The Classic Metal Album Reviews:

	Title: Angel Dust Artist: Faith No More Label: Warner Bros. Release Date: 1992 Rating: 5 Skulls
Discuss on the Metal Judgment Web Board Submit/Read Reader Reviews of this Album

Death's Review:
Let's go back to 1992, shall we? Faith No More has achieved multi-platinum success with The Real Thing. They've become MTV darlings, have toured the world, secured a slot opening the Guns N Roses / Metallica stadium tour. How do they follow that up and deliver on this fantastic promise?
With one of the most sick and twisted albums they could have possibly come up with. Angel Dust is dark, heavy, wierd, and just plain out there. But it is also focused, intense, and most assuredly a metal record, although it is probably many other things as well. Listen to the driving riff that propels "Caffeine," actually one of the more straightforward tunes on the record. This is intense shit, with incredible dynamics. The mood, atmosphere, instrumentation, experimentation and everything else all come together on Angel Dust, the most fully-realized and deep of the Faith No More records, and one of the best albums of the 1990's for sure.
The opener, "Land of Sunshine," is Mr. Bungle -style weird, while the aforementioned "Caffeine," which follows, is heavy, at times, but also thrashy, dynamic and epic all in one shot. "Mid Life Crisis" was the subtlely dark single, certainly no "Epic 2" like everyone expected. Listening now, the verses' vocals sound almost black! To think this was in heavy rotation on MTV. A wierd, catchy and strangely triumphant little track.
"RV" is just the drunken country ramblings of a very strange man. That and an excuse for Mike Patton to sing like Elvis. "Smaller and Smaller" however, is a spaced-out, middle eastern, Amorphis on acid and growing progressively more paranoid, intense journey into a quite warped world. Listen and you'll see what I mean.
"Everything's Ruined" rocks. This is more like the intellectually layered party-rock Faith No More bandwagoners probably expected after The Real Thing. Still, the tune is dark and, once again, equally intense. Faith No More really let it all just come pouring out on this one. How or why this happened in the face of such sudden success is an interesting question. But, whatever the reasons, in the process, the world was treated to a killer album. Thank whatever for that.
"Malpractice" is one of the record's heaviest and coolest moments. Total thrash stomp. Again with the quasi-black vocals!!! Haunted house keyboards and all! But seriously, this is one twisted little song. And it rules. "Kindergarten" has a killer groove, much attitude and commercial palatability. The Roddy Bottom keys and Billy Gould bass playing shine here. Great laid-back vibe mixes wonderfully with the Patton attitude. The Megaphone Patton rant over the Jim Martin power chords in the middle is classic Faith No More. In some ways, FNM were one of rock's greatest artists. The fact that they fully utilized severe metal elements on a regular basis was only part of their genius.
"Be Aggressive" is so infectuously catchy it's embarrassing. Nice organ sound! Killer Martin party-wah riffing! Nice upbeat, change of pace to diversify the record. Still totally twisted. Great drumming from the original "Puffy," is exhibited on this track. "A Small Victory" starts out tame yet evolves into an organic hip-hop/thrash fusion jam toward the middle and end. And it is brilliant. "Crack Hitler" features cool keys and a disco-ish pop bass and a brooding, minor-key feel. The uncomfortably named "Jizzlobber" is heavy shit, doomy and evil and industrial and black whatever the fuck it is (and from what I can gather, I might not want to know) he is actually singing about (a problem with many of these tracks, deciphering Patton's stream of conciousness, although the lyrics are printed in the CD cover). Finally, the closer, "Midnight Cowboy" ends things on a lonely, western note. The insanity has dispersed, the binging and purging complete. Goodnight everyone, sleep well. Now that you have all that out of your system Mr. Patton, you should be able to sleep for a long, long time.
So there you have it, Angel Dust. It didn't make a lot sense then, and it really doesn't make any more sense now. Where the hell that all came from, I'll never know. That MTV dropped Faith No More like a hot potato after this one came out should be no surprise. It's rare when bands get heavier (Pantera's Trendkill, Skid Row's Slave to the Grind and Testament's Demonic?) at a critical career juncture. But Faith No More didn't just go dark and heavy, they went off. Off the deep end that is. Check this one out. Trust me, it is some fucked up shit.

[- Metal Judgment Home -] [- Email Metal Judgment -]
©1999 Metal Judgment. All rights reserved.