373) Faith No More - Angel Dust

I know three songs by Faith No More. I had seen the video for We Care A Lot on the television and really enjoyed it and on a boy’s holiday we had a load of CDs and one of my mates had The Real Thing album and the opening two tracks Epic and From Out of Nowhere were on heavy rotation.

Usual extensive research for this album has revealed to me that We Care A Lot was sang by Chuck Mosley who was subsequently fired, and Mike Patton took over on lead vocals, and The Real Thing was his first record with the band. I hadn’t noticed they were different singers. Ain’t we all lucky I am so knowledgeable writing these reviews.

Faith No More have released seven albums and Angel Dust was their fourth released in 1992 and making the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic. This is not normally my type of music, but the musicianship is outstanding the band can play any genre, sometimes in the same song and there are samples throughout from monkeys, sirens, Simon & Garfunkel, and even Aboriginal chanting.

Patton is confident in his ability displaying dominant vocals on every song, he can be the metal frontman, can rap when needed, croon, shout and throw himself one hundred percent into every song. A man who doesn’t do things by halves. (listen to Rv to see what I mean).

I am not going to pretend I like all this album but there are several songs that are excellent. Opener Land of Sunshine built on a circus-like organ and a heavy riff and see above for the vocal dynamics of Patton. Midlife Crisis, I know it, I was lying I know four Faith No More songs, the chorus is insanely catchy, and I love the break three quarters through before the band come back in, quality stuff.

Kindergarten builds and the guitar is perfectly pitched and then we have an atmospheric organ before some startling musicianship from the band on Be Aggressive with cheerleaders joining in on the chorus to mix it up and A Small Victory is quite simply an excellent song.

The album ends with a cover of Midnight Cowboy, an instrumental to take us out on a record I did not think I would enjoy at all. When Patton does his shouting its’s not for me, but I certainly enjoyed the musicianship throughout and there are songs well worth anyone’s time if you are into metal or not.

6.5/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Midlife Crisis