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Faith No More - The Real Thing review



Reviewer:
9.4

470 users:
8.56
Band: Faith No More
Album: The Real Thing
Release date: June 1989


01. From Out Of Nowhere
02. Epic
03. Falling To Pieces
04. Surprise! You're Dead!
05. Zombie Eaters
06. The Real Thing
07. Underwater Love
08. The Morning After
09. Woodpecker From Mars
10. War Pigs [Black Sabbath cover]
11. Edge Of The World

Even in their embryonic state (first two albums, respectively), Faith No More has always had a very identifiable sound with a lot borrowed from different genres. It just seemed that they never took the initiative to really set out and make a great album. All the ingredients were in place, but it sounded like they were having way too much fun to worry about it. As in place as Chuck Mosely sounded within the band, his vocals are atrocious. And as a testament to that, has never found work in music after getting the boot from Billy Gould and Co.

After scourging through some Death Metal demos by fellow statesmen Mr. Bungle (or as the vague story goes), Faith No More seemed content to hire Mike Patton as their new voice. Which I'm sure came as a pleasant surprise that their new vocalist turned out to be the epitome of a great frontman. Finally with a vocalist who can adapt to all kinds of musical styles (the songs were all actually recorded before Patton joined), Faith No More was destined to conquer the world.

No better example exists of an album as having the right sound, for the right time, and yet still age with grace. "Epic" was all over the radio and MTV while being very offbeat and complex for a hit at the time. Besides having radio friendly songs that are still fresh to this day, "Surprise, You're Dead!" is a great mock Death Metal track that shows exactly why Mike Patton was imported from Mr. Bungle. "Zombie Eaters" is a metal epic I'm sure early Metallica would have killed to make, and has a very twisted look at infancy.

Every song on here has potential to be very fulfilling and fun at the same time to just about everyone who comes across The Real Thing. Very few bands in existence have the cohesion and just good old raw talent to make something like this work while coming off with a nice flow and direction. With The Real Thing, Faith No More pushed themselves to the forefront of the alternative music world without losing the identifiable fun and energy present in the previous albums.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 10
Production: 9

Written by Joey Jo Jo | 25.07.2007




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 6   Visited by: 173 users
25.07.2007 - 20:32
Rating: 9
Katatronik
Angel of Lust
Maybe their best album ever, surely my favourite one...
Though the rating is too high IMO... Good review anyway!
----

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,
and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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26.07.2007 - 05:09
Rating: 9
Joey Jo Jo
Piece of shit
I used to have another review of this album up a few years back, I looked at it recently and just hated it. I'm really satisfied with the new one. Sure, I don't go into detail about the albums' music so much, but I said all there needs to be said about it.
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"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys."
- Orson Welles
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09.03.2008 - 22:37
Evil Chip

One of their best albums. But their masterpiece is angel dust. What a piece of art.
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26.12.2011 - 02:34
Rating: 3
F1fan56

A friend gave me this album convinced I would like it, so I gave it an honest listen. What a piece of crap. It is almost devoid of any melody. The vocals are absolutely horrible and musicianship is really bad. It sounds like the band is just into making aggressive noise. I'm amazed this is listed in the top 200 over 'Burn' by Deep Purple or 'Theater of Salvation' by Edguy.
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17.07.2012 - 17:06
BORT

I can't stand the song epic. Drives me fucking crazy. >:)
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07.11.2020 - 21:58
Rating: 8
BlankFile

It´s a very good record, altough not the best from FNM. But I think the first half is better than the second one, which i think it´s a little bit more boring.

Anyway, it has really great moments.
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