The Real Thing
by Faith No More

From capkronos 04/30/2018 17:55 | #213941 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

One of the most creative, interesting and ambitious rock albums of the entire decade, this basically sticks a middle finger up at the conventions of both glossy glam rock and mopey indie college bands that were popular at the time. It doesn't really fit in with the metal genre either, nor the grunge sound popular a few years later. This is its own beast doing its own thing; incorporating piano and synth and finding unusual sounds to weave into each song with just the right amount of restraint.

This is so much fun to listen to that I'm not even mad at it for influencing the (mostly) garbage nu metal movement that hit about a decade later. And if titles like "Zombie Eaters" and "Woodpecker from Mars" don't automatically pique your interest then sorry, we can't be friends.

The winds of change started blowing in 1989. With debut albums from NIN, Nirvana, etc, the seeds were planted for the alternative revolution that was about to explode. Faith No More effectively kicked the doors off the hinges with The Real Thing. With a carasmatic new front man in Mr. Mike Patton, they combined funk, hip-hop, and heavy-metal into an bombastic sound that influenced a ton of other bands in the 90s. Aside from the infectious sounds of "Epic" "From Out of Nowhere" and "Falling to Pieces" the really shows it's diversity on tracks like "Zombie Eaters" and "The Real Thing". This album still sounds fresh today, and it's influence is massive.

An eighties/nineties classic. I was completely enthralled with this album when it first came out. It was original, exciting, and, accessible. The first three tracks are stunning, although, epic, sounds a bit dated now. Surprise, you're dead, is a great thrash metal pastiche, and, zombie eaters, is a darkly humorous song about new born babies. There's humour all over this album, and Mike Patton, making his FNM debut here, takes the music to places vocally that previous singer Chuck Moseley never could have. Other highlights are the title track, the cool jazz of, edge of the world, and the bizarre instrumental, woodpecker from mars. As I said about, epic, the album does feel a little dated now but that doesn't take away from the brilliance of the music. Much better than, sol invictus.

This album is instrumentally amazing and I love their playing on every song here, the main reason I can't rate it higher are vocals, because they're often over the top and cringeworthy and I don't think his rapping is very good either. But after second listening I warmed up to it a bit and I find his way of singing sometimes even enjoyable. My favorite tracks are From Out Of Nowhere with killer riff, Epic, Falling To Pieces, The Real Thing and Woodpecker From Mars which is a really ubderrated piece of instrumental. (Edited)

From ImmortalAl 03/07/2019 03:20 | #233169 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album should easily be in the top 100. Each song brings something to the table.