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On July 17th 1995 Faith No More released Evidence as the third single from King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime. Faith no more have been striving to write a slick and smooth pop sing since the eighties. Anne’s Song was too alternative and Edge of the World too perverse. The theory was there but the end result lacked the finesse. To fulfil Mike Patton's ambition in releasing ‘elevator’ music the band instead would have to rely on the talents of others covering Lionel Richie's heartbreak groove Easy and the soundtrack muzak of Midnight Cowboy. In fact Mike Bordin’s jazz influence, Patton’s love of Sade and Billy Gould’s preoccupation with easy-listening would not be represented within FNM’s own repertoire until 1995. "That's the one I'm most proud of. All the loud songs turned out really great on this album, really aggressive, and we've always done that really well. But the smoother songs I've never felt we've gotten exactly right. And this one is pretty damn close to being *exactly* right." - Mike Bordin 1995 Evidence has a relaxed swing similar to the jazz-funk movement which swept through the music charts during the late 90s. The song stands out on King For A Day as it’s delicate bounce sits amongst some of the most aggressive tracks FNM have ever written. With Trey Spruance's guitar licks and Roddy Bottum's lounge piano Evidence is the band's closest brush with soul yet there still remains a trademark FNM twist - Patton's sexually charged lyrics painting a visceral but nonetheless stomach-churning picture. "We've always wanted to write a great pop song, Evidence is just that. I think we needed to lose a guitarist to achieve the end result." - Patton 1997 The video continues the dark and grungy scenes married with an awkward humour. Dressed in Italian designer elegance the five members jam in a seedy underground club behind protective glass while the apathetic audience looks on in horror. Patton drinks wine while Roddy is the usual suspect and gets pulled out of a police lineup. Directed by Walter Stern and filmed at the 181 Club in San Francisco.

Mr. Bungle's third studio album California was released twenty four years ago on July 13th 1999. Photo Jay Blakesberg In the year Mike Patton's music took many creative twists and the man of 1000 voices began a journey with Ipecac Recordings, he was part of the third album by Mr. Bungle. This album is arguably Mr. Bungle's greatest, California is certainly one of the singer's most genius works. It is layered with a multitude of genres and styles, perfect instrumentation and loaded with enough intelligent wit not to confuse the listener. The release of the album was somewhat troublesome and the date, June 8th, was delayed by Warner Bros to avoid confusion in the marketplace with the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Californication (an issue which would have further repercussions). California was the first studio album not to feature Theo Lengyel who had left the band due to 'creative differences'. Bungle's drummer Danny Heifetz spoke about Theo's absence in 1999, "I miss him. He added a huge chemical imbalance that helped us on the road. He hates us and rightfully so. The music changed, plain and simple. Very little call for saxes, trombone or flute. He was an original member. I'm not. Makes me feel a bit like a union-buster. He once shit in a goldfish bowl on stage." This album was a seismic shift in style and production just as were the two records before, on California the music was essentially more structured and less chaotic with some traditional song formats. Different themes and genres were explored which led to a much more 'pop' sound in parts whilst still retaining Mr. Bungle's wit and musical expertise. The 'poppy' sounds of the album can often be disconcerting when presented in such an environment. For these reasons alone it possibly makes California the most deliciously strange album in Mr. Bungle's catalogue. Warner Bros released the following press statement in regards to the musical direction of the album, 'California explores an ambiance new to the band, conjuring up the sultry dance moves of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire; digging through the graveyard of riffs to find English Pop, Elvis, Neil Diamond, and Michael Jackson. The album is sure to alienate those expecting weird meter-changes and heartless vulgarities. To be sure, this is Western music, chockful of backbeats, strings, and vocal harmonies. But like the original 49ers, the listener is headed into a desert land of draught and famine -- the dark side of the California dream. Topics of charity, gregariousness, and escapism are accompanied by those of suicide, retribution, and apostasy. The band somehow proves to themselves, once again, that they cannot escape their twisted past, or their twisted future. And like Hollywood, the underbelly is glossed over with major chords, sparkling glockenspiels, exotic percussion, fuzz guitars, tears of joy, and plastic smiles. And it's all in Technicolor, breathtaking Cinemascope, and stereophonic sound! Music to be listened to under the warmth of the cancer-inducing sun. It's danceable, it's singable. Grab an umbrella and join the slaughter!' Not everyone could appreciate the eccentric and fore thinking genius at the time, yet California received mostly positive reviews. 'Mr. Bungle's third opus is a wondrous amalgamation of styles that induces memories of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean, days at the beach, doses of hardcore rockabilly, lovable schmaltz and bizarre sound effects.' - CMJ New Music Monthly 'California stitches elements of polka, death metal, campy lounge yoy, and 50's surf into a dense, colorful quilt, and the result is a striking listen.' - Alternative Press 'They're clever buggers, those chaps in Mr. Bungle. For while they specialise in the art of melting brains by composing some of the most twisted music imaginable, one gets the feeling that they are not even trying.' - Kerrang! ...there were also less favourable reviews... 'Such humour is, of course, a tortuously acquired taste, but ‘California’ is an exhilarating release from ‘4 Real’ culture, championing its wit above integrity. Administer sparingly.' - NME 'Mr. Bungle is a prima facie reason as to why artistic freedom isn't necessarily worth all the ink it gets. Revoltingly self conscious and "arty" instead of being "artful", this band is about as useless to the mental and rhythmic well-being of the human soul as a Whitman chocolate sampler would be to a diabetic. Must to avoid doesn't even begin to describe Mr. Bungle's CALIFORNIA.' - LA New Times Check out our California interviews with Trey and Trevor. Trey Spruance - 1999 "There are a lot of song-ish elements on this album that are missing on our previous records.Those elements on this album will be welcomed by many and hated by many others. Some fans may get mad because we're not playing 'experimental' music. We don't really care. We've made a pact to trust our musical instincts and not worry about people's expectations. We could keep putting out 'weird' records and be pretty comfortable, but that would get a little thin. We want the freedom to try new things and have fun." "It would have been too easy to make a Disco Volante II. It just happens that, as an unspoken rule, we go to new places with each album. California is not really that 'poppy' in the modern sense - it might be OUR projected fantasy of "pop" music, as it certainly draws on recent decades of popular entertainment. It's true that the album has potential to cross into some of the tastes of the moment, but I'm not holding my breath about any radio airplay. We've been around long enough to know how these things work! We made the album for ourselves and for the people who follow our music." Trevor Dunn - 2000 When we were mixing our A&R guy from WB came down the the studio to "check out the new stuff". I was upstairs with him playing a mix of Retrovertigo when he suddenly got bored and walked out of the room right in the middle of the song. I was offended to say the least. It became clear to me that the only reason we were still on this major label was because they were hoping for a FNM hit. They wanted to assign a big name producer but we declined due to the fact that they wanted US to pay for it. We certainly had hopes of actually getting some airplay with some of these tunes but WB wouldn't pay for a re-mix, and, of course, did YOU see any promo for California? You have to understand that there ARE ways of manufacturing popularity. You can pay radio stations to play your records like Limp Shitzcup did; you can open up for huge bands that will pay you squat; you can play Ozzfest and PAY to play. Fuck that. We had no interest. We had our core audience who would reliably show up to any shit-hole we played. Someone at WB actually said they they thought we were "close" to having a hit record. The seemed to think that if we made a 4th CD it would be more accessible than anything else we'd done. Oh how little they knew us. Chances are, the 4th would have been 74 minutes of non-stop, unlistenable noise. Mike Patton - 1999 "We don't usually write linear songs, so this was a challenge for us. If you don't keep challenging yourself, eventually the music you're making, no matter what kind it is, is going to sound contrived." "With a band like this, it's really kind of boring and methodical. You go through it like surgery -- this detail, then that little part, then a harmony, followed by an effect over a tiny part that lasts two seconds. It's not like fun lovin' rock 'n' roll whisky guys going into the studio, just having a ball, jamming. It's the farthest thing from that you can imagine. It's a bunch of nerds in the studio, twisting knobs." "You wanna hear irony? You're telling me how straight and palatable it is. With this record, we were closer to being dropped from our label then we have ever been. Figure that one out. If you put it all down on paper, we're not fuckin' No Doubt or Limp Bizkit. We'll never be that. I don't think we'll ever make sense to them. There's gotta be something they are hanging onto. I'm not sure." "More than anything, that title really sums up sonically what's going on on the record. It's very pleasant at times, and then there are a lot of little disasters that come up and present themselves, then blow over and go away like a storm. I would tend to explain it more like that, rather than, "Oh, California is this very deceptive place; it's bright on the outside and a really dark place on the inside." I mean, let's let the Chili Peppers do that." Danny Heifetz - 1999 "It was a conscious effort to be more melodic and concise, but it was not guided by any "market planning strategy." It's just something we needed to spiritually flatten our inflated interpretations of today's musical voids, as grossfold as they are these days." Clinton McKinnon - 2016 "It wasn’t some attempt at reconciling how much we’d previously tortured our audiences with white-noise..No, it wasn’t some conscious attempt to normalise our music or make it all the more palatable for our weary listeners.. It just poured out the way it did and reflected the sophistication we’d cultivated up to that point. We were perhaps more careful to get ‘better’ performances on record, yes. We had every intention of doing our best. We wouldn’t have over-thought the reception of whatever we were doing; if we were into it, that was enough."

Three years after the break-up of Faith No More and Mike Patton had become busier than ever with a multitude of very different projects. By 2001, Fantômas had already established themselves as one of the most unpredictable forces in experimental music. Their self-titled debut was a chaotic collision of comic-book violence, avant-garde composition and extreme metal. Rather than build on that formula, The Director's Cut swerved into entirely different territory: a loving but deeply twisted collection of classic film and television themes reimagined through the band's warped imagination. Released through Ipecac Recordings, it remains one of the group's defining achievements. The line-up reads like an underground supergroup. Patton delivers one of the most diverse vocal performances of his career, shifting effortlessly between crooning, screaming, whispering and bizarre vocal effects. Behind him, Dave Lombardo supplies impossibly precise drumming that moves from jazz finesse to thrash intensity without missing a beat. Trevor Dunn anchors the chaos with fluid, inventive bass work, while Buzz Osborne drenches every arrangement in layers of jagged, unsettling guitar textures. Rather than simply covering famous movie themes, Fantômas dismantle and reconstruct them. Familiar melodies from The Godfather, Cape Fear, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Charade become explosive miniature compositions that constantly shift between beauty, menace and absurdity. Every track feels like a soundtrack to a film that exists only inside Patton's fevered imagination. What makes The Director's Cut so remarkable is its balance between reverence and reinvention. The band clearly adore these iconic scores, yet they refuse to treat them as museum pieces. The Godfather transforms an elegant orchestral theme into a violent burst of avant-metal. Rosemary's Baby retains its haunting innocence while introducing unsettling vocal harmonies that make the lullaby even more disturbing. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me captures the eerie melancholy of the original while sounding unmistakably like Fantômas. The musicianship throughout is staggering, but technical brilliance never overshadows atmosphere. Every sound serves the mood, whether it's a burst of noise, an unexpected silence or one of Patton's countless vocal contortions. The album races through sixteen tracks in just under forty minutes, never lingering long enough for the listener to become comfortable. More than two decades after its release, The Director's Cut still sounds unlike anything else. It exists somewhere between avant-garde metal, horror soundtrack, jazz, surf rock, noise and cartoon logic, defying easy categorisation while remaining surprisingly accessible for such an experimental record. It is an album that rewards repeat listens, revealing new details and hidden jokes with every spin. For fans of horror cinema, adventurous music or simply musicians operating at the peak of their creative powers, The Director's Cut is essential listening. It is one of Mike Patton's greatest projects and a shining example of what happens when four fearless musicians ignore every rule and follow pure imagination. Rating: 10/10

The totally bodacious soundtrack to accompany the second movie in the Bill & Ted series was released thirty five years ago on July 9th 1991. In the summer of 1989 a sci-fi comedy film starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves captured the imagination and hearts of the American youth hair metal generation. During that same summer a groundbreaking album by Faith No More inspired a new crowd of music fans and changed the metal scene forever. Two years later and both the movie and the band became legends in their own time consequently finding each other to come together in a glorious event. The Wyld Stallions returned among a torrent of MTV fever and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was released in cinemas across the globe on July 19th 1991. What was previously a cult following of impressionable skater dudes became a mainstream phenomenon of credible Wayne's World-esque metal heads. Winter and Reeves reprised their roles as the title characters as did George Carlin as their time-travelling mentor Rufus - however for the sequel a host of new characters and rock star cameos sent shock waves through the cast. It seems whoever was responsible for keeping the music content of the film current and cool did their job with some perfection. The soundtrack preceded the movie release date by ten days and features twelve tracks recorded by a mixture of bands from the waning hair metal genre, Bay Area thrash and the cutting edge of California funk metal. Legendary face painted glam rockers Kiss provided the lead single - a cover of Argent’s God Gave Rock n Roll to You. Primus, who also make an appearance in the film, contributed the awesome and equally bizarre Tommy The Cat and Megadeth the sorrowful chug of Go To Hell. However the highlight of the record is track seven, Faith No More The Perfect Crime. A track originally recorded as Sweet Emotion during the The Real Thing sessions and briefly released on a Kerrang! 7” flexi-disc. Reworked and renamed The Perfect Crime has the distinctive FNM rhythm section sound, guitar hooks, and majestic keyboard melodies - but it showcases the more mature and evolved vocals of Mike Patton acting as bridge between TRT and 1992's Angel Dust. Someone on the B&T production team certainly had a hard on for FNM, quite possibly Bill S. "Bill" Preston Esq himself as the actor Alex Winter has publicly commented on his fondness for TRT. The Perfect Crime features during a scene in which evil B&T kidnap their good counterparts. Weirdo axeman Jim Martin was cast as Sir James Martin founder of the faith No More spiritual and theological center and steals a rather tense scene of the movie. He announces himself with the immortal line ‘station’ and bows out with the phrase ‘what a shithead’ after apparently showing Johann Sebastian Bach the best way to strike a power chord. The final nod to our favourite five-some is a From Out Of Nowhere poster hung on the wall of the two heroes apartment. Although this isn’t the first film to feature a FNM track on the soundtrack, Surprise! You’re Dead! blasts out in a particularly gruesome scene in Gremlins 2 (1990), it is the first movie in which FNM took a vested interest. Mike Bordin and Bill Gould can be seen suffering an interview with MTV brat Pauly Shore at the movie premiere party. Thirty five years on and a second sequel Bill & Ted (2020) later and FNM fans still have a special place in their hearts for Bogus Journey and how it played it's part in spreading a little love for the band, making Big Jim a household name and adding some cool words to our vocabulary. STATION!!!!!!!!

After Faith No More sparked major excitement with a surprise tour teaser on June 16, Bill has now confirmed that the band intends to return to the stage in the near future. Speaking with Rock Talk's Jadranka Jankovic Nesic, Bill revealed the band's plans, saying, “Yeah, we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna play.” He explained that going out on tour is the desire to perform while the band can still meet the physical demands of their music. “You know, our music is very physical, and a big concern is, like, pretty soon we’re not gonna be able to do this the way we wrote it,” said Gould. Reflecting on the band's high-energy style, he continued: “We wrote it as 20-year-olds and it and it’s always been very physical. It has to be that way. I can’t play the song if I’m not like that, honestly. With my bass parts, I just can’t do it. But I think… I mean, we all kind of decided, like, we think we can do it. I think that we can do it for a few more years, and we can do it the right way, so we’re gonna give it a go.” Bill says that tour dates could be as soon as January next year with possible shows in Europe, South America and USA. Watch the complete interview with Bill below.

