Arnopp
Bay Area 'bangers produce their most eclectic album ever! Heaviosity reigns as the spectre of Big Jim is banished!
FAITH NO More are a one-off. When guitarist Big Jim Martin left, we wondered if that magic chemistry had been lost forever.
Not so. 'King For A Day...' is a work of utterly twisted genius. 'Get Out' has you bamboozled from the start an up-tempo baby with unorthodox structures. The bastard smashes through your front door and makes off with the candlesticks before you can hear what the f**k Mike Patton's yelling about.
Then first single 'Digging The Grave' rears up, and it sounds like Therapy? jamming with Anthrax. What's become of that trademark Bill Gould/Mike Bordin fat-bass-and-drums stuff? Answer: Faith No More have reinvented themselves.
1992's 'Angel Dust' was an oddball affair which grew like fungus with time. But it was the sound of a band making the most out of inter-band tension. 'King...' is the sound of rebirth. New guitarist Trey Spruance (since replaced by Dean Menta) was clearly a part of the song-writing, and shows a good ear for subtlety on the super- cool 'Evidence', giving Roddy Bottum's keys a chance to breathe for the first time. 'Ricochet' shows off the San Franciscans' inherent knack for dynamics, while 'Star AD' is a Disco Jazz freak-out with sexy sax, and 'The Velvet Hammer' offers the LP's most sober moment.
'Cuckoo For Caca'? It's that reliable track on a Faith No More disc when they go completely fish-mad and Bottum plugs in his Apocalyptic Church Organ Of Death! Actually, 'King...' features more spaz-fits than usual: witness Patton's shrieks on the brilliant 'Ugly In The Morning'! Didn't we expect this mania after his PE- teacher-on-crack performance at '93's Phoenix Festival?
The album's second half gets even stranger, as 'What A Day', 'The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies' and 'Acoustic Groove (Recall)' spin your mind; Patton switching styles more than ever. He can be Jello Biafra, Leonard Cohen, the wobble-throated Patton we knew on 'The Real Thing', or the spawn of Satan. Last track 'Just A Man' fools the listener into thinking it doesn't have a chorus, before serving up one of the album's best.
So what is the album's best refrain? Probably 'Take This Bottle', seeing Patton back in his whisky-throated Country persona. If FNM had written '...Bottle' three years ago, they wouldn't have had to cover The Commodores' 'Easy'
Faith No More have created an 18.0 album to keep them interested on the next mega-tour. If not sane...
