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Angel Dust

Faith No More - Angel Dust Audio CD

A fair review of the Faith No More "Angel Dust" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Faith No More reviews here, or go back to the Faith No More tabs.

Band: Faith No More
Title: Angel Dust
Rating:

Release Date: 1992-06-16
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Land of Sunshine 2: Caffeine 3: Midlife Crisis 4: RV 5: Smaller and Smaller 6: Everything's Ruined 7: Malpractice 8: Kindergarten 9: Be Aggressive 10: Small Victory 11: Crack Hitler 12: Jizzlobber 13: Midnight Cowboy

A Thing of Beauty
It was not what I expected after The Real Thing, which spoke very well to my then teenage aesthetic. I bought this album when it first came out. There are few hummable melodies or sing-along type lyrics on Angel Dust.

It's taken me about fifteen years to come around and realize what an incredible album Angel Dust is. Most of the tracks are dissonant and polyphonic. Patton's lyrics are nearly incomprehensible, yet his voice is one of the most interesting aspects of this album, working often more as an instrument than a device for delivering semantic content. Grunts integrate into guitar riffs seamlessly, and what could have been a mess of an album integrates complex and disparate parts in a way that can only be described as beautiful.

Greatest album ever
So man, what can you say about one of the greatest album ever made in rock. Pop album? maybe you meant Experimental metal. Well, it's just beautiful and wowed me after i finished listening to it. It's heavy, creepy, it has soul, whatever mood you're in, you'll get it. My favorites are the beautiful death metal inspired songs (death metal beautiful?, wow) Jizzlobber and Malpractice. Those songs been called art death metal or something, and that's exactly what they are. The easy cover is 100x better than the original and it's funny that Mike has a much more amazing voice than mostly any singer out there. Yet he has the most insane screams in metal. So, you know what I'm telling you, get this and unless you've heard Patton's other crazy bands, then this album will be easy for you to listen to. Way different than The Real Thing so don't expect the funkiness they once had. You need to appreciate this masterpiece and get it.

Credit where it's due...
However, while Patton is obviously a freakish talent, it's important to remember that Faith No More were a band, not just Patton's backup group. 'Angel Dust' is one of the most bizzare "pop" albums ever made, and vocalist Mike Patton is often given credit for this. Also, such nutty gems as 'Epic' and 'Falling to Pieces' from their previous album were written without a significant input from Patton. It's clear that the rest of Faith No More are just as ambitious, talented, and insane as their vocalist, and this really comes through on this album.

Obviously, Patton's vocals are a highlight, as he switches easily between singing, rapping, howling, sneering, crooning and yelling. But the instrumentalists do a great job too, particularly Roddy Bottum, whose keyboards are at different times cheesy and sinister. Only guitarist Jim Martin seems a bit marginalised, and perhaps it's no coincidence he left after this.

Opening track 'Land of Sunshine' starts off in the same mould as their previous album, but by the time of the chorus- maniacal laughter over demented fairground keyboards- you know you're in for a weird ride. From there it just gets odder, the intense 'Caffiene', the redneck "tribute" 'RV', the bizzarely funny 'Kindergarten', the cheerleader chant 'Be Aggressive'. Even the most normal-sounding songs and singles such as 'Midlife Crisis' have odd samples, sound effects, or vocalisations included.

What is such a pleasant surprise is that the songs are remarkably catchy despite their weirdness. 'Land of Sunshine', 'Midlife Crisis', 'Everything's Ruined'. . . . and who hasn't sung along with 'B. E. A. G. G. R. E. S. S. I. V. E"? Despite their ambition and apparent anti-commercial stance, Faith No More still produce some strong melodies and hooks. If you're not put off by the deliberately odd nature of the album, 'Angel Dust' proves to be a true grower. One of the best albums of the 90's.

.

Great
Coming off of "The Real Thing", I couldn't wait to get my hands on this. . cassette, back in the day. It was great then and it has stood the test of time. It's still great. Introduce yourself (and your friends) to it.

"You're perfect, yes, it's true."
Between albums, Patton had dabbled in his previous outfit, Mr. When Faith No More went into the making of their second album with Mike Patton on vocals, only two things stayed the same: the line-up and the producer, Matt Wallace, who brought the band's ground-breaking "The Real Thing" to life. Bungle, recording an entire album before reconvening with the rest of the band to record what would ultimately be a bizarre but satisfying departure from its predecessor. Rejecting the arena-friendly metal and hard-rock that their touring mates in Metallica and Guns N' Roses promoted at the time, "Angel Dust" instead indulges in the macabre of metal, leaning on the band's funky side and Patton's strange sense of humor, unwittingly giving birth to a genre and a generation of bands that fit the bill of the much maligned "nu-metal" era.

As the first album with Mike Patton fully integrated into the group, there is a notable shift in direction for the band. In fact, the sound is so drastically different from its predecessor that it alienated guitarist Jim Martin - playing for his last time with the band on this record - to the point where he wasn't even invited to the recent reunion of the band. But whatever the casualty of the band's creativity, it worked for the best. From top to bottom, "Angel Dust" is a remarkable step up in quality from "The Real Thing," and not to mention, not as dated. "Caffeine" and "Midlife Crisis" keep the more straight-forward rock intact, with Martin belting out sustained and substantial riffs amidst the A. D. D. afflicted performance by Patton and a groovy rhythm section. Elsewhere, the album takes bolder and quirkier turns. "RV" is best described as a trailer-trash ballad, with crooning so convincing you forget it's meant as mockery. "Be Aggressive" tackles subject matter not appropriate for this review and enough to make keyboardist Roddy Bottum blush, featuring back-up vocals by a cheerleading squad. The longer the album goes on, the weirder it gets. "J---lobber" brings the experimentation full circle, playing almost like an acid trip in prison, while a cover of John Barry's "Midnight Cowboy" closes the album, dropping you off in a place so far removed from the opening track, "Land of Sunshine," that you'll have to play the album back to figure out how you got from point A to point B.

Truth be told, "Angel Dust" is hardly an easy album to appreciate, especially for those mostly acquainted with the band through the likes of "Epic" or "Falling to Pieces. " Regardless, it's an album that has surely stood the test of time, never getting old and never failing to entertain. Patton and company seem bound and determined to pull out all the stops to entertain their audience (and perhaps, more importantly, themselves) and what results is a seminal and original album whose influence resonates today. Regardless of where their legacy led them or who they influenced in their wake, Faith No More will always be remembered as the fearless and unapologetic group they were, and nothing is more of a testament to that fact than "Angel Dust. "
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You can see a complete list of all Faith No More discography, or go back to the Faith No More tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.