On July 4th 2014 Faith No More performed a momentous show at British Summer Time Festival, Hyde Park in London. The line-up was spectacular: Motorhead, Soulfly, Soundgarden, Black Sabbath and of course FNM. It would be just one of two FNM shows in 2014, and two years since their last time on stage together. This show would also announce their return to making music as a band with the premiere of two songs Motherfucker and Superhero. Here are some reviews of this epic day. Classic Rock | Paul Tester If it really does turns out to be Sabbath's final London performance, an on-form supporting cast - and flowers - ensured it was a day befitting it. This is an historic event. Not because it's London and it's hot and sunny, but because it may well be the last ever big-scale London shows from Black Sabbath and Motorhead, with key members of both bands having health issues of late. And with Soundgarden and Faith No More also on the bill, it could be seen as a passing on of the flame. Maybe it already has been passed on; many of the 55,000-strong crowd have doubtless come primarily to see Soundgarden and Faith No More, and if they happen to catch the living museum pieces that are Sabbath and the 'Head, so be it. Soundly are the first band on the main stage today, and they get a decent reaction, especially set opener Prophecy. But having formed as recently as 1997, the Phoenix metallers are the main stage's relative newbies - Motorhead, Faith No More, Soundgarden and Sabbath have been going for a combined total of almost 150 years - and so have less of the other acts' gravity and import. You could say it's a miracle many of them are still going. "We're Motorhead! And we play rock'n'roll!" announces Lemmy as he, guitarist Phil 'Wizzo' Campbell and drummer Mikey Dee launch into old faithful Damage Case. Lemmy seems somewhat enfeebled, although at 68, and with the life he's lived, he has every reason to be. Still, sensing a muted response, Campbell tries to rally the crowd with instructions to "make more noise than you ever thought possible!" They play Lost Woman Blues, from 2013's Aftershock, and even Lemmy is dubious that anyone rushed out for a copy. "Did anyone buy it?" he asks, vainly. "Did anyone steal it?" There is an extended drum solo, but really Motorhead are about speedboat and concision, and it's only with Ace Of Spades and Overkill that the crowd's juices start flowing. By contrast, Faith No More are in fierce form. Fierce irreligious form: they're all in black, with priestly dog collars, and frontman Mike Patton, in the guise of a deranged preacher, keeps quoting from The Exorcist. "Let Jesus fuck you!" he yells. And "Your mother sucks cocks in hell!" Meanwhile, the stage, bedecked with flowers, couldn't be more Sunday-church-service. Zombie Eaters is similarly deceptive, with its softly-sung, balladic beginning ahead of its transformation into a funk-metal monster. Patton is red, hot and blue, his voice going from a facetious croon to a death-metal squeal. And whether it's an admonition of bullshit pop sentiment or an admission that entertainment is a lie, their cover of soul tune Easy goes down a storm. Patton throws 'holy water' on the front rows as he finally gets sincere. "Thanks for having us, guys, seriously." Faith No More: they care a lot. Soundgarden present themselves as sepia classic rockers, flanked by large-screen footage of themselves performing in black and white - you'd think Seattle photographer Charles Peterson, responsible for many an iconic grunge-era image, was directing. Going by Chris Cornell's leonine mane and lithe frame, you could believe he'd just stepped out of 1994. Fact is, he's 50, but that Plant-esque wail is still intact as the band run through the whole of Superunknown, which has just turned 20. They might, in the minds of many, be about to supplant the headliners, but they're in no mood to kill the king. "If you're here for Black Sabbath, maybe this is annoying," says Cornell. "But that's okay, cos we're here for Black Sabbath too." Pearl Jam's Mike McCready joins them for Mailman, Cornell joking that, with three guitarists, "we're going to be like Skynyrd". As the day grows darker and cooler, the growling menace of the music starts to take full effect. Black Hole Sun beats Nirvana at their own Beatles-meets Sabbath game. Cornell dedicates 4th Of July (today's date) to the headliners, reminiscing about supporting them on tour. "It was one of the highlights of our lives," he says, paying obeisance to the ultimate masters. By the time Black Sabbath come on stage its dark, just right for the ominous grainy images of war on the screens. Suddenly the crowd is all devil horns and fist pumps. Tony lommi commands with his large cross, and even Ozzy Osbourne, despite the odd doddery move, appears strong. Whether you consider him the original Prince of Darkness or a comical buffoon, there's no denying he demands attention, although mention of his wife (it's his and Sharon's wedding anniversary) is met with boos, reminding us that Sabbath occupy a dual position: underground overlords, with a mainstream pop icon at their helm. Into The Void is just one of many quintessential rock riffs, with Iommi and Geezer Butler laying down awesome slabs of metallic slurry; pure heads-down, no-nonsense Midlands boogie. There are songs from all points in Sabbath's career, right up to last year's superb comeback 13. Inevitably it's the early ones with the aura of doom that, paradoxically, elicit the greatest pleasure: the darker the better. The title track of their debut, with its tolling bells, signals the onset of rain, and Children Of The Grave brings down the metaphorical curtain. "We'd play all fucking night if we could!" declares Ozzy, proceeding to do a series of weird frog jumps that are worth the price of admission alone. There's an encore of Paranoid, and then that really is the end. Possibly forever. Still, they've had a good run,and helped change everything. We'll never see their like again. Or will we? Kerrang! | James Hickie Sabbs and friends celebrate summer bloody summer... IT'S FITTING that Sabbath should be playing a Royal Park. They are, after all, metal royalty, and Ozzy himself is The Prince Of Fucking Darkness. That they're doing so with a suitably regal entourage in tow only serves to make today even more of a right royal knees-up. First up, it's SOULFLY (KKKK), who blossom rather than wilt in the oppressive heat. Excitement levels peak when Igor Cavalera joins them for Roots Bloody Roots - highlighting that there are more original members of Sepultura onstage than there are of Soulfly. The only thing that could match that in the cool stakes is hearing Lemmy growl, "We are MOTORHEAD (KKK), and we play rock'n'roll," once again after his long illness. Unfortunately, what comes after isn't quite the steamrollering we were hoping for. The usually hammering Overkill seems to go by the motto 'everything slower than everything else' today, but just seeing Lemmy back onstage where he belongs is enough of a treat. By comparison, FAITH NO MORE (KKKKK) are a religious experience. Not least because they arrive dressed as priests - albeit, in Mike Patton's case, with | (fake) facial tattoos. They don't just exorcise their classics, either, although Epic and Midlife Crisis are offered up for worship. There's also the premiere of two new songs (that may or may not be entitled Leader Of Men and Motherfucker). With so little fanfare from Mike, you'd think they'd been playing them for 20-odd years already. In contrast, SOUNDGARDEN (KKKKK) focus only on the old, playing their essential 1994 album, Superunknown, in its entirety - "for the last time", according to frontman Chris Cornell. And, as if that wasn't enough to send the plaid-ometer into the red. Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready's cameo during the title track ensures we're taken to grunge heaven. There's a similar sense of nostalgia when BLACK SABBATH (KKKK) arrive - not just for the band's heyday, but for their arena tour late last year, which this set doesn't deviate from too much. The main difference is that Ozzy's vocals are improved during the likes of Snowblind ("You know what that's about," he impishly winks), while projections on the vast screens add a spectacular dimension to some of the trippier moments (Fairies Wear Boots, Rat Salad). At a lean - but rather fitting - 13 tracks, we could arguably do without the embellishments of the bass and drum solos. But when Sabbath are on this form, we'd take these metal overlords however we can get them. All hail! Set List Zombie Eaters From Out of Nowhere Epic Caffeine The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Easy Midlife Crisis Everything's Ruined Cuckoo for Caca King for a Day Ashes to Ashes Superhero Motherfucker We Care a Lot

Faith No More released the third single from The Real Thing on July 2nd 1990. Falling To Pieces | Story Behind The Song | Raw Magazine | 1990. The day MIKE PATTON replaced Chuck Mosley as FAITH NO MORE's singer, he immediately recognised the pressures that would fall on him and the major tensions within the band. The result? 'Falling To Pieces', a heartfelt statement and a classic song... When Faith No More first hit these shores to play a highly anticipated set of dates at London's now-defunct hip venue, Dingwalls in Camden Town, you won't be surprised to learn that the San Franciscan sensations were fighting. Each other. Violently. Often. If it was a surprise to those who worked with the band, then they'd soon get used to it. The group's volatile frontman, Chuck Mosley, was staying at London's infamous Rock 'n' Roll hotel, The Columbia at Lancaster Gate, and was ostracised by the rest of the band. While guitarist at the time, Jim Martin, explained that "It just didn't work out" with Mosley, thus necessitating the singer's departure, it was obvious that this band would always be falling to pieces. White breakthrough single, 'We Care A Lot', was blasting out of the radio at every opportunity, the band were ditching Mosley not just for the sake of the band, but for the sake of their sanity. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum explained. "We just started writing songs without a singer for a couple of months." Not that this was anything of a departure for the four musicians; Martin, Bottum, drummer Mike Bordin and bassist Bill Gould had always written the music in its entirety before Mosley came in and added his lyrics. "On the last record (Introduce Yourself) Chuck wrote a lot of the lyrics in the studio, which was real frustrating when you consider he had two years to get 'em ready," explained Gould. So Chuck was ... er ... chucked, and the band settled on 21-year-old Mike Patton to till his shoes. FNM had actually been aware of Patton three years previously, when he gave the band a tape of his own act, Mr Bungle, at a FNM gig in Humboldt County, California. Despite his tender years, the band were confident that Patton, whose vocal influences included a healthy dose of old Funk and Soul records, could interpret their musical amalgam of Funk, of Punk and Metal with style. "There's been very little pressure on me to be anything other than myself," Mike commented back then. If was any doubt that Patton could be the catalyst to propel the band into the big-time, then his debut record with Faith No More, 1989's The Real Thing', dispelled them. From the opening assault of 'From Out Of Nowhere', where Patton's supremely confident vocal lifted the tune into the stratosphere, 'The Real Thing' was destined to become a seminal Rock album. And the song that summed up the spirit of the band - and the puppy singer in particular - was 'Falling To Pieces'. "As far as lyrics are concerned," explained Puffy Bordin, "we Just told Mike to go ahead and do what he felt was right." And what Mike felt was right was 'Falling To Pieces', an accurate portrayal of the fragile nature of the band he'd just joined: 'Because the plot thickens every day/And the pieces of my puzzle keep crumblin' away' sang Patton, obviously disorientated by his new-found status. 'Droplets of 'yes' and 'no'/ln an ocean of 'maybe'/From the bottom it looks like a steep incline/From the top, another downhill slope of mine'. The air of confusion that surrounds the song is totally apparent, Patton trying to come to terms with a group which couldn't operate in any other way than with tension the catalyst. Ironically, 'Falling To Pieces' its melody moving up and down in emotional mood, from light to dark and back again - could have been the sonic backdrop to explain the whole Faith No More experience in the run-up to 'The Real Thing'. For a while in early 1989, it looked as if the album might disappear from the record company release schedules for ever. Recorded quickly at the tail-end of 1988, 'The Real Thing' was ready to roll by January of the following year. However, problems with the cover artwork, Jim Martin undergoing surgery, and Patton suffering from 'an untimely accident' meant that there was a real danger that the band might disintegrate. "I don't think it ever reached the point where we would actually break up," claimed Roddy Bottum. "Where we say, even to ourselves, 'Oh God, this is too much. Let's quit!'" Talk of the band disintegrating abounded each and every day, and the members were open about the problems: "The truth is," explained Bordin, "we do have problems. But what the f**k? Do you want me to tell you everything is wonderful and we all love each other? That's bullshit when bands say that." The honesty with which the band could explore their own troubled psyches in a song like 'Falling To Pieces' was unusual and inspirational. Patton, who was constantly being harangued for his brattish behaviour, was obviously trying to turn off from the stress when he wrote the lyrics: 'Layin' face down on the ground/My fingers in my ears to block the sound/My eyes shut tight to avoid the sight/ Anticipating the end, losing the will to fight.' Patton was young, in a band, and devoid of any sense of responsibility to the point where he'd switch off from anything he didn't want to hear. Why should he listen to anybody? Only a year before Patton had been an unknown in a small town in Northern California, had never lived outside of his parents' home, had never even flown on a plane! Now he was the singer in a band that was opening for Metallica in front of 10,000 people. The contrast was stark. Of course there's no way 'Falling To Pieces' can be analysed, compartmentalised, sanitised down to the very last detail. The most intriguing element of any lyric is often the part that's left deliberately vague, open to interpretation. Patton is a past master at disguising the essence of the words with clever puns and veiled innuendoes. The rest of the band are probably more confused than the fans who spend hours poring over Patton's words of wisdom. "To be honest," explains Bordin, "we don't know what he's on about most of the time. We put the music together and tell Mike to come in and sing words that are an interpretation of the feelings that the music gives him. He makes most of the stuff up off the top of his head, then refines those initial outbursts." Patton himself doesn't get carried away by his success. A year after he released 'Falling To Pieces', by which time the commercial and critical accolades had rolled in, he was not particularly enamoured with the song and what it had given him: "There's a year gone from my life and although all this stuff happened, it doesn't seem so," he explained. "I'm not making any more money than I was, I doubt I'm any smarter than I was. "I've gotten myself caught up in this disgusting machine that's rolling down the hill, out of control, and I can't get out of it. It makes me feel used." See? 'Falling To Pieces'. He may have been trying to articulate early, confused feelings, but Patton had also inadvertently predicted his future state of emotion. Whatever his feelings of being used, Patton remains in Faith No More. Maybe falling to pieces is the only way to get by after all.

