Faith No More - The Real Thing

That cover song is one of the most awdul I've ever heard...

FNM´s most popular cd with lots of classics in it, such as "Epic", "Zombie Eaters or "From out of Nowhere".
Its definitely a life-chaning album. Will always love it.

This was the first album I bought with my own money. I bought it on audio cassette back in 1990.

Certainly one of the band's best albums, but it's not worlds apart from FNM's first two albums with Mosley. The songwriting is definitely more inventive and creative, but some of the songs (particularly "Falling to Pieces" and "Underwater Love") really remind me of the band's earlier material. Nonetheless, this album is filled to the brim with quirky musicianship and a versatile vocal delivery, which Patton is obviously known for. I prefer the first half to the second, but my personal highlights are "From Out of Nowhere", "Epic", "Zombie Eaters" and "Woodpecker from Mars".

Epic annoys me so damn much, totally grating song.

Everything else sounds amazing, though, especially From Out Of Nowhere, Zombie Eaters and the War Pigs cover.

Starts off great then falls off after Zombie Eaters. Even that song as a whole was just alright. Surprise! You're Dead! is a great song though.

I don't know. I think I don't "get" it... I hated this. There were moments I heard themes I thought were interesting but the music in the form in which it was delivered was just unpleasant. I enjoyed "Surprise! You're Dead!" and "The Real Thing", the latter of which reminded me a little of Queensrÿche.

Listening to this for the first time in a while, it's funny how obviously it fills a space on the evolutionary chain between Slayer and System Of A Down. "Surprise! You're Dead!" feels like an almost-perfect midway point. There's a lot more to the album than that (the keys are unique to Faith No More in this comparison, and the bass is definitely most powerful here), but the guitar work is so frequently and so clearly thrash-influenced that I'm surprised I didn't notice it sooner.

The second half is definitely weaker than the first and it could use a trim in places (I think the title track is overlong at least for its position on the album and "Woodpecker From Mars" could probably stand to be shorter), but I think I like it overall more than I used to. Angel Dust has been my favorite of theirs for a long time now, but The Real Thing is far more accessible and listenable, and having a more consistent style across the album is a boon if I'm not in the mood for something of Angel Dust's eclecticism, which is frequently enough that I'm not sure anymore which I could say is actually my favorite. You definitely get the band's full range of strengths on Angel Dust and it does have a lot of their best songs, but I might be swinging back around to favoring this one.