After the breakthrough success of their third album The Real Thing<\/i>, one had to be asking the question of Faith No More: What’s next?<\/p>\n
For a band who were just settling in with new lead singer Mike Patton \u2013 who came in after the bulk of The Real Thing<\/i> was already written \u2013 it would be a journey of discovery, as well as breaking down all walls of expectations. Forget about writing the next \u201cEpic\u201d or \u201cSurprise! You’re Dead!\u201d; Faith No More needed a clean slate and room to explore with their next effort. <\/p>\n
Angel Dust<\/i> is the culmination of that process, a disc which still holds onto some memories of their past but challenges both the listener and themselves to move forward musically. And, for the most part, it works well. (Later releases included a cover of The Commodores’s \u201cEasy\u201d, and a two-disc deluxe edition was released in 2011; this review covers the initial release.)<\/span> <\/p>\n The opening track \u201cLand Of Sunshine\u201d is probably the closest thing to Faith No More’s past that you’re going to find on this disc, and serves as a good bridge to the new paths the band was about to take. And, just like that, \u201cCaffeine\u201d launches you into a whole new world. Yes, you could almost argue that the opening riff was similar to some of their earlier works. However, Patton’s vocal work, combined with Mike Bordin’s exceptional drum work on this track, create sonic layers that you may not have expected. <\/p>\n The first single, \u201cMidlife Crisis,\u201d is still \u2013 for me, at least \u2013 the highlight of this album. With a hypnotic rhythm pattern and Patton’s growled verses, it just seems to capture the essence of what Faith No More was at this stage in their career. <\/p>\n At this stage, any concept of what you thought Angel Dust<\/i> was going to be is thrown out the window. \u201cRV\u201d is a bizarre rant, the subject of which I still have not been able to figure out, but it seems to capture the hopelessness of the upper lower-class kind of lifestyle. (Closing lyric: \u201cI think it’s time I had a talk with my kids. I’ll just tell ’em what my daddy told me\u2026 You ain’t never going to amount to nothin’.\u201d) <\/p>\n From then on, Angel Dust<\/i> tackles some strange subject matter. Fellatio? Check \u2013 on \u201cBe Aggressive\u201d (though the cheerleader chant of the song title belies the darker subject matter). Fear of imprisonment? Check \u2013 on \u201cJizzlobber\u201d. It’s a much deeper ride than you might have expected to take, and sonically the messages might be lost as they’re often buried underneath Jim Martin’s guitar and Roddy Bottum’s keyboard lines. But, musically, it’s quite impressive.<\/span> <\/p>\n That all said, Angel Dust<\/i> is a bit more challenging of an album to appreciate. Make no mistake, it’s well worth the time and effort, but if you’re thinking you’re just going to pick this up and hear the continuation of The Real Thing<\/i>, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. But, if you really spend some time with this one and get to know it, you will discover this could well be Faith No More’s best album. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5784],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44979","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-faith-no-more","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44979"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44979"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}