Faith No More’s keyboardist and all round multi talented artist Roddy Bottum is celebrating his birthday today. We are showing him some love with an alphabetical journey through some of his greatest projects and most fun moments. A IS FOR ADVOCATE The article Heavy Metal Homo was published in June 1993. For Roddy it wasn’t ‘coming out’ as he had never hidden his sexuality, but his interview with US journalist Lance Loud made him a role model for gay fans and set a precedent for other musicians within the metal world to speak out. "I never thought it was that important. Since I went public I tend to see the prejudice that's being leveled against homosexuals. Before, I tended to think of it as a gossipy sort of a thing. Now I think of being openly gay as a political statement, something that in some small way furthers the gay rights movement." B IS FOR BE AGGRESSIVE Roddy has penned the lyrics for several FNM songs throughout the years but none of these is more personal than Be Aggressive. Mike Patton sings of male on male fellatio with conviction and bravado. "What I like about 'Be Aggressive' is that even though it's macho in a homosexual way, lots of FNM listeners probably imagine that it is a woman who is getting down on her knees and swallowing rather than a man. I guess it's easier for people to understand and deal with it that way." C IS FOR COURTNEY LOVE Before FNM settled on Chuck Mosley as their permanent front man the band played shows with different singers. In 1984 Courtney Love filled the spot for approximately four to five months. However, Roddy had struck up a friendship with Love that would endure over the years, in fact Roddy still refers to her as his best friend. According to both they began as lovers but this was short lived. In 2005 the two worked together again when he called upon her vocal services for a song on the soundtrack to the movie Adam and Steve. D IS FOR DINOSAUR JR Roddy joined Dinosaur Jr on stage as they played the last of their seven 30th Anniversary shows in 2015. "I got to play guitar with Dinosaur Jr tonight. I was invited. by J. a shining highlight in my life." E IS FOR ELASTIC Crickets is an electronic trio featuring Roddy, JD Samson, and Michael O'Neil. The group released their self-titled debut album in July 2020. The first single, Elastic, represents the band's experimental song writing nature, and is an attack on toxic masculinity. F IS FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS If you follow Roddy on his social media pages you will know that he is very close to his family. Roddy grew up with three sisters and was taught to play piano at an early age by his mom, who sadly passed away in 2020. It seems that Roddy makes deep connections with people - which last. His friendship with Chuck Mosley is an example, it continued after Chuck left FNM all the way until he passed in 2017. G IS FOR BILLY GOULD One of Roddy's oldest friends is FNM bandmate Billy Gould. The two grew up as neighbours in the prosperous Hancock Park district of Los Angeles and attended Loyola High Catholic school together. "Our neighbourhood was pretty sterile, very Hollywood. In some instances it was an exciting place and in others a dull one. But the chemistry of us getting together always meant mischief. We just always ended up causing trouble, climbing trees and throwing things at cars. We used to make bomb-threat calls too. I remember this one time, we made a bomb threat when we were 10 years old and called up a Safeway supermarket near my house. Then we were so cocky, we walked up to see what had happened there. Of course there was chaos, the bomb squad was there, people had been evacuated but we walked right up to the manager and said 'Hey, what's going on?'" When Roddy was 18 he relocated (with Bill) to attend San Francisco State university as a film student. In 1983 he joined Bill and Mike Bordin in the band Faith. No Man replacing Wade Worthington on keyboards. Roddy, Bill and Mike changed the band name to Faith No More in 1984. H IS FOR HIFIKLUB In October 2020 French experimental rock trio, Hifiklub released Things That Were Lost in the Fire. Roddy delivers dreamy spoken-word over some very funky tunes. "It was a crazy idea, to go to France and record. I said, ‘yes’ in a particularly adventurous mood and thought a French adventure would be a lot of fun. I didn’t know the guys very well, we’d only met once and though we’d worked on a smaller project before, a full record of spoken word seemed like an insane project to jump into. I love insanity." I IS FOR I’M REED FISH Roddy has composed music for several movie soundtracks Adam & Steve (2005), I'm Reed Fish (2006), What Goes Up (2009), Kabluey (2007) and Gigantic (2008). In 2010 he scored the documentary Hit So Hard about drummer Patty Schemel and Fred: The Movie for Nickelodeon. However in a recent interview Roddy suggested that soundtrack work had not been rewarding and encouraged him to follow different musical avenues. J IS FOR JOEY HOLMAN Roddy and Joey met when the later reached out about an Imperial Teen song that he liked. Joey attended a show and eventually the two traveled across California. On their journey they began writing music which would become the Man On Man album. "It was an interesting journey writing music together. Though we're both musicians, we hadn't written together before we went to California. It's kind of a stretch. I always admire when couples do things together in any realm. Creatively though, it's especially intense. I've never created and written with a boyfriend before, so that was completely new. We had to develop a language and mutual respect and a way of listening that was different than just being in a band with friends. There are so many more levels and more nuances involved in a relationship." K IS FOR KEY-TAR Although Roddy has never used a key-tar on stage he is seen rocking a hand held synthesizer with comedy consequences in the low budget video for Everything's Ruined. L IS FOR L7 The female grunge outfit joined FNM on the Angel Dust tour and quickly became friends with Roddy. There is some great footage of Roddy and Jennifer Finch hanging out on the ferry included on the documentary film L7 : Pretend We're Dead. Roddy also contributed to the song Riding with a Movie Star for L7's 1994 album Hungry For Stink. M IS FOR MOTHERFUCKER Only Faith No More would release their first new material in seventeen years and make sure it was unplayable on radio because of it's lyrical content. Between them, Roddy and Patton chant the phrase 'mother fucker' approximately twenty five times. The song is composed by Roddy and not only features his luxurious piano precision but it is the first song on a FNM album during which Roddy takes lead vocals. "It felt like a really nice statement to put out into the public, to let people know we’re not playing any games. We don’t really care if it’s on the radio. It’s sort of offensive and playful and bold and maybe a little bit antagonistic. Just the word itself was a fun thing to put out there. But yeah, it’s totally different than the rest of the record. It’s me singing on it, which is a little bit different, and it’s really simple and stripped down. Something called “Motherfucker” just felt like a nice place for us to kick off a new chapter for Faith No More." N IS FOR NASTIE BAND In 2019 Roddy joined twin brothers David and Tradd Sanderson, and visual artist Frank Haines among others in the leather clad doom-metal group Nastie Band. They released their debut self-titled album in July of the same year. "The Nastie Band is absolutely no rules whatsoever, it's all of us in a room, encouraging each other to stretch as far as we can go, there's no parameters and no rules. The more outlandish, crazy ideas, the better, that's what everyone aims for. It's an unspoken thing in terms of what we want to do, and once in a while it comes up, what we don't want to do, but it's mostly unspoken and comes out when we perform." O IS FOR OPERA In 2016 Roddy composed a mini-opera called The Ride, for the Experiments in Opera (EiO) Story Binge series. The opera was about two gay men from different generations who bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles for an AIDS charity, based on his real life experiences. In 2017 he took Sasquatch: The Opera to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland for a full month. Sasquatch: The Opera tells the story of a hillbilly family who con tourists in search of the mythical monster known as Bigfoot, until the daughter, Dodder, meets him and falls in love. P IS FOR PRINCE During the nineties FNM were renowned for their unconventional and often hilarious interviewing technique. They would steer conversations away from their music and instead talk about the traps of being famous and unrelated subjects. In 1991 FNM shared the stage with the late pint sized pop star Prince at Rock In Rio II, Roddy broke through his heavy security line for a chat. Steffan Chirazi quizzed the keyboardist on their meeting in issue 329 of Kerrang! Magazine. "A lot of people have told me he's really shy, but I just think he's really clever and crafty," furthers Bottum, the man who's got closer to him than any media for the last few years. "He looked like he was so fucking bored and he's chosen this place to be bored, which tells you he's looking for some company. So I didn't feel bad at all for going up and talking to him. I think I asked him how his show went and he just said 'Fine' - all - one - word answers - and I told I went to see him once at Wembley and I was so far away I couldn't see him at all.....I even told him that was the day in my life I realised I needed glasses!" He didn't even react when you told him he was responsible for a major realisation about your personal health? "No, not at all. " What a bastard. "Well I thought it might bring him out if his shell, but he just sort of liked at me and smiled. But I wouldn't say he's an arsehole." Did you feel the aura? "I smelt the magic. He smelt very purple, lavender maybe. A strong smell but subtle at the same time. Not masculine definitely, but what fragrance is? Almost feminine but more spacey.... "I did come away from the conversation regretting I didn't ask him a little more, that I didn't just unashamedly ask him something off the wall like how big his dick is. It might well have brought him out if his shell, caught him by surprise." Do you think he's a space cadet? "He seems a little spacey, but he's up something." Q IS FOR QUARANTINE The Covid 19 pandemic forced many musicians and artists out of work but Roddy used the time to create as much new music as possible. Man On Man being the main project. However Roddy also shared another twenty five solo compositions with us. R IS FOR RUBY SPARKS Blink and you will miss his him - but Roddy made his acting debut in the 2006 romantic comedy-drama Ruby Sparks alongside Paul Dino and Valerie Faris. Roddy plays a DJ and is on screen for ten seconds without a word. S IS FOR SPARKS In 1998 Faith No More and Sparks released a version of the 1974 hit This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us. Roddy has been a fan since 1975 when his first heard This Town on American Bandstand and was smitten. Roddy says that one of his career highlights was meeting Ron and Russell Mael for the first time. Sparks performed with FNM on two occasions and more recently Roddy appeared in the documentary Sparks Brothers directed by Edgar Wright. “I get the sense that Sparks put a lot of thought into their presentation and how they come across. Faith No More does too. We started employing ways to (mess) with our audience early on." T IS FOR TYREL Roddy was cast as Dylan in the 2018 drama film Tyrel, written and directed by Chilean director Sebastián Silva. "It was a weird process to go through. Actors are weird to me, I don't really trust people who do that professionally, or I hadn't before, it's like a weird game to play. The trickery of emotions and faking, it's a sort of simplified version of my take on it, but it was a weird place to go. The director was one of my best friends, and I trusted that the situation was going to go well, and it did. Caleb Landry-Jones is amazing, and Chris Abbott, Michael Cera, Jason Mitchell, they're all at the top of their game and really good at what they do, so following their cues was pretty easy, actually. I'd do it again for sure. After I did that movie, if someone asked me what I did, I'd say I was an actor, it just made me laugh." U IS FOR UNDERWEAR Our man loves to pose in his underwear and why not, even at 58 he still has the figure. It would seem to have begun in 1989 when Ross Halfin captured the famous shot of FNM in their underwear for the cover of From Out Nowhere picture disc. Roddy would yank his pants down and perform in his y fronts during the Angel Dust Tour. More recently, and especially with Man On Man, Roddy strips down regularly in a photo shoot. V IS FOR VIOLATING YOUTUBE POLICY Man On Man released their debut video for the song Daddy which featured Roddy and Joey embracing and kissing in their underwear. In a message to the group shortly after the clip’s release, an employee for the platform said it had removed the video for violating “our sex and nudity policy.” After recognising that the video was not sexually explicit, and was promoting equality and diversity is was reinstated. “Even if YouTube does value and promote diversity, the truth is, the industry is still playing by straight men’s rules. It’s devaluing when we see Google monopolize on our Pride but do so little to actually enhance and protect the LGBTQIA+ digital experience. We’re asking for an equitable playing field.” W IS FOR WE CARE A LOT Roddy co-wrote the lyrics to the song We Care A Lot for their debut album of the same name in 1985. Due to his rap influences including Run DMC he helped to bring hip-hop into FNM's early sound. However Roddy's other influences such as Kraftwork and Elton John were essential in developing his keyboard technique. "My first keyboard that I used on We Care A Lot was an Oberheim, and that was such a key sound to what we were doing. I actually got that keyboard from this dude in L.A., we pooled all our money and bought this Oberheim from a guy named Dwayne Hitchens. He had just finished the score to Flashdance on that keyboard. And we thought that was hilarious, that we had the Flashdance keyboard. We were like, 'Oh this is magical.' It was so fucking funny. Now we played those shows in California with Chuck, and I was at this guitar store before the gigs checking out keyboards and I picked up this reissue of that old Oberheim that I had and I used that keyboard. The Oberheim is what S U R V I V E use, I believe, for the Stranger Things score as well." X IS FOR EMAX Roddy used his Oberheim on the first two albums. When his sounds developed he needed a more powerful keyboard and from 1989 to 1995 he switched to a E-mu Emax. Y IS FOR YOO-HOO In 1994/95 Roddy formed the indie pop band Imperial Teen (originally called Star 69) with Will Schwartz (guitar/vocals), Lynn Truell (drums/vocals), and Jone Stebbins (bass/vocals). In this band Roddy explored his pop song writing and performed guitar and vocals as well as keyboards. The song Yoo Hoo featured on the band’s second album What Is Not to Love released in 1998. The song featured on the soundtrack to Jawbreaker a 1999 American black comedy film starring Rose McGowan, who also appeared in the video for the song. Z IS FOR ZOMBIE EATERS Roddy single handedly made keyboards cool after the hair metal organ power chords of the eighties. By the time we got to The Real Thing Roddy had developed a distinctive style of creating atmosphere. Classic examples are Woodpecker From Mars and Zombie Eaters.

Press Release Brazilian promoter 30e has signed yet another major deal with another beloved metal band. The live entertainment company announced a long-term deal with Faith No More that positions the South American promoter as the strategic and operational hub for the band’s future global tours. 30e will utilize its market insights, data, marketing and infrastructure to plan any of Faith No More’s future ventures while the band preserves its creative autonomy and control over its legacy. The Brazilian company said WME, the agency that represents the band worldwide, was instrumental in the deal. Faith No More is one of the most influential rock acts over the past five decades and likely your favorite band’s favorite band with their genre-defying music, fusing funk, hip-hop and alt-rock with metal. An Anglo band opting to work with a Latin American entertainment company on touring and marketing for global projects isn’t common in the live business, which is largely centered in the U.S. and Europe. “30e feels like a company that wants to dent into the status quo, and as artists we understand the value of that,” Faith No More said in a statement. “Their approach doesn’t feel like the usual machinery; it feels like it’s coming from a different place, with a different kind of energy, and we are willing to get behind that.” The Brazilian promoter announced a similar deal with System of a Down earlier this year, following the two’s partnership on a highly successful South American stadium tour in 2025 that grossed a whopping $51.95 million across nine shows, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports. “Faith No More has always been synonymous with disruption. They shaped entire generations precisely because they refused to play by the market’s obvious rules, and it is that same audacious spirit that drives 30e,” said Pepeu Correa, CEO of 30e. “This agreement aims to jointly build a platform for global experiences that respects the band’s transgressive DNA and presents our vision of entertainment to the world.” Tim Moss, the band’s manager, added, “Faith No More has never followed a conventional path, and that’s exactly why this partnership with 30e makes sense. They bring a fresh perspective, real strategic depth, and the kind of global ambition that aligns with the band’s vision. What matters most is that they understand how to build something meaningful around the band without compromising what makes Faith No More unique.” The band from San Francisco hasn’t been on a formal tour since 2015. Faith No More announced a reunion and tour in 2020, but the plans were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. The deal with 30e leaves the door open to upcoming Faith No More shows and gives fans hope that they’ll see the band perform live.

