eMusic Review 0
Faith No More debuted their second line-up in 1989 — which, in hindsight, was pretty much the only window in time for an alien art-metal-rap-thrash-jazz-pop band to succeed. Equal parts brooding thug and sensitivo quirk, Faith No More all-at-once paralleled the rapidly rising stock of boho love-punks Jane's Addiction, Cali thrashers Metallica and suburban hip-hop staple Yo! MTV Raps.
The Real Thing was the platinum album that found its niche by borrowing from all of them. The band itself sounded like listening to audiences fight — leather-jacketed hesh Jim Martin was a living symbol of the crushing headbanger riffery while keyboardist Roddy Bottum undercut the aggression with dramatic, shimmering washes. Billy Gould's bass-slapping was always more noise-making than funk-blooping, and Mike Bordin's caveman stomp came straight from the Rick Rubin playbook. And of course, the band had just acquired a baby-faced, barely-legal, pajama-clad Mike Patton, who added colorful new layers of obsession, paranoia and perversion in his croon-to-shout-to-growl. Alterna-geeks vibed on creeped-out love tales from the mouths of infantilists; metalheads latched on his persecution drama and dark wit. MTV Nation, however, embraced the inscrutable shadow-boxing of "Epic," the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" for a generation weaned on the Beastie Boys… read more »
