Before we begin the glorious birthday celebration of "Faith No More"'s album "The Real Thing" which was issued on June 20th 1989, we ask you to take a moment, listen to the album and try to isolate the different instruments on each song. The drums, the guitar, the bass and you got the idea. If you manage to perform this complex exercise you will feel that in each song, each instrument plays a different style of music ... metal/jazz/rap/heavy rock and the like ... and you ask yourself how is it possible ???
So it all started in 1979 (and we intentionally go all the way back) Faith No More was formed under a twisted variety of names, bassist Billy Gould and drummer Mike Bordin are basically the backbones of the band that has not changed since its inception and for a reason. We already mentioned in the review of "Angel Dust" that this is one of Rock's most amazing "rhythm sections" and it has a huge impact on the band's sound. In 1985 they released the album "We Care A Lot" and in 1987 they released the album "Introduce Yourself", with singer Chuck Mosley. After the release of the second album, Chuck's condition deteriorated due to drugs, with a strong tendency to violence. Despite his not-so-great talent in singing, his personality has given the band's performances a different and surprising color and shape. But his condition worsened... Occasionally he would beat up band members, get drunk on gigs or take drugs until he lost consciousness. The straw that broke the camel's back was at the launch party for the album "Introduce Yourself" during which Chuck simply fell asleep on stage when he was unconscious.
The band decided to kick the singer out and started working on the new album. Despite the disengagement from their singing, despite the long tour, being drained and a little bewildered, they began to write and compose. While writing they began to look for a singer and a tape that came into the hands of Mike Bourdain (because Mike Patton put it there) greatly impressed the band members.
The tape contained several songs that Mike recorded with his "mother" band (from high school) Mr. Bungle. Just to understand the style of Mr. Bungle, we'll describe it as Mike describes it... "We're Nintendo kids, so we go into the studio and there are all these little buttons and we just have to play with the dials and press the buttons." There is no better way than to describe the band's style of music.
Anyway, Faith's members were impressed and invited him to a jam session and the dynamic was perfect !! The heavy, varied, and dynamic sound of the band blended perfectly with Mike's singing style and crazy character. Continuing from the previous description he recounted ... "So it was weird for me to try to put something on a real linear song, section/chorus/section/ chorus. So I think I did what was clear. It's okay, but since then, I've definitely sworn to invest a lot more time and effort, into something I do. "
(Photo: Mick Hutson)
This is the place to start the discussion (the end of which is known in advance to us) Who is more influential on the band's sound ?? Mike himself or the rest of the band. After all, if you listen to Mr. Bungle, you can hear that there are parallel elements of singing style and dynamics like in Faith, and when listening to Faith No More's previous albums very well recognizes the guitars, keyboards, and dynamics of Mr. Bungle.
We'll leave the question open for now but just note that without a doubt Mike's powerful, diverse, and dynamic voice has brought with it a new dimension to the band. Just like throwing a Mentos candy into a Coke bottle, this is exactly what happened to Faith No More with the arrival of Mike Patton !!
Producer Matt Wallace who produced the band's first two albums and one of the regular people who accompanied it was simply shocked by Mike's voice, but also by his character which reminded him a bit of Chuck. He said working with Mike was like trying to ride a bull in a rodeo. But he knew how to work with him and get great things out of his talent...
Mike came to this album late. The band members have already written and composed most of the songs, they also did not want Mike to start tinkering with the work. It turned out that Mike had to adapt to the written material. He sat down and wrote the lyrics to all the songs on the album within two weeks!
Just like the opening song of the album "From Out Of Nowhere" Mike burst into the world of rock, which reminds you just started digesting the grunge scene, after the glam and metal. Mike burst out but the album did not !!
The opening song that came out as the album's first single in August 1989 "From Out of Nowhere", was a purposeful display of the band's talent. The fast rhythm, the melody, the powerful combination of Mike's dynamic vocals with the marvelous rhythm division wrapped in the sounds of the keyboards ... all of these did not help and the song did not get played or recognized.
Almost a year passed, and then the second single from the album "Epic" came out which as its name implies, is simply epic !! With the deadly bass, the beating drums, the accompanying keyboards and the rap Mike created a breakout song from the movies !! The song became a hit in an instant, with a clip that some say is controversial and all because of one fish, MTV ran it all day and all night, and rightly so. Just to see the piano explode at the end, it's already worth it... to this day it's the band's most successful and popular single.
Indeed the single brought this album to the forefront but still, this album was hard to digest in the US. What is interesting is that in the UK he started to gain significant momentum and starred in the charts. Only after a year did the third single from the album - "Falling To Pieces", also in this song (And in Faith's case we like to repeat ourselves), the rhythm section that opens the song with the bass and drums is powerfully cut by James Martin's guitar which does a simply wonderful job. Like its predecessor, this single continues the rise of the album and also becomes one of the band's most well-known and popular songs.
The album continues with a heavy metal song "Surprise! You're Dead!" And Mike and the guitar go hand in hand to rip your eardrums until you get into a slight relaxation with the opening of the song "Zombie Eater" which leads you naively straight into the zombie's muzzle, where Bourdain beats the drums as Mike tries to make his voice change, rhythm and singing style amazing. On the album and we have a chill just writing about it.
We'll move on to the sixth song on the album after which it's named, yes... yes... it's "The real thing" and the rhythm division do you remember? How Bourdain bounces the sticks on Snare "Rim" just a paradise for drummers, then Jim gets upset and gives in guitars, so Mike changes his voice accordingly and brings a chorus to the Pantheon !!
And there's the funky "Underwater Love," which leads us to "The Morning After," which ironically still corresponds with the band's albums from the Chuck era, and there's "Woodpecker from Mars," the instrumental section on the psychedelic frontier, and the phenomenal cover of the song. Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", just ended with the jazzy "Edge of the World", which came to give us the final stamp that "The End of the World" has arrived and we just finished listening to the craziest thing in the world, a mix of metal and synthpop, hard rock and hip-hop Hop, progressive and jazz ...
We will not finish before saying a few words about the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mike scandal because it is impossible without ...
After the release of the album or rather, after the release of the music video for the song "Epic", Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis accused Mike of stealing his style. Yes, Beaches, you heard right, he stole his style !! Mike's movements on stage and the album were reminiscent of Anthony's appearance on stage. They even wanted to "shave his head and cut off his leg so that he would have to invent a new style for himself" (according to Anthony). When Mike heard about the matter he of course responded with a deep sneer befitting Mike and claimed that it was very flattering to him that such a big deal was being made than how he looked on stage. Of course in the end all is well, they completed and lived happily ever after ... Kiedis even admitted that he loves the album and that Mike is very talented, but the road there was lined with bumps, bites, and downs including Mike's famous drop on Kiedis in Mr. Bungle's performance with a blonde wig and a humorous rendition of Californication.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music