Faith No More's album Angel Dust found extensive critical acclaim when it was released in 1992. Here are a collection of reviews from major music publications all over the world. Q Magazine | June 1992 | Peter Kane Nobody could accuse Faith No More of having had an easy ride. Formed as long ago as 1982, the San Francisco quintet were going precisely nowhere for a good five years until the caustic, lurching attack of We Care A Lot began to attract attention, especially in Europe. Everybody agreed they sounded pretty damned heavy without quite deciding on a convenient pigeon hole. Funk metal? That'll do, even if it's now a little wide of the mark. But just when fortune seemed finally set to rise, out went charismatic vocalist Chuck Mosley, and in stepped a brattish, all Californian boy called Mike Patton. It could have been back to square one. Instead the decision was vindicated by 1989's The Real Thing, an album of unnerving power that eventually went on to sell by the million, thanks initially to word of mouth before the band's endless capacity for covering the globe and the two gargantuan singles, Epic and From Out Of Nowhere, took over. Angel Dust is just that bit bigger and better than what they've managed before. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge in the last three years -not least the coming of Nirvana-but as Metallica have more than proved, there's still bags of room at the top for exponents of machine drilled fusillades of bulking great noise. If that alone is the yardstick. Faith No More need have no fears. Caffeine and Smaller And Smaller offer the most obvious homage to those masters of the mega dirge and thrash, while Malpractice leans more to hardcore slaughter. Elsewhere, though they stalk a terrain that is now recognisably their own. The thunderous chords, looping bass and psychotic keyboards of land Of Sunshine, Kindergarten and Midlife Crisis have Fatten babbling away persuasively, almost against the momentum of the songs. The lyrical niceties may be buried in the sheer density of the mix but this hardly matters as the Juggernaut rolls impressively on. Patton, in fact, earns his keep throughout, whether it's the crunchy rapping of Be Aggressive, the straighter delivery required on Everything's Ruined and Small Victory or even an unlikely Tom Waits bar-stool mumble on something called RV. Of the 13 tracks on offer, only Crack Hitler fails to really gel, leaving the wistful theme from Midnight Cowboy to sign off the set in perhaps the most incongruous way imaginable, especially after the extra strengthen Jizzlobber has gone about its bludgeoning business. If Faith No More were once one of those bands to be cared for more in principle than in the cold light of day, Angel Dust finally lays that ghost to rest. This is tightly constructed noise on the grand scale that bellies its simple metal calling. It's loud, it's aggressive and, like any rock record worth its salt, it excites at the most instinctive level. Their time has surely come. Melody Maker | June 1992 | Simon Reynolds NEVER liked them, and still don't "like" them, if you know what I mean. Faith No More's dominant emotion seems to be sarcasm, a sardonic, gloating reveling in the shiny side of life. They're retards, nasty little boys probing a finger in the gooey innards of reality, driven by a sort of gynecological nihilism. Like all adolescent nihilists, they project their feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing outwards, onto the world. But "Epic" was undeniable- pop Nietzche, the latest take on the "we want the world and we want it now/ don't know what I want but I know how to get it" rock tradition of impossible demands and limitless desire. The video for "Epic", with its Darwinesque life/death struggle imagery suggested that a corrosive intelligence was at work, as did such twisted, sick-f*** statements as Patton's "Masturbation is a lot easier to do than relating to someone... With sex, no matter how great is is, there's always something missing". And "Angel Dust" is just immense. Imagine "Never Mind The Bollocks", produced by Brian May, if Steve Jones had grown up on Sabbath and King Crimson rather than The Faces. Pomp rock motored by punk disgust. Symphonic bombast, scrofulous with detail. Visionary venom, misanthropic majesty, grotesque grandeur Aesthetically and philosophically, "Angel Dust" is profoundly, putridly offensive, but I keep coming back to it, like a scab. The outstanding element here is Mike Patton's voices, which I find skin-scrawlingly repellent and endlessly mesmerising, Patton is multi-tracked into a myriad. maggoty throng, or, within songs, flits between schizoid array of idioms: baroque histrionics,"soulful", slimy croon, punk declamation, funk-metal sneer, not to mention his menagerie of hiccups, belches, yodels, mewling and poking. On "Midlife Crisis", he starts with a snide, sibilant rap, swoons upward in a jazzy, Al Jarreau-ish arc, then slugs it out in a close combat cut and thrust that's pure hardcore. The lyrics lash and lambaste some middle class, lard-ass, play-safe type who's built up a cocoon of security and comfort (key negative concepts in the FNM world view). The line "Your menstruating heart" - doubtless aimed at "wet liberals" and people who profess to care a lot- is deeply revealing. For FNM, feelings of tenderness,empathy and solidarity are threatening, female and fluid, o loathsome discharge. "R.V." is a waltz-time spoof-monologue by a redneck reactionary whose final words to his kids are "What my daddy fold me 'You ain't never gonna amount to nothin'". On "Smaller And Smaller", Patton's a funk-metal Billy Mackenzie, surfing a sturm-und-drang that abates briefly for a ghostly interlude of sampled Aboriginal chant, before Patton lets loose this amazing arc of wordless aria. "Everything's Ruined" is sort of Black Flag meets Aha, objection and uplift; FNM make a melodrama out of a (ecological?) crisis. "Malpractice" again recalls mid-period Black Flag, although Patton's singing is closer to the hardcore seat of Bad Brains' H.R.; an almost Julee Cruise interlude and maddened Balkan strings make this the most outre prog-metal since side two of "Ritual De Lo Habitual". "Kindergarten" has the most unsettling, ghastly / gorgeous chorus; the song seems to imagine the adult world as no real advance on the unbridled State Of Nature that is unsocialised infancy, still populated with bullies, sycophants, geeks and outcasts. Patton wonders " When will I graduate?" (to a higher kind of life-form). "Be Aggressive" could be a cartoon anthem for Nietzsche's will-to-power, complete with a chorus chanted by cheerleaders, but it's hard to tell: throughout the album, diction is not one of Patton's priorities, and the vocals are buried in the garish murk of FNM's sound. "Crack Hitler" jump-cuts from torrid funk to a Gary Glitter stomp- "Jizz-Lobber" is a grueling Sabbath grind, Patton's apoplectic fit of vocal fed through a fuzz unit and sounding more like a guitar than a larynx. Finally, one moment of unalloyed; sentimentality, a straight and rather stiff reading of John Barry's sublimely melancholic "Midnight Cowboy". But maybe this is a sick joke too. If 1992 is the year that punk finally happened in the US, if Nirvana are the Pistols, L7 are the Ramones and Hole are The Slits, then Faith No More are.. . The Stranglers, a bunch of fundamentally unsound, misogynist, misanthropic, crypto-muso interlopers who have profited from the perennial male teenage consumer demand for nastiness and menace. A gust of sour breath that feels strangely fragrant to me. Raw | June 1992 | Liz Evans IT TAKES a subtle touch of genius to maintain a true identity and create a new dimension at the same time. Faith No More, a band comprised of absolute oddballs, evidently possess this genius, which is no doubt also responsible for their eccentricities. 'Angel Dust', their third album, and their second with singer Mike Patton, is a step on, rather than a step away, from their 1989 release,'The Real Thing', keeping the blasts of power and the witty style, and adding a whole new range of influences, a smattering at a time. Opening with the almighty 'Land Of Sunshine', a fairly traditional (in Faith No More terms that is) energy overdose, packed with keyboard highs, it isn't until the third track, 'Midlife Crisis' that things begin to twist into a new kind of melody. The difference lies in the tunefulness, the variety of styles within the song elements we've come to know and love with this band, but not to this degree. Before they've always been overshadowed by the weight and the volume, the sheer density. Now Roddy Bottum delights in lamenting intros ('Everything's Ruined'), zappy organ bursts ('Small Victory'), and peculiar electronic dance effects ('Malpractice'), Jim Martin leaps between 70s' cop soundtrack guitar ('Crack Hitler'), and witty emotional solos, ("Everything's Ruined'), and Mike Patton exhibits his truly perverted nature on 'Be Aggressive' (which also features a bunch of chanting kids), slipping into the role of Country and Western slob on 'RV and mourning the fact of growing up on 'Kindergarten'. This album is an altogether impeccable display of character, imagination, humour, and a whole spectrum of musical genres wrapped up in the formidable power Faith No More are masters of. All you have to do is buy it. Rock power | June 1992 | Mark Day Faith No More recently declared Right Said Fred to be their favourite band - if the Freds' slaphead singer is to be believed. A timely reminder that FNM are old hands at being wilfully awkward buggers, and sarcastic with it. Any other band breaking through as convincingly as FNM did with 'The Real Thing' might have been tempted to play safe and consolidate, but these malcontents seem more interested in seeing how far they can mix and match their warring elements, goading the listener at every turn. 'RV could be one of Tom Waits' dirty-old-man ditties, while side two's 'Malpractice' is some sort of twisted death metal prog-rock confusion. Meanwhile, the bouncy 'Be Aggressive' crams in chanting cheerleaders and groovy guitar and keyboards swiped from Isacc Hayes' 'Shaft'. That, by the way, is as funky as they get - 'funk metal' tag has always been a complete misnomer as far as FNM are concerned - they're more rhythm kings than funk fetishists. Having been burned first with Chuck Mosley and then with Mike Patton's storm-in-apint-glass Mr Bungle, FNM are resolutely as much to do with Puffy's tribal poundings or Billy Gould's slabs of bass-thing as they are to do with vocals, all of which makes this as thick with bizarre textures as a particularly well stocked carpet warehouse. Faith No More were doing this kind of stuff long before pissing around with the fundamental rock recipe was a guaranteed career move Electric Sun, Liquid Jesus and Electric Love Hogs, take note! and, basically, they do it so much better than most. Angels with dirty faces in the area! NME | June 1992 | Keith Cameron THE ENGLISH may have invented cynicism but, as with everything else, America has taken the concept and blown it out of all proportion. You want proof? Look at the election campaign, where Bush and Clinton have been usurped by an anti-politician boasting that he has "no policies . Or look at Faith No More, where an ill-matched band of misfits crank out blasphemous takes on Metal, funk, disco, Country, jazz . . . you name the generic sacred cow, hell, Faith No More have used and abused it for their own dubious ends. 'We Care A Lot'? Sure they do . . . And listen to 'Angel Dust', FNM's most outrageous grubby-faced smirk at the outside world yet. It's safe to say this is not the album their bank manager must have been . gleefully anticipating after 'The Real Thing', 'Epic' and a certifiable touring schedule had broken the band on to the MTV-sponsored popcorn circuit. Short on leadweighted, riffed-up chant-alongs and bursting with manic, nay, schizophrenic musical abandon, this is that most dangerous of items - the album we always-wanted-to-make album. In other words it's self-indulgent, messy, frequently incoherent and no doubt loses a lot in translation out of FNM's private domain. It's incredible, then, that 'Angel Dust' is as very good as it very often is. Expect the unexpected and you'll breeze it The curtain-raising 'Land Of Sunshine', with its symphonic strut and Roddy Bottum's garish keyboard trills, is pomp-rock as pedalled by a bunch of scornful, snotty kids. Tellingly, evil laughter buttresses the track and, as with the bulk of what follows, it's clear that Mike Patton has cemented his place in this most unforgiving of gangs by adding an impressive repertoire of voices to his original hack Metal whine. Clapped out crooner, hillbilly rasp, the odd basso profundo . . . the freaked-out geek skatekid's become a one-man karaoke machine indeed, 'RV's cocktail slouch could almost be a cruel Tom Waits parody-and this new depth to the vox manual goes a long way in explaining 'Angel Dust's compulsive flair. As 'Caffeine' and 'Malpractice' demonstrate, Faith No More can still crunch metal on to bone as horribly as anyone who chooses to disagree. Yet this is rock with vomit stains down its front and 'Angel Dust' really buzzes when FNM marry their sharp pop nous to the good ol' kitchen sink recording technique. 'Mid-life Crisis' is an itchy toed groover, built from a sample of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Cecilia', while 'Everything's Ruined' advances on a relentless bass keyboard momentum, via Jim Martin's cool axe solo, to the song's resigned, satisfying denouement. 'Be Aggressive', though, is the hysterical masterstroke, a brilliant scratch-funk celebration of cock-sucking" You're the master and I'll take it on my knees/ Ejaculation, tribulation/I swallow, I swallow, / SWALLOW!!!" that has a bunch of school-kids rapping out the chorus. Yup, Faith No More in up front pro-gay sex statement shocker! Just to settle once and for all that these cynical bastards can apparently do the lot, 'Angel Dust' closes with a perfectly respectful rendering of John Barry's 'Midnight Cowboy'. Laugh? You've got to, really. Faith No More don't care at all. Kerrang! | May 1992 | Don Kaye I CAN'T quite figure out how I feel about the new Faith No More album. It's been driving me schizophrenic, and slowly I've realised why: the album is possessed of a personality disorder, of sorts, which undermines its potential greatness. On 'The Real Thing', FNM reached a peak of immensely infectious pop songs in Metallic, often twisted jackets of sound and attitude. The result was so refreshing that they started a whole goddamn trend. I have no doubt that now, FNM want to avoid starting or following any new trends. The problem is that 'Angel Dust' catches the band unsure of whether they want to concentrate on great songs or quirkiness. A lot of 'Angel Dust' is hjt-or-miss. 'Be Aggressive' is a punchy, anthemic groove-rocker with a kinky cheerleader chorus and chunky, bad-ass guitar work. 'Small Victory' features an absolutely beautiful melody line from gyitarist Jim Martin and wistful vocals from Mike Patton.lt's; a powerful gem of a rock song and, like 'Be Aggressive', one of the hits. The misses are painfully pointless: the Tom Waits imitation on 'RV and the ultimately mundane noisefests that drag down the last quarter of the album, 'Crack Hitler' and 'Jizzlobber'. These are tracks that go so out of their way to be weird that they lose sight of strong arrangements or texture and just wallow in their own damage. Likewise, 'Malpractice' seems like a bunch of ominous riffs thrown together for little more than shock effect. There's still plenty to recommend on 'Angel Dust', however, including Roddy Bottum's rich, trademark keyboards which add welcome depth even to the weaker songs. Patton continues to don multiple disguises and finds a wider range, although he sometimes goes too much off in the deep end for his own good. In fact, the individual musicians all deliver stand-out performances. Faith No More must be applauded for being one of the most innovative rock bands of the past decade, and for their unrelenting quest to be as diverse and unique as possible. They also deserve kudos for not taking the easy way out this time by knocking off another 'Epic'. Nevertheless, even the groundbreakers hit rough spots. This is just one that Faith No More will doubtless overcome. All Music | Ned Raggett In 1992, Warner Bros. figured that lightning could strike twice at a time when oodles of (mostly horribly bad) funk-metal acts were following in Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' footsteps. They sent the former into the studio, where they went in, recorded, and released a bizarro masterpiece. Mike Patton's work in Mr. Bungle proved just how strange and inspired he could get given the opportunity, and with that try-anything-once spirit now brought to his similarly minded colleagues in his more famous act, nothing was ignored. "Land of Sunshine" starts things off in a similar enough vein to The Real Thing, but Patton's vocal role-playing comes out as smarter and more accomplished, with the lyrics trashing a totally smug bastard with pure inspired mockery. From there, Angel Dust steps up the meta-metal of earlier days with the expected puree of other influences, further touched by an almost cinematic sense of storming atmosphere. The fact that the album ends with a cover of John Barry's "Midnight Cowboy" suits the mood perfectly, but the stretched-out, tense moments on "Caffeine" and the soaring charge of "Everything's Ruined" makes for other good examples. A Kronos Quartet sample even crops up on the frazzled sprawl of "Malpractice." Other sampling and studio treatments come to the fore throughout, not in a specifically hip-hop/techno-oriented way, but more as strange cutups and additional quirks, such as the distorted voices on "Smaller and Smaller." The band's sense of humor crops up more than once -- there's the hilarious portrayal of prepubescent angst on "Kindergarten," made all the more entertaining by the music's straightforward approach, or the beyond-stereotypical white trash cornpone narration of "RV," all while the music breezily swings along. Patton's voice is stronger and downright smooth at many points throughout, the musicians collectively still know their stuff, and the result is twisted entertainment at its finest. Rolling Stone | 1992 Does emotional music have quite an effect on you?" asks singer Mike Patton on "Land of Sunshine," the first track on Faith No More's astonishing new album. That question is the perfect tag line for Angel Dust, a roiling, musically adventurous record that represents yet another leap forward for a combo that broke through by cramming together rap's vocal cadences, metal's brute force and progressive rock's pompous keyboards on "Epic," the hit single from its 1989 album The Real Thing. One thing's certain: Success hasn't made Faith No More complacent. From the art-damaged death metal of "Malpractice" and "Jizzlobber" to the madman-with-a-megaphone vocals on "Crack Hitler," the bizarre Tin Pan Alley/country hybrid "RV" and the jarring use of offbeat samples ("Smaller and Smaller" features an aboriginal chant), Angel Dust fairly explodes with the sound of genres colliding. The group once again shared production chores with Matt Wallace, and from the sound of things, the game plan was to create a rock equivalent to the dense soundscapes pioneered by the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's aptly named production team. Well, they succeeded. Angel Dust burns with an unholy intensity. One could quibble about the indecipherability of Patton's vocals, but he gets his point across more through attitude than literal meaning. A perusal of the lyric sheet sheds much heat and some light on matters, revealing a lot of opaque Beat poesy concerning stuff like the cyclical nature of parental failure and homosexual sadomasochism as a metaphor for God knows what, but titles like "Caffeine," "MidLife Crisis," "Everything's Ruined" and "Be Aggressive" pretty much clue you in as to where Patton's coming from. The album closes with an accordion-propelled version of John Barry's "Midnight Cowboy," its pensive melody providing a soothing contrast to the nerve-frazzling apocalyptic rock that precedes it. Angel Dust is Faith No More's most challenging effort to date. Those brave enough to sample its musical wares will be rewarded with a listening experience that's thoroughly exhilarating, absolutely mood altering and completely addictive. 1992 Musik Express - Album of the Year Sounds - Album of the Year Raw magazine - Albums of the Year #8 Vox - Albums of the Year #10 The Face - Albums of the Year #17 The Village Voice - Albums of the Year #26 Muziekkrant OOR - Albums of the Year #36 Q - Album of the Year 1995 Raw magazine - 90 Essential Albums of the 90s 1996 Visions - The Best Albums 1991-96 1999 Visions - The Most Important Albums of the 90s #22 2000 Terrorizer - The 100 Most Important Albums of the 90s 2002 Revolver United States - The 69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time #36 2003 Kerrang! - 50 Most Influential Albums of all Time #1 2006 Metal Hammer - The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s

The Story of how the astounding and inspiring album Angel Dust was recorded. Written with the help of the band, referencing interviews with the five members and those who were involved. 1991 The Beginning As they entered 1991 Faith No More were celebrated musicians, band of the year for many including RIP and Kerrang! magazine. Promoting their acclaimed album The Real Thing had kept the band out on the road for two years and attention from the press and fans alike had left them with little room to breathe never mind write new music. However their work schedule this year was much more relaxed with only a handful of shows. This allowed the band to step back from the chaos and formulate ideas for their next album. Unlike TRT, which included ideas written as early as 1983, Angel Dust would comprise mainly of fresh material written specifically for this record. Writing began during their first South America tour, three weeks after the band returned to San Francisco Bill Gould, Roddy Bottum and Mike Bordin entered the rehearsal studio to create what would become some of the most remarkable work of their careers. Bill had been hanging out with Jello Bafra and the Mexican death metal outfit Brujeria, whilst also taking inspiration from easy listening music. Whereas Roddy found inspiration from electronic pop and techno sounds. Of course Mike Patton never rests and he had become involved with the avant guarde scene. Spending time with John Zorn, performing with Naked City and recording the Mr. Bungle debut album. Influences cited by the band included Godflesh, Ween, Young Gods, The Sugarcubes and Henry Mancini's soundtracks. As the AD demos arrived, Patton found solitude to embark on various experiments finding inspiration to pen some of his most creative lyrics ever. Jim Martin found the new ideas difficult to work with and abandoned rehearsals for some r n' r in his truck. Early versions of RV, Caffeine and The World Is Yours were added to the set list for a few shows on their return to Brazil and their first ever shows in Tokyo later in the year. "The last record kind of cleared our minds out, and then we just started playing again, just started jamming new stuff, with bass lines and melodies and rhythms, and that's how it started. Keyboards, bass and drums, definitely. Most of the stuff started there, but there's also stuff that started with Mike Patton, there's also stuff that stared with Jim, but most of the permutations are keyboard-bass, keyboards drums, drums - keyboard, you know, it happens a lot that way, because we were the ones that were here, we were the ones that came to practise a lot and were really interested and really pushing forward and really kind of challenging ourselves." - Mike Bordin 1992 With a larger budget and more freedom allowed to them by the record company FNM took residence in Coast Recorders studio, San Francisco in December 1991. Matt Wallace returned to produce his fourth album with the band. "He has a hands-off sort of thing with us and just lets us do what we want. which is really important. Since he's worked with us before he's just as much a candidate for torture as the rest of us and that's a comforting thing." - Mike Patton "He tries to get a good sound, and I think that's what he ought to do. We hopefully have it reasonably together by the time we go into the studio, you know we have a reasonable idea of what we want to do, so I think it's harder for him to monkey with it. With five guys in the band that's enough monkeying. We worked on everything with him, and it's gotten better every time, it's much closer than it ever has been to sounding the way we feel we sound, it's not easy with the keyboards and guitar and a lot of bass and a lot of drums, it's not easy balancing them." - Mike Bordin "From my perspective, as co-producer, engineer, and mixer, I was, in my own way, really distancing myself from the sonics of TRT as I felt that it was thin, over compressed, and had too much high end (although this all worked in our favor on radio and MTV). So, I endeavoured to try and create a much fuller, more natural sounding record." - Matt Wallace 2012 Matt found the recording of AD such a difficult experience that he had to take time off after the album was finished and distance himself form FNM, but he was proud of the result. "At the end of Angel Dust, because it was such a difficult record to make, there was pretty severe acrimony within the band, certainly between everyone and Jim, and there were some really heated arguments. Roddy was having his own struggles with some addiction issues, we were at a recording studio that really wasn’t supportive at all, I had to basically produce, engineer, assistant engineer and answer the phones, and it was a really stressful record to make. So at the end of it I took off for a couple of months and said, “I’m done with this music thing for a while,” and at the end of that record I said to those guys, “Listen, I think it’s time for you to find a new producer, a new guitarist or both." - Matt Wallace 2015 FNM's intention was not necessarily to compose an album that would confuse fans, but an intelligent progression that would challenge themselves and the listener. However the result would be disconcerting for many. They confessed that they "learnt how to hear what was inside our heads and play it". "I like being there every day when we record. I like being around a lot. But the bottom line is that it's a vote. The majority gets what they want in the studio or anywhere else." - Bill Gould 1992 "When it comes to writing songs, the material is something we do unconsciously. We're musicians and we're in a band and we write songs - it's not something that we analyse. It's hard to analyse what you do naturally, it's really kinda difficult. It's especially difficult to say it in an interesting way because it's a little too close. It seems natural, it's what we do naturally." - Bill Gould 1992 Alienating Your Public "There will be no middle ground for this album. It's either gonna be absolutely huge or it'll be a total fucking flop." - Bill Gould 1992 To add to their already huge fan base (and put cash in the bank), the easiest thing to do would be for the band to continue in the same vein as The Real Thing with an album of 'Epic part 2's'. But this is FNM.....five incredibly unique individuals thrown together with explosive results and they have never done things easy. FNM have always enjoyed provoking a reaction whether it be positive or negative. When the crowd would chant for them to play their cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs, they responded with a perfect rendition of The Commodores classic Easy instead, grinning down at the indigent masses. The diverse musical content of AD was an obvious departure from the album that had gained them that fan base. Which is exactly what the band intended, TRT had been forced into a pigeonhole and tagged 'funk metal' by the press who had no other way of classifying its unique sound. In some ways FNM deliberately tried to distance themselves from this and the crowd it had attracted by creating a record which was much more challenging, but for the most part it was simply the direction the music had naturally taken. "This whole Funk Metal thing is really disgusting. The last thing I ever want to be in is a Funk Metal band - we're gonna try to be anything except that!.... I would say that any band which plays Funk Metal, I hate, and would safely say that most of the band feel the same way." - Bill Gould 1992 The band knew this disposal of a tried and tested successful songwriting formula would test their fan base, in fact they were sure that people would hate the new record and joked that it should be titled 'Alienating Your Public'. "Probably this new stuff is a little weirder than our last record just to confuse our fans and alienate our public. At least that's what we've been accused of. It's not really an attempt to push any kind of point, it's just music that we wrote." - Roddy Bottum 1992 "I shouldn't say that we're happy to piss people off. It's just that we want to do what we want - and not necessarily what they expect. Anyone who expects this record to be The Real Thing Part II had better wake up! I know some fans who are already pissed off about it." - Mike Patton 1992 The band kept the music from record company execs at Slash until the mixing stage and when they finally heard AD they too were incredibly worried about the direction their investment had taken. "The record company president came in the studio and said: “I hope nobody bought houses” All the air got sucked out of the room. That was one of those great moments when reality slaps you in the face. Some of my associates (had) bought houses." - Jim Martin 2012 "The record company got really scared when they heard the finished album. That was the only way we knew we'd done something right. If they'd liked it then something would be wrong. There were a lot of worried faces before we started mixing." - Roddy Bottum 1992 "Don't you think it's great to see someone twitch? You know, they get really nervous? That happened with our record company. They tried working on each of us individually, persuading us that we didn't know what we were doing. They said it would alienate fans of 'The Real Thing' Ideally they'd like another 'Epic' on there somewhere." - Mike Patton 1992 "They left us alone for the whole recording and then when we were just about to come to mix, there was suddenly this concern that they didn't know how to market it. They didn't really understand it and who did we think we were making a record like this! Basically, it's a cheap tactic to try and get you worried and feeling insecure about your own work, to have to justify your work to them. You shouldn't have to do that but by the same token, you have to work with these people because they sell your records, so they have to understand at least a smidgeon of what you're doing." - Mike Patton 1992 This indifference did not in any way perturb FNM, they were proud of AD. "I think this record takes us a step further. It shows us as a more confident unit and [that] we're still learning and growing. This is a definite progression. This time we just wanted to make an even better record and not necessarily follow the guidelines that the press and others tried to lay on. We really tried to dig inside ourselves and bring something out that was challenging, confrontational and extremely unique. I'm very pleased with it." - Mike Bordin 1992 So what was so different? The album is more theatrical. The songs were fragmented, instead of following at traditional verse/chorus/middle eight structure each composition on the album was a journey often with several opposing sections where the music would radically change in a similar way to a classical overture. Yes there were still incredibly addictive melodies but also furious riffs, drones and schizophrenic shifts in mood. Roddy experimented with his sounds like never before and a host of samples from a varied sources. Guitar solos were limited, in some places the riffs were brutally exposed in others barely audible. The vocals were much more complex, Patton using his formidable vocal range to its full extent and his lyrics were more disturbing and contrived. The album was not a complete digression from its predecessor, it simply pushed the boundaries much further. "We're the same band making another record, and if people say it sounds a little different then obviously we're doing something right. We're doing the same thing we always do, but we're making it interesting enough that people realise it." - Bill Gould 1992 "I would say 'Surprise! You're Dead' was one of the more extreme things on the last record. There are things on this that are so extreme in the opposite direction that I think they'll freak people out: also stuff in the same direction, but pushed way further. I mean. you can't really put your finger on what's disturbing about it and I think that is what's disturbing about it. so it's a good thing." "I think we've stretched what we are to an absurd level this time, which is great. I think we would all be really happy if people took this record home and went, 'What the hell is this?!' I think that's gonna happen-- and I think that's a good thing. The record company tried to turn the screws a little tighter this time around, I have to admit. There are a lot of samples, which was one of the things that kinda freaked them out." He mimics a concerned exec: "'Gee, there's a lotta *sampling* on this! Don't you think a ROCK audience would be CONFUSED by this SAMPLING thing?'" - Mike Patton 1992 "It's just weirder. The record company said it was 'a little bit too far left-field' That means it's less rock. They also accused of us 'gratuitous sampling'". - Roddy Bottum 1992 "What was that great phrase they used? 'Too much role-playing in the vocals'? That was their fault anyway!" - Mike Patton 1992 The Metamorphosis Of Mike Patton "A singer is the is the same as an actor. People Shouldn't take what singers say so seriously." - Roddy Bottum 1992 It's no secret that during the promotional tours of The Real Thing Patton found it difficult to adjust to his new way of life. His distaste for everything was apparent. He rubbed against his fellow band members and the press, behaving like a spoilt brat and constantly suggesting he was about to leave the band at any time to concentrate on Mr. Bungle. "That was in the period I gave a lot of interviews that I shouldn't have given. I was fed up with Faith No More. Nobody bought our albums and we just kept touring. I was disillusioned. When you're touring, sometimes as a band you get the feeling you're living like rats. You're kept busy and stupid temporarily. You're treated like a pimp treats a whore. And if you don't want to be a part of that, it gets frustrating. We needed people to bang our heads against the wall. I wanted to crawl away. That's why I was delighted to record an album with Mr. Bungle. The interviews I did during that time were pretty negative. I said things like: Faith No More is like a job to me. Because I felt like that. But I don't think I portrayed myself correctly; It made me look like a spoilt son-of-a-bitch more than anything else." "In the end I got what I wanted. And that's good, because being in two bands at the same time is great. It isn't a threat. It's more like a physical need: I found I had to do more. You eat a little too much and then you have to shit some more." - Mike Patton 1992 Over the course of 1991 a transformation began. His attitude became more relaxed, it seemed he had come to terms with being a part of FNM and was comfortable in his role. His hobbies became more mature, albeit still rather twisted. "In a relationship, in the beginning, there's inhibitions. After a while, all of those things fall apart, and that's how you get comfortable with somebody. I think that's probably how it happened. You learn how to fart and cuss in front of them. That's healthy. The way the band operates, politically, is, whoever steps out of line, everyone pounces on him. So if you're constantly afraid of doing something, nothing gets done. When everybody gets a little more comfortable, you can pull out any idea, and it can be manipulated, raped, made fun of, whatever. But still ... that's OK. Because that's how shit gets created; I'm convinced of that." - Mike Patton 1993 "I never knew what kind of band it was. We became a hard rock band by default, it was an accident, but the beautiful thing was that we all knew. We could look at each other and say however bad it got, however much of a pet monkey we became, however much of a pet funk-metal rock band we were, there were 4 other guys who have to deal with it to. And each guy dealt with it in their own little way. There had never been any question of my staying in the band. We started writing the music for this album, and being a part of something so fundamental was what made sure of it for me. The Real Thing' had been like someone'else's music, someone else's band, it had felt like an obligatory thing. They hadn't needed a damn singer, it was just that they had to have a singer. That's why I was there, that's why Chuck was there, we weren't needed we were there." "Before this album I still threw ideas out, whether that be fool's courage or whatever, so I always had the courage. It was just the fact we started from the pot in the middle where everybody pees into it. We'd done our time, so it felt like we'd been in jail with someone for a while. Like a junkie, it doesn't matter whether you agree with someone's way of thought, what they do for a living or what they do in their spare time, it doesn't matter because whatever it was you were there. Proximity made it happen. And now, of course, we're kinda friends in a weird sort of way." - Mike Patton The Real Story 1994 The change in his appearance was also apparent and the first promo shots in 1992 proved that the hair metal poster boy was gone, and replaced with the look of a serious frontman. However the most noticeable development was in his voice the funk derived nasal sound that had brought him so much attention on TRT had gone so was the rapping. We would hear his natural singing voice and the extremity of what he was capable of achieving with his vocal chords. Growls, screams, squeals, heavy breathing....the list is endless. Kerrang 431 Have you noticed how much more a part of FNM Mike Patton has now become? Patton's development seems to have escaped press probings. The piss-drinking, the tampon-munching, the lurches, the screams, the insults, the jokes, the lyrics, the dark side of 1989s pin-up. He has become the definition for mischievous, curious and warped youths worldwide, a man who will try anything just for, the hell of it. But the biggest strides Patton made were in actually becoming a happy member of Faith No More. When did this penny drop? "At first, the fruit wasn't ripe," trills Patton obliquely, "but it got riper and riper, and now it tastes really good. But the actual point at which everything finally clicked is hard to pin down. One thing about this band is that there's many things we've either not had the courage or the means to do before; but we're beginning to care less how we're perceived and to just get on with things." It's probably easier for him now, looking back, to work out why he was so antagonistic when he first joined FNM. "The truth is, there were certain things I wanted to know about the band, and I also saw a lot of things I didn't wanna know, so I ignored them. Rather than confronting issues, I found it much easier to ignore them." Was becoming the Metal pin-up kid of 1989 the sort of thing we're talking about? "Definitely!" So your belligerence and antagonism were just to get you through? "That stuff was just instinct. When you enter a volatile situation, with the whole thing spiralling towards the toilet, you just stir it a little more. With this LP, we were all spiralling in the same direction at last." Were you encouraged to express your weirder, more f**ked-up ideas on the record, such as on Malpractice and RV? "It's not really aggression, it's just feeling comfortable, being able to unload everything. There was just a better forum for extremes." Did you re-invent yourself, with the new haircut, the uglier tones, the darker personae than in the smooth, white pretty boy of yore? "We'd better talk to the psychiatrist!" So there was no conscious effort to say, f**k this, I'll never be a magazine pretty boy again'? "Nothing conscious. Certain things just happen naturally. When you've toured for two years and you're trapped in a time capsule, you come back f**ked up." Was there this bitterness of 'missing your youth'? "No, it's just that you get to feel like a rat sometimes, because all you can do is run along with it, chasing the trail of cheese. In the end, you lose dignity - you really do. You end up convincing yourself that you have control when you just don't." So why is it so much easier now than before? "Explaining that would be like sitting down with your Mom and explaining why you farted at the dinner table three years ago!" Is it therapeutic dealing with characters in songs, getting your anger out? "No, because sometimes it isn't good to have that shit out in the open." He sighs deeply before smirking, "There's this myth about lyricists and singers, that they're always 'projecting their inner-most secrets', which is horse-shit. Singers are the WORST! They can't hide behind instruments..." Matt Wallace was in awe of Patton's development, from TRT to AD. "For me, the big change within Patton was that during The Real Thing, he was still not 100 percent committed to Faith No More, and this is my own reading, I could be wrong, but I think his way of protecting himself and feeling like he was still part of Bungle was that he took on almost a different persona on The Real Thing, which made it easy to say, “Yeah, I’m in this band, but I’m not really in it.” But once Angel Dust came around, Patton was much more involved in the genesis of the songs, he was there during the inception, during the writing, he was there guiding the arrangements, and I think he became much more involved and invested in that record. So at that point, I think he really came to the forefront of what he could do, which is use his voice as an instrument, sing fully and deeply and use every spectrum of his vocal range, and that was really exciting. And he was listening to a bunch of Tibetan chanting, Eskimo nose singing, all these things, and he’d bring these different ideas into the record within the context of a heavy rock, alternative, progressive band, he was bringing his ideas on how his vocals should go. And it was really forward-thinking, because a lot of bands, after that record, kind of followed in his footsteps, because Patton was unafraid to try different things, whether it was a different vocal approach or a different lyric, some of the lyrics are pretty challenging. I thought it was really stunning that he came to the forefront and grabbed the flag. That was a thrill, that whole record was a thrill to make." - Matt Wallace 2015 When he had joined FNM in 1988 the music for TRT was completed and he wrote the accompanying melodies and lyrics in the space of two weeks. During the groundwork for AD Patton was involved from the outset and his approach to lyric writing had developed.The invention of characters and role-play he had experimented with in the songs Edge Of the World and Zombie Eaters was now a fully fledged art form. "I don't think we have an obligation to clarify ourselves through our lyrics. Or even take a standpoint. All five of us simply couldn't agree on any standpoint. If one of use gets a little too outspoken, he's probably lynched by the others. About the lyrics: it's almost a pity they're printed on the sleeve. Because the public expects a revelation. That the lyrics will say something about our past, our lives. And to make that kind of connection via some lyric is almost dangerous." - Mike Patton 1992 The Problem With Jim Martin "I'm not trying to do anything different, I'm just trying to play these songs the way I see 'em, the way it should go. We're not reinventing ourselves, I'll tell you that, we're just going along as we can. Anything we play will pretty much sound like us, so don't let any of that 'doing something new' bullshit creep in because that's a load of f**king crap!" - Jim Martin 1992 FNM have always thrived from their conflicting personalities and ideas of what their music should sound like, this unlikely union has always produced wonderful results. During the making of IY tensions ran high between Chuck Mosley and the other band members, whilst on tour promoting TRT Mike B fell victim to the other members poking fun. Jim's attitude towards AD was strained from the beginning and he seemed disagreeable with everything from the songs, to the recording, to the album title. The fracture between him and the other four members began during the writing of AD. His father had died in the weeks before rehearsals started, the band moved their studio space from San Francisco to Oakland to accommodate him however Jim still decided not to attend. "It was frustrating, the bottom line was that Jim’s dad had died three weeks before we started making that record, and the guys in the band and myself were saying, “Why don’t we take a pause on this thing, let’s regroup in a few months, give you some time to grieve your dad and let that settle,” but he comes from a more macho approach to life and said, “No, don’t talk about my personal shit, we’re going to make this record.” So the band had a rehearsal place in Oakland, which was a trek for them because they were in San Francisco, and Jim just wasn’t available in a lot of ways." - Matt Wallace 2015 He would therefore work on his guitar parts in at home. "It makes for a weird tension. He's working on stuff at home but you visualise everything, including the guitar, when you write the song. And then it comes back different to your perception - but if the person isn't there from day one they can't be expected to read your mind." - Bill Gould 1992 "Jim and I are absolute extremes. To enable the scales to keep balanced, the further I go in my direction, the further he has to go in his. If he stays where he is and I continue to go further, then things will go off-kilter. On the last album, he kinda stayed where he was: it wasn't only that he didn't produce a whole lot of material. So as things stand now, we're a little off-kilter but we'll work it out that. " - Roddy Bottum 1993 Due to his absence during the song writing Jim found it difficult to understand what direction the others were taking, he felt the music was "very contrived and I thought that the band was trying too hard. It took me a while to figure out where I was going to fit in". So much that Bill contributed guitar to some of the album. "The only real struggle that we had was with the guitar parts. We sort of panicked because Jim wasn't really understanding some of the things that we were doing, so we did them ourselves. Some of the guitar parts, our bass player Bill played." - Mike Patton 1992 "The guitar parts are mine; that’s me playing guitar on all the tracks. I contributed much to the songwriting and arrangements. Bill added some fluff to 'Midlife Crisis' and 'Midnite Cowboy'." "There was a lot of weird pressure to follow up The Real Thing, and as a consequence, the album AD was more contrived musically than I thought was necessary. I wanted more of the record to happen in the studio and Bill wanted every last tack nailed down before we went in. I wanted to spend time with it, management and the record company wanted to rush it out the door. " - Jim Martin 2012 "He kept calling the record “Gay Disco” - every time they’d play something, he’d say, [dismissively] “Eh, this is a bunch of gay disco.” And I’d say, [agitated:] “Dude if you put your fuckn’ big guitar in it, it won’t be quote-unquote ‘gay disco.’ I need you to jump onboard and do this.” So it almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy for Jim, because he didn’t invest the way I was hoping he would. He’d do these guitar parts, and the band would come in the next day and they’d listen and the parts would be serious, but they wanted him to be Jim Martin and do his thing. So there were a lot of yelling matches and people disagreeing with each other. It was pretty ugly." - Matt Wallace 2015 The recording process was even more torturous, the rift between him and the band had escalated and tempers ran high. "It's been an unpleasant experience from the very beginning! It's been very unpleasant, but not really much different to my experiences in making records with Faith No More before. It's always been a very unpleasant experience - a lot of people scrambling to get henchmen on their side to play silly games, to blow smoke on a situation." - Jim Martin 1992 "This album has taken so long to record... God, it's been almost eighteen months - you can't believe the torment I've been through man. It's not supposed to be like that, not supposed to be that hard. Took too damn long... I'm gonna make sure that doesn't happen again. I'm gonna take some recording gear out on the road with me soon as possible, and start working on new songs straightaway. See if I can come up with some real sick single again." - Jim Martin 1992 Not everything on AD offended Jim, he was very complimentary of Patton's vocals and lyrics. And even though the guitar is much less prominent than on previous FNM records it suits the overall flavour. When the guitar fights it way into the limelight it is in places extraordinarily ferocious and in others delightfully melodic. AD has very few solos, but the riffs are tremendous. "When I'm involved in the writing of a song, I write for the guitar. I wish we always did it that way, but on this album a lot of keyboard parts were written first, so I "was actually trying to write my guitar lines to match—to "toughen" them, as you said. It's definitely challenging—and, after much noodling around, I usually end up using the simplest possible thing." - Jim Martin 1992 A Beautiful Name For A Hideous Drug The title Angel Dust was Roddy's idea and was decided upon early on in the recording. There are no connections to the drug itself only that it is "just a really beautiful name for a really hideous drug." The album cover is a photograph of a snowy egret in pre flight by Werner Krutein and the reverse a cows head and meat hanging in an abattoir by Mark Burnstein. The title and these images illustrated the extremes of beauty and the grotesque mirrored in their music. "It has more to do with: the band itself, the sound of the band, the sound of the record, the songs on the record, the title, and the cover, going from wide to narrow. The band I think has many elements, some heavy, some beautiful. The record is balanced I think between some things that are really aggressive and disturbing and then really soothing. The title of the record is something that if you didn't know what it was--if you didn't know about any drugs--it would sound beautiful. It's just something that seems beautiful but is horrible. The front cover is something beautiful, put it with the back cover and you've got something disturbing. That's what we wanted. The record cover and layout was designed by us and put together by us." - Mike Bordin 1992 At the time Jim was opposed to the title of the record but he explained further in 2012, also how he was responsible for the photo of the band's heads superimposed on Russian soldiers in Red Square. "The idea was Roddy’s, and nobody else had anything to do with it either. He came in with a basic concept of a bird front, meat locker back, and Angel Dust for the title. The question was: “How do we get it (Roddy’s idea) to the record cover?” We lost control of the sleeve art on the last 2 releases. The Real Thing and Introduce Yourself were conceived and designed by “the record company” and we simply paid the bill. This was an opportunity of artistic expression and finally one of us had an idea everyone would go along with. I got in contact with Mark Leialoha to discuss the idea, he got Werner “Vern” Krutein involved because Werner ran a stock agency and was able to produce the necessary photographs allowing us to realize Roddy’s idea. I had the idea of the Russian army in the sleeve, inspired by The Pogues album “Rum Sodomy and The Lash” which I was really into at the time. I rode hard on that and made sure it happened the way WE wanted it to happen. There was a lot of squealing when it came time to pay the bill, but at the end of the day, we retained control of our resources, we were able to use our people, and we maintained creative control." - Jim Martin 2012 "It was just pure 'we don't want to sit for busts', you know? It's bullshit, man. That was a thing the record company really tried to foist on us. They really tried to fuck with our layout, and sent us these fucking pictures of us, just our heads. It was like this, they wanted us to have a poster inside the record consisted of our five heads on a black background, everything was black, the whole inside, and it's like, 'Fuck you.' We're going to make our cover, we made our record, we produced it our way, we wrote our songs, we played them our way, it sounds like us. We got our cover FINALLY, we got our artwork FINALLY, fuck you. If you let them do it, they'll do it. That's why they pay people in the art department, that's why they pay graphics people. And in some ways it can be really helpful, in some ways it can be really good. Ultimately, what I see I really like. We told them what we wanted, we actually got to the point where we had to sketch it out, but they made it real for us and I really appreciate that. We have five people, that's enough opinions, I said it about the producer, I'll say it about he record company, that's enough. We co-produced it, more so tone-wise than balance-wise, proportion-wise. We were all really concerned about the actual sound of the record., and that's really where you can make a difference. To me that Russian picture's like a Monty Python where you see a guy's head, a monster comes by and picks it up and Ptock! puts it somewhere. It's not 'We're the most important people in the world.'" - Mike Bordin 1992 Land Of Sunshine Working Title | The Funk Song "I love it, it's really uplifting. Almost angelic." - Roddy Bottum 1992 The opening track from AD follows the FNM tradition for introducing their record with an upbeat and riotous burst of energy. The familiar funky repetitive bass line and off kilter drums are not dissimilar from previous albums.The keyboard riffs provide light relief from the harsh guitar tones putting us in mind of a carnival, which of course draws comparisons to Mr. Bungle. Patton describes the song as a "totally disgusting, grotesquely positive song" and even though the lyrics are joyful enough the vocal delivery is in sarcastic tones. The theme of the song sets the scene for the rest of the album which seems to be with growing old ungracefully. Patton has been quite open on how the lyrics for this song were written. It was conceived during a sleep deprivation experiment, in which Patton stayed awake for three days drinking coffee and immersing himself in late night TV shows and "bought bags and bags of fortune cookies". "There's these late night TV programmes that you can watch in America, they're like seminars where they teach you how to think positively and strive for your goals. It's a huge scam, it's great. I tried really hard at that and I'm still working on it." - Mike Patton 1992 When asked if he was particularly proud of any lyrics on AD he said, "Maybe Land Of Sunshine because it talks about some of my favourite late-night TV heroes, guys like Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker who does those half-hour commercials where he wants you to buy his whole seminar package, and of course, my real hero, Robert Tilton, the preacher. Nothing and no one can touch Robert Tilton! 20/20 did an expose on him, and he just blew 'em off. That's a very positive song." - Mike Patton 1992 "He's quite a guy. You may have seen the Dallas-based preacher: He asks you to put your hand on the television set and he'll heal you through the power of TV. using the demon spirit of television to cut off the devil's head . . . We're going to visit his church when we go to Dallas.!" - Mike Patton Several lines from are lifted straight from aphorisms found in fortune cookies. Life to you is a dashing bold adventure Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling upon you You have a winning way so keep it You are an angel heading for a land of sunshine Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a handshake And committed to the overall idea of positive thinking some lines are taken from personality tests written by founder of the Church of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard. Do you often sing or whistle just for the fun of it? Does life seem worthwhile? Does emotional music have quite an effect on you? Do you sometimes feel that your age is against you? Caffeine Working Title | Triplet "He actually sings, crooning style, on 'Caffeine,' sounding a bit like Sly Stone trapped in a little one-man submarine." - Music express 1992 A rather menacing sample from the animal pound of dogs howling introduces this complex song. The guitar is brutal, the keys atmospheric and dream-like, the drums roll effortlessly across the waltz time signature. Patton switches between snarls and blasts of .... with a harsh whisper here and there. The lyrics were again written during Patton's sleep deprivation experiment somewhere during day three he began to hallucinate and pay homage to the only stimulant he has admitted to using, "In Eureka you drink so much coffee, you try and make believe there's something to do." In fact in 1992 one rarely saw the singer without a coffee in his hand! Midlife Crisis Working Title | Madonna 'On 'Midlife Crisis' Patton starts with a snide, sibilant rap, swoons upward in a jazzy, Al Jarreau-ish arc, then slugs it out in a close combat cut and thrust that's pure hardcore. The lyrics lash and lambaste some middle-class, lard ass, play-safe type who's built up a cocoon of security and comfort. The line 'Your menstruating heart' - doubtless aimed at 'wet liberals' and people who profess to care a lot - is deeply revealing. For FNM, feelings of tenderness, empathy and solidarity are threatening, female and fluid, a loathsome discharge.' - Melody Maker Bill spoke about the writing process of the song in 1998. "Everybody's responsible for this one. It was a keyboard part that started it....it was a period of time when everyone was waiting for us to come up with another record and promising us the world. All we had to do is what we do, but the way they saw we were a little defiant, which I think the lyrics reflect in a way. From my position I wanted to do a song that had only one note to the whole thing, but would still be a song. So I wanted it to have one bass part that never changed. It wasn't until we recorded it that our producer saw where I was trying to go, but at the time it seemed like shooting yourself in the foot y'know." - Bill Gould 1998 Patton gave us a little insight into the lyrics. "The song is based on a lot of observation and a lot of speculation. But in sort of a pointed way its kind of about Madonna...I think it was a particular time where I was being bombarded with her image on TV and in magazines and her whole schtick kind of speaks to me in that way...like she's going through some sort of problem. It seems she's getting a bit desperate." - Mike Patton 1992 Full MIDLIFE CRISIS 25 YEARS article HERE. RV Working Title | Country And Western One of the most curious songs on the album, and one of the first to be written. A perfect country and western ditty twisted hideously to fit the FNM manner. "It started out as a piano thing I was doing, then Billy and I just started playing around with it and we finished it when we were on tour in Brazil and started playing it live." - Roddy Bottum 1992 The most obvious example of Patton inhabiting a character to deliver his lyrics, in this case disgusting, middle-aged and heavy-set trailer trash. "The words are really messed up, it's the white trash saga: You wake up. you do nothing and you talk a lot of shit .. . and that's what the song does. A lot of the tunes are like character sketches. I don't see anything wrong with that. A lot of people maybe will want to give me shit for that." - Mike Patton 1992 "R.V. means recreational vehicle. A typical part of American culture: people live in holiday caravans. We call them white trash. In America, everyone knows someone who lives in an R.V. These people are looked down upon, while everyone knows they're part of society. These people are usually fat, watch TV all day, and eat TV dinners. The song R.V. is almost a mark of honour to those pigs. My family's like that. The kind of people who stay inside these caravans all day and complain: nobody speaks English anymore. No one listens to them, they're only talking to themselves. The song is a profile of the average redneck mentality." - Mike Patton 1992 Smaller And Smaller Working Title | Arabian Song All the incomparable and familiar FNM ingredients are present; catchy keyboard melodies and atmospheric strings, palpitating no-nonsense rhythms, grinding guitars and vocals that shift between singing and squeals. "I didn't really know what I was doing. The whole song sounded Middle Eastern to me, so I just noodled up and down the fretboard until I found the sound which I heard in my head. That's what I always do. I'm not a very schooled player." - Jim Martin 1992 There is a middle section loaded with samples, in particular wonderfully placed native Indian chanting. "....shameless culture rape. We decided to take an Indian chant and fuck it up, sort of a Dances With Wolves aesthetic." - Mike Patton 1992 Bill addressed the question as to why FNM were not particularly attached to this song and have never played the track live. "Well, to us, FNM is like two different bands; one exists to write and record music, the other is a live band that tries to make a 70-90 min set as powerful as possible. For some reason or another, we tend to gravitate towards what is called 'mid-tempo' in our writing...in other words, songs that are not fast, but not exactly ballads either. This is all great to listen to, but when it comes to playing live, too many mid-tempo songs make the set really boring, for us, and for the crowd. Believe, when it happens, it sucks!! Our worst nightmare is being in the middle of a set and losing momentum...at that point it becomes hard work and little fun. "Smaller and Smaller" while pretty grandiose in concept, always felt too long and too...plodding...to even consider doing live. And truth be told, we were never quite as attached to that one as some of the others...." - Bill Gould 2012 Everything's Ruined Working Title | The Carpenters Song A wonderful song of contrasting moods, euphoric choruses and melancholy verse. Also one of the only songs on the record to feature a full length guitar solo. "There are some very strange songs on this record. A lot of them have a lot of despair in them, they're very disturbing. Everything's Ruined is a good example of that. It's one of the more straight-forward rockers we have on this album. Compare it to something like Surprise You're Dead from the last album. I think you'll see how we've changed. You can't put your finger on it, but it's there. We're getting better at playing what we're visualising." - Mike Patton 1992 Patton explained the working title's reference to easy-listening music. "One thing I've been doing is listening to a lot of mood music, easy listening. And I've taken a lot from that. The chorus of 'Everything's Ruined' reminds me of Sinatra, Jackie Gleason." - Mike Patton 1992 Malpractice Working Title | Patton's Song "It kinda sounds like death metal movie music." - Mike Patton A terrifying and cinematic composition written solely by Patton. His unusual songwriting technique of complex sections mixes chugging industrial metal riffs and an eerie music box. A perfect musical nightmare. In 1992 Patton spoke about about his songwriting style working with FNM. "It was strange for me because I had spent every musical moment with the Bungle guys, and we have our own thing - we're Nintendo kids, so we get into a studio and there are all these little knobs,!and we've just gotta play with the dials and push the buttons. [Mr.Bungle] basically doesn't know how to write songs - they're like A-B-C-X! - so it was weird for me to try and put something over a song that was really linear, and very verse/chorus/verse/chorus. So I think I did what was really...obvious. That's fine, but since then, I've definitely vowed to spend a lot more time and put a lot more into anything I do." - Mike Patton 1992 The lyrics are some Gothic horror story of surgery played out by yet another of Patton's twisted characters. "Alright, there's this one song I wrote about a lady who goes to a surgeon and she's getting operated on and she realizes she likes the surgeon's hand inside of her. She doesn't even care about being cured, she just wants someone's hands inside of her - she gets addicted to that." - Mike Patton 1992 "I feel like I'm basically an actor in a play on that song, because Mike wrote it and I essentially had no input; I'm just playing his part. I usually write my own guitar parts, and I don't think I would have come up with anything quite like that." - Jim Martin Kindergarten Working Title | F Sharp A great example of FNM's songwriting twists by placing unexpected major to minor chords. The song has a wonderful bass solo in which we hear Bill twistings sounds into strange shapes. Following the reoccurring theme of age on this album, the lyrics take one back to the school playground. Be Aggressive Working Title | I Swallow Described by Bill as 'homoerotic Steppenwolf', with hallelujah Hammond organ, thumping bass lines and wah wah guitar. The chorus borrows lines from Sugarhill Gang's 1983 song Winner Is and quite perversely includes cheerleaders (girl friends of the band) chanting the now immortal lines 'B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E'. "What I like about 'Be Aggressive' is that even though it's macho in a homosexual way, lots of FNM listeners probably imagine that it is a woman who is getting down on her knees and swallowing rather than a man. I guess it's easier for people to understand and deal with it that way." - Roddy Bottum 1992 The words were written by Roddy prior to him confirming his sexually publicly. And describe a graphic sexual encounter of fellatio. "I think we both kind of hated the song to the point where lyrics were needed and he didn't want to write them. So I gave it a go." - Roddy Bottum 1992 "Did you hear the lyrics on 'Be Aggressive'? What'd you think? Pretty fuckin' extreme, isn't it? Did you think it was a homoerotic song or something? That's what's gonna be good about it. I think certain people are gonna be really vocal about it, like 'What the hell is that?!' And others'll be so weirded out by it they won't say anything." - Roddy Bottum 1992 "Yeah! I mean, HELLO, WAKE UP! When we wrote that song we were all very aware of the lyrics, we had it all in check and then the issue has never come up. It's so funny, no-one ever even asked us about it. It's the same thing, we just expect a lot more from people." - Roddy Bottum 1993 Matt Wallace commented on his respect for Patton's delivery of these lyrics. "They would go in any direction, they weren’t a heavy rock or metal band, they did have that element to what they were doing, but then you go to “Be Aggressive,” there’s no heavy rock band I know that would sing that song in a million years because it’s a song about being gay, basically, and Patton would boldly go in those directions." - Matt Wallace 2015 A Small Victory Working Title | Japanese "Seems to run Madame Butterfly through Metallica and Nile Rodgers." - Trouser Press An ambitious and dramatic song the oriental keyboard and guitar duet sweeping in melodic spirals.The main vocal line is the closest to Patton TRT voice on AD. In the song there are several sections where the band's experimental genius stands out. These sections include an array of samples taken from many sources (including Right Said Fred, Diamanda Galás and The Wizard of Oz) that would be at home in any pop dance number. "The break in 'A Small Victory' is very typical of using sound sources and being a more rhythmic keyboard player. In that particular song, the sound sources were things as opposed to programs, strings or pianos. Most of that stuff was recorded with a DAT player, just whilst wandering out and about, and then I put them into the keyboard itself." - Roddy Bottum Patton revealed the song was about his relationship with his father, "My Dad's a coach right, so I guess about the first 16 years of my life all I thought about was winning." Crack Hitler Working Title | Action Adventure The closest to a movie theme tune FNM ever got! Patton's compressed, distorted megaphone effect would be imitated by every nu metal band to follow. The sample in the intro is famous Brazilian actress Iris Lettieri reading a flight announcement at the Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport, with who's voice Patton fell in love with. She unsuccessfully attempted to sue the band after hearing the song. "we sampled the voice of this woman who's pretty famous in Brazil. She announced flights for Varig Airlines, we all really liked the voice and she pretty much summed up our whole Brazilian experiences. So we taped her, used the voice and now she's suing us us for using her voice without permission." - Roddy Bottum 1992 The lyrics in this song are played out by another of Patton's characters, "It's about a crack dealer who became like Hitler who's actually black so that confuses the whole thing," describing how the drug effected him and it made him feel like Hitler may have! The song is example of how the band would develop the idea of song by visualising a scenario. "We kind of all lived with the ideas - the genesis of the songs. So it was a lot easier for us to see where each song was going.For example, sometimes we'd think of a visual image for a song beforehand. Like we'd see, say, a crack dealer with a Hitler moustache wearing a Superman cap, running through an alley shooting policemen. You'd kind of come up with a musical Interpretation of the visual Image. That's kind of the way the band writes songs sometimes." - Mike Patton 1992 "There are a few songs on here that are like genre songs - they're cool because they're a certain thing. 'Crack Hitler' is like a sleazy version of the Emergency theme, like a '70s TV action show. It's got like a Shaft guitar line and siren samples. You picture five cops with guns chasin' a guy through an alley! It's like bad, bad disco - bad! Horrible!" - Mike Patton 1992 Jizzlobber Working Title | Jim's song "It's a great song. A tortured-soul type of thing." - Mike Patton 1992 Jim Martin's bloodthirsty metal song is introduced with sounds of the swamp, the anthemic pound of drums and 'psycho' keyboard riff before Patton spits out words over one of Jim's most brutal guitar crunches ever recorded. The song ends with an epic church organ epilogue composed by Bill. Jim explains the origin of the peculiar title. "I just wanted to have a song of mine on the album, and I wanted to write something really horrible and ugly. The title is my idea of a joke, because I'm not really a fan of true guitar-jizz music. Of course, I can't play like Satriani or Vai any how. I feel like those guys are playing another instrument altogether." - Jim Martin 1992 The lyrics deal with Patton's recurring nightmare of being incarcerated. "Well, it's about this fear I have of going to gaol. I know it's gonna happen someday... I've been there once, but I have a feeling I'm gonna go some day for a very long time." - Mike Patton 1992 Midnight Cowboy "It was pretty much Billy's idea he's into easy listening, I like it too. It's again a really hyper beautiful piece that's a real challenge to put down. I think in a way some of softest music you hear in like elevators is also some of the heaviest. It's really profound and powerful in a way that loud rock can't be." - Roddy Bottum 1992 The last track on AD is an intoxicating cover version of John Barry's theme from the 1969 movie of the same name. Another departure from digital sounds, Roddy used an accordion to play the lead melody. Bill and Roddy often commented at the time that their next album would be elevator music in a similar style to this song. "I'm really pleased with the cover we did of 'Midnight Cowboy', because that's taken us into one direction that we've never gone before. That's the way of the future, easy listening is where it's at. We're going to come out real soon with an EP of music for elevators." - Roddy Bottum 1992 "Midnight Cowboy to me, a friend told me this and I think it's appropriate. She sat down and heard the whole record, the first song she said was a pretty great opening track, it's energetic. And at the end when MC came on she said this was exactly like taking a really great roller coaster. The first song your starting off and zooming off, the end of the ride when you've been upside down and thrown up, comes back down and you're slowing down." - Mike Bordin 1992

The Story of how Album Of The Year was recorded. Written with the help of the band, referencing interviews with the five members and those who were involved. Album of the Year, an end and a beginning. Faith No More toured their fifth album King For A Day for only seven months, no time at all compared to the two years plus they were on the road promoting The Real Thing. This tour was cut short so that the band could get back into the studio and work on their next record. "Usually we put out a record every three years, and then we tour it to death for a year or so until we're sick of each other. The last thing we want to do after a tour is go right back into the studio, so on the last tour we decided to cut it short, stop while we were ahead, and get back into the studio and crank out another album while we had some momentum." - Bill Gould 1997 However as per usual with FNM, things did not go to plan. The core members, Bill Gould, Roddy Bottum and Mike Bordin went into the rehearsal room with ideas and soon found that was no creative connection with guitarist Dean Menta. "We rehearsed, but we weren't coming up with anything that any of us liked. It was a drag because Dean, our guitar player at the time was really good live, but you never know if the chemistry is right until you start writing together. We tried to write for six months, but it was just a frustrating thing." - Bill Gould 1997 Mike Patton showed little enthusiasm for the songs that had been written, finding them a little too 'poppy'. "I was really pissed off about it. He's more inclined to not do something that's a little poppier. The first songs that we wrote, I was really happy with because they were really simple, sort of, effortless. in like that; I don't like temp changes and time changes. It's just confusing and it doesn't speak to me in any pure way. At the time he kind of wasn't into doing it. I imagine if I really pushed it, I could have got him to do something to those songs. But at the same time, if it isn't effortless for him, then I would really rather he didn't anyway." - Roddy Bottum 1997 "We wrote something like 12 songs, and of those 12, we probably axed eight of 'em. They're still around, they're good, but they were leaning a certain way that we didn't want things to lean towards. They were...they were just a little bit too nice. They were pop songs, but there wasn't enough feeling, enough balls." - Bill Gould 1997 And after months with no satisfactory results the band became dispirited and for the first time in their history each individual pursued artistic endeavours outside of FNM's ranks. Patton returned to the road with Mr. Bungle to promote their 1995 album Disco Volante, a tour that would extend into most of 1996. Mike B was asked to join his childhood musical idol, Ozzy Osbourne for the Retirement Sucks tour. Roddy co-founded the band Star 69, who would of course become Imperial Teen and release their debut album Seasick in May 1996. Bill took a sabbatical spending a few months travelling in Europe, he alone was left to work on the album and keep FNM from an untimely end. Guitarists Stink "We have another guitarist. I really wish I could say that "this is the MAN!" and that everything's beautiful, but we've said that three fucking times already. I don't know any longer - it's either us or the guitarists. What I do know is that guitarists stink."-Mike Patton 1997 Mike Morris, Jim Martin, Trey Spruance..... FNM have struggled to maintain the position of guitar player since their inception. Due to artistic differences in 1996 Dean returned to his band DUH and FNM were again looking to fill the post. Jon Hudson played guitar for Oakland based industrial / keyboard band Systems Collapse a band who (by his own admission) hadn't achieved much success and only recorded demos. "I was in a band in San Francisco called Systems Collapse, and the keyboard player knew Bill and the other guys, so I met Bill when Faith No More was out touring The Real Thing. It was becoming apparent that things weren't working out with Jim after the Angel Dust tours, so I wasn't surprised when they agreed to part ways. Later, Bill sent me some of the demo stuff for King For A Day. I recorded some ideas and sent them in. They were auditioning different guitar players at the time, and they obviously decided to work with Trey, which I think was a good call; he was perfect for that record. "I was pretty familiar with the band and Bill's sense of direction in terms of song writing and his approach with guitars. So, by the time he called me in early 1996, and said, 'We're in the middle of coming up with material for this next record - we were wondering if you'd give it another shot?', that was the perfect opportunity for me. "You have to be in the right place at the right time - you have to consider yourself very fortunate when an opportunity comes up. People can say, 'You have to have talent.' Sure, that's important, but there's no shortage of very talented people. You have to remember that if you do have these opportunities, you're lucky." - Jon Hudson 2015 Jon found the band disjointed and he could sense finality in the air with this album. "I viewed everything as an opportunity. I could see the pressure of trying to deliver another great record was wearing on some of the guys because they were putting their energies into other areas or projects. I felt like this might be their last record, so I wanted to make sure I enjoyed it as much as I could." - Jon Hudson 2015 Although at this time the guitar parts in FNM's music had become a function rather than an integral part of their sound, Jon did contribute to the songwriting on this record. "We wrote some songs after he joined and he brought some of his own songs that he worked on for himself and then we started to to work on them together. That was really cool." - Bill Gould 1997 Five Become One So with the line-up complete in early 1997 the band finally got the chance to reconvene and they began to refine a sound that pleased all five members. They found direction and embarked on creating a more consistent album than KFAD, an album that was more natural to them as a unit. "We did try to keep a little more consistency because we did realize that not only are we writing it, but people have to listen to it, too. But I think the quality is right up there with anything we've done." - Bill Gould 1997 "It's got more feelings and balance than our previous albums. Possibly it's darker too. I don't think we developed too much from album to album before. But now it's easy to trace [a development]." - Mike Patton 1997 They were inspired by the current musical trends in trip hop and computer aided compositions. "I think the intention for Album was to get back to what we started as. Plus, we were listening to a lot of Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead, DJ Shadow at the time. We loved that shit." - Roddy Bottum 2016 The songwriting process this time around came much easier than it had in years. Using Ashes to Ashes as an example. "The bulk of that song was written the first week. We arranged it here, and then we sent Patton a tape. He was in Italy, but he came up with the lyrics and the singing right away. It was one of those songs that just clicked - one of those songs that we do most naturally. That's our sound." - Bill Gould 1997 When Patton returned from his home in Italy he brought with him two complete songs to add to the album. "He wrote them in about a day. He was really inspired. I remember him coming over here one day, we did some stuff, and then he went home, wrote the songs, recorded them, and gave them to me the next day. He'd written everything: the drums, guitar, bass, and the lyrics." - Bill Gould 1997 Naked In Front Of The Computer Faith No More decided this time that they would handle the production of the album themselves . Basic tracks for the first dozen songs were recorded at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco, the band kept this from the record company to avoid any complications. "If you tell a record company you're going to produce your own record, they usually don't like it. So we told them we were going to make 'demos' of these songs, but we knew all along that we wanted to keep them as final tracks." - Bill Gould 1997 "It just turned out to be that way. We didn't need a producer. We haven't been into the studio very long and then Roddy had to go on tour with imperial teen again. During that time we recorded other stuff and when everyone was back again the record was nearly finished so we could start mixing. I'm the one who was always there, I knew the recordings in all steps...so I became the producer." - Bill Gould 1997 "And then we started back from square one, repeating the same [songwriting and recording] process. After the second time, we had something like 20 songs to choose from, and we started to realize, 'Hey, we're pretty much there.' So, in a stealth-like way, recorded our album without anybody really knowing we were doing it ourselves."- Bill Gould 1997 After all the material was recorded the band then retreated to Bill's basement for editing and decided they needed a fresh pair of ears to help achieve the final sound of the album. They enlisted the talents of the Swans drummer turned producer Roli Mosimann. Bill essentially recorded and produced the album while Roli processed and edited the songs using computer technology. "Roli is the guy who did the Young Gods stuff, and he really added an interesting dimension. He's coming from an angle that we haven't explored before, which is a little bit more on the technology side. There's a little bit of programming, but the songs are still really heavy. The programming just puts the sound in a new light." - Bill Gould 1997 "Until now we everytime we did an album...we recorded that on tape and mixed it then..roli changed our point of view. he copied all the stuff to the computer and we started to edit it then. we didn't do to much of that...we just really fucked up one song in the computer. most we did were little things that really improved much. and roli also mixed the album and his extreme mixing style was really good for us." - Bill Gould 1997 "A good example of Roli's editing was the song 'Mouth to Mouth.' It wasn't sounding right to us at all. It was almost a throwaway song. But Roli really liked that one, so he ended up taking the [acoustic] drums in the choruses and moving them to the verses in Pro Tools. It gave the song a whole new life." - Bill Gould 1997 Collision "A lot of the really cool sounds in this song that sound like guitar are actually keyboard string sounds running through a [Tech 21] SansAmp. You can really mangle keyboard sounds with a SansAmp; you can get some amazing dark, ugly textures." "The odd rhythmic element in the verses. was written by our new guitar player. The verses are built around a 4+6/10 riff, and the choruses are a straight 4/4. The Spanish-speaking voices you hear later in the song are from a short-wave radio. That was Patton's idea. He has a short-wave he takes on tour. I've got one too, and you can get some really cool, eerie stuff. I noticed on the Nine inch Nails record they used a little bit of that too." - Bill Gould 1997 Stripsearch "The kernel of that song came from John Hudson, our guitar player on the last album. Writing wise, we just weren't speaking the same language as Dean, the guitarist we were touring with, I had known John for years, and he said he could provide what were looking for... so he produced this midi file of an idea he'd had and it was pretty good. We changed it just a little bit, but it was his song. The most amazing thing was he wrote a song which worked with us and we didn't have to teach him to do it! Musically we connected. I think he was the first guitar player we had where that happened." - Bill Gould 1998 "The loop in the beginning made such a difference. Before we put it in, the song sounded more like Queensryche. But after the loop, it sounded more like Portishead or something. It gave it a darker, different slant. It didn't sound like a rock band anymore. This song was also a study in layers. Getting keyboard layers to really fit can be hard. You can have five different modules, each with its own piano or string sound, but for a certain song there's always one that fits in like a glove. So we did a lot of searching for the fight kinds of electronic sounds." - Bill Gould 1997 "The percussive noise effect in the intro is Patton making noises with his mouth. My favorite part on the whole record, is the simplest thing...and that's the bleeps [in the intro of this song]. It was just a simple tone that we tapered down so it sounded like an SOS, or Morse code." - Roddy Bottum 1997 Last Cup of Sorrow "This came from me a little bit... I would say it's a little more dub like, the bass line was very dub-ish. I think I heard something like this - just a very heavy, slow song, probably like a cross between some old dub records and something like Basement Five and a band like Chrome. They were an old San Francisco band, kind of like punk that was very heavy metal, but dark and foreboding... very cinematic. Ifs depressing, but beautiful at the same time. As an album, it was our death record and it was something to feel, something we were going through. The words are from Patton, but I think we were all on the same page with this one." - Bill Gould 1998 "The toy piano idea basically started as a loop in Studio Vision, where I was playing bass and guitar. The piano was added as a rhythm element. That's all it was: rhythm. Pitchbends with a little bit of delay can be great for giving that certain unsettling feeling.Mike can do a lot of wild things with his voice, for one. But, yeah, he sang through an old Telefunken tube mic and we compressed the living shit out of it." - Bill Gould 1997 Naked in Front of the Computer "Actually, this song is about email. Patton is kind of obsessed with the idea of how people can communicate and have relationships over the computer without talking or ever meeting. So this is an extreme version of that concept. Funny thing is...the image of someone sitting naked in front of a computer might not have made sense to people a few years ago, but now everybody knows what it means. It's become part of our culture." - Bill Gould 1997 "Its about my frustrations while surfing the Internet. I won't tell you more. I think that too many people think too much about my lyrics. I am more a person who works with the sound of a word than with its meaning. Often i just choose the words because of the rhythm not because of the meaning. It was important for me that the album has a general mood that can be found in all songs and that it doesn't go in too many directions like we did in the past." - Mike Patton 1997 Helpless "The organ you hear in the verses "isn't a real organ. It's a JV-1080 patch called '50s Organ. The one thing I've noticed about the Roland modules...they might sound kind of slick on their own, but when you put 'em in with the band, they tend to sit really well in the mix. I think the guys who do the sound design at Roland are very aware of how things fit with other instruments. Anyway, that organ blended so well with the other instruments. You know it's there - it really adds, but it doesn't stand out. It's not harsh. It doesn't strike your attention that it's organ, but it really compliments the melody." - Bill Gould 1997 Mouth to Mouth "This song has an interesting story. Last year I went to Albania. I got an old car, and I drove through the country - a country that's been isolated from the world for like 30 years. So I went in there, and one thing I noticed were a lot of thug-type guys running around in leather jackets with ghetto blasters, but they weren't listening to heavy metal music: it was this loud Arabic music, and it was really inspiring." - Bill Gould 1997 She Loves Me Not "This song almost didn't make it on the record. We almost didn't even record vocals for it because it's so different from all of the other songs. I wrote this song, and I was almost embarrassed to play it for anybody in the band because it's so soft - but at the same time it's a good song. It's like a Boyz II Men song of something. I didn't play it for anybody for, like, a half a year, and then finally I played it for Puffy. He thought we should give it a try, so I gave it to Patton, and he said, 'I wrote words, but they're pretty over-the-top.' But we went forward with it, and he really sang his ass off." - Bill Gould 1997 Got That Feeling "This is a Mike Patton 100-percent original. Basically it's a song about a guy who's a compulsive gambler. I think it would make an amazing video." - Bill Gould 1997 Paths of Glory "This song is all about a mood. It's not: 'Entertain me.' It's a vibe." - Bill Gould 1997 Pristina "This song took quite a bit of work in the studio because there are so many big open chords of distorted guitar, which doesn't leave much room for anything else. You've got room for drums, vocals, and maybe a deep bass, but trying to get the strings to cut through was a challenge. We spent a lot of time EQing and working with them to get hem placed just right." - Bill Gould 1997 Truth Prevails The album cover was down to Bill who had become intrigued with European history on his travels. The front cover is a photograph of the first president of independent Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. "Actually the man was an old president of Czechoslovakia who died in the '30's, but his significance is more symbolic than political. He was a very aristocratic president at a time when Czechoslovakia was one of the richest countries in the world. His funeral was HUGE (they are the shots on the album artwork) and his death took place on the eve of WW2. If there is any symbolic importance, it is the depiction of the death of a 'golden age.'" - Bill Gould 2002 As the principal founding father of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk was regarded in a way similar to the way George Washington is regarded in the United States.Even to this day, Czechs and Slovaks alike regard him as a symbol of democracy. The liner notes for the album depict a funeral with the words pravda vítězí (truth prevails) adorning the coffin. The statement is the motto of the Czech Republic and is seen as a symbol of democracy. Roddy Bottum On Album Of The Year Going into Album of the Year felt like a changing of the guard. In a technological sense, and in an ownership sense. We'd been doing what we'd been doing for a long time - recording five records, touring for more than a decade. The production had gotten bigger, the stakes had gotten higher and the playing field was changing. Suddenly, making a record on our own was completely and realistically doable. Billy was kind of the first in our camp to get savvy with the Pro Tools setup, and as a result, a good part of AOTY was made in Billy's basement. We did all the tracking at Brilliant Studios and Razor's Edge in SF, but the editing and production were done on our own. It was our first step in taking back what was ours in a technical sense. Kind of ironic that it was our final record....at the time, anyway. We all knew where it was going, the writing was most definitely on the wall - we were all branching out, everyone had a side project, and it felt like FNM was becoming harder and harder just to schedule. Collectively, unconsciously, individually and as a group, we were acting out. Dressing in black suits for the tour, referencing a funeral, the death of the band, the audacious titling of the record, we were fucking with our own destiny. We were definitely referencing our musical roots as well, going back to the melancholy, the sombre, the monotonous loops, the brooding keyboards. Last Cup Of Sorrow, Ashes To Ashes, Jon's involvement and writing in songs like Stripsearch and Collision; in retrospect it feels really strong and an undeniably prolific chapter in what we ultimately set out to do. It might have been a hard pill to swallow for our fans and critics who kept looking to us for a radical change, which of course was understandable... we'd changed so many times. Maybe the change this time around was more of a 'behind the scenes' change. The way we recorded, Billy and the basement, bringing in Roli Mossiman, writing with Jon. Internally, to us it was radical. Roli had worked with Young Gods, a band we loved. He worked a lot with computers. He came in to help track and record, but stuck around to help mix. A testament to his work, we all liked him a lot and appreciated what he brought. Looking back, it seems like a good album to the world with, because it was almost a full circle return to the core of what FNM was. Of course, we had no idea at the time that we'd revisit it, it was the last thing on anybodies mind. We all needed to leave it and walk away, and not look back for a long time. The amount of angst we'd shared as a group of friends was devastating. I don't know how we survived as young people doing what we did. Friends writing together, creating together, making business decisions together, living together, 24/7 for the most part. Looking back on it, they were truly special days of our lives, particularly at the end, when the seams were busting, and the glass had overflowed. The spillage was Album of the Year, and it was an end and a beginning.