30 Years Ago, Faith No More Dealt Out the Masterful Angel Dust

The post 30 Years Ago, Faith No More Dealt Out the Masterful Angel Dust appeared first on Consequence.

There was much at stake when it came to Faith No More’s fourth full-length album, 1992’s Angel Dust. The band — singer Mike Patton, guitarist Jim Martin, bassist Bill Gould, keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and drummer Mike Bordin — was coming off the biggest selling release of their career, the double platinum certified The Real Thing (which had spawned the rap-rock hit single, “Epic”), and had been embraced by MTV, radio, and the mainstream rock press. Hence, its follow-up was destined to catapult their career even higher. However, Faith No More quite admirably decided not to placate the masses.

“We were in a new studio,” recalls Gould in a new conversation with Heavy Consequence. “We picked a place called Coast Recorders in San Francisco [with the producer of FNM’s previous albums, Matt Wallace, once again behind the board], which was an old school recording room that went back to the ’50s. In contrast to the large airy room where were recorded the previous two albums [Studio D in Sausalito], this room was tight and punchy. Our gear sounded and felt different in there. Also, as we were coming off the success of The Real Thing, our recording budget had increased substantially … so we had the luxury to book more time, and leave time for exploration and experimentation. Prior to that, we had always been mindful of being ‘on the clock’ and keeping our sessions as efficient as possible.”

There is an age-old debate concerning “Does friction create great art?” And if you were to study interviews with the band around this era, it seemed as though Martin did not see eye-to-eye with his bandmates. And Gould was willing to confirm this observation. “Our writing, our interaction…it had always been a bit contentious before this album. Clearly we were different people, whose sense of aesthetic and purpose didn’t always match. But we had always managed to work it out in the end. On this album, we got through it. But Jim was not happy with the result, it was obvious and he was pretty honest about it. What made it different was that this time our issues didn’t resolve.”

Because of this, there has been much speculation concerning if Martin supplied all the guitar lines on the album, or if Gould had to fill-in at certain points. Again, the bassist sets the record straight, once and for all. “I don’t believe I played any guitar that was recorded on that album, with the exception of the guitar line on ‘Midlife Crisis’.”

When Angel Dust was released on June 8th, 1992 (featuring a cover photo of a great egret), it quickly became apparent that it was the kind of album that took more than a single spin to make sense of. But straight away, it was evident that Patton was finally using his vocal talent to its full capability — gone was the nasally delivery heard on The Real Thing, and in its place was the singer almost resembling an actor, and changing his vocal approach several times throughout the album (sometimes even within the same song).

Patton offered up extreme metal-like shouting on “Malpractice” and “Jizzlobber,” melodic vocalization on “Midlife Crisis” and “A Small Victory,” and combined both approaches on “Caffeine” and “Smaller and Smaller.” Elsewhere, the listener hears such additional delights as Patton assuming the role of a trailer trash fellow on “RV,” passing the mic to what sounds like a group of cheerleaders for the chorus of “Be Aggressive,” and singing lyrics straight out of fortune cookies on “Land of Sunshine” (as well as tunes that proved a bit more straightforward – “Everything’s Ruined,” “Kindergarten,” “Crack Hitler”). And the band was up for the task of matching appropriate sonics to all the musical schizophrenia – employing the use of samples throughout, and even closing the album with a palate-cleansing reading of the theme song from the 1969 film, Midnight Cowboy.

Despite snagging the opening slot of one of 1992’s most popular US rock tours (a co-headlining summer jaunt of football stadiums with Metallica and Guns N’ Roses) and MTV still supporting the band, Angel Dust did not exactly set the charts alight Stateside. Although it did indeed peak at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart, it sold far less than its processor, despite earning gold-certification. Nevertheless, in just about every other part of the world, the album was a massive seller — almost topping the UK album charts (No. 2) after a hit cover of the Commodores’ “Easy” was added to the album (peaking at No. 3 on the singles chart).

So…why exactly was Angel Dust a huge hit throughout the world but did not perform as well commercially in the band’s homeland? “That’s an age old question that no doubt many American musicians before us had asked themselves,” explains Gould. “Was it the business side? Or the culture? I don’t know.” Despite the album being an artistic triumph, shortly after its supporting tour had wrapped up, Martin was fired from the band.

Regardless, Angel Dust is now widely considered a classic. Case in point, when the album was discussed in the 2015 book Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990s, quite a few of FNM’s peers offered praise. “Angel Dust is the best album,” said Ugly Kid Joe’s Whitfield Crane. “They’d just come off The Real Thing and they got like, evil. That record is f**kin’ gnarly. It’s really brutal. ‘Midlife Crisis’…what are you going to say? It’s a masterpiece.” In the same book, even Mr. Bungle / one-time FNM guitarist Trey Spruance heralded the LP. “I love [Angel Dust]. It’s the best Faith No More record with Patton on it, I really like that record a lot. I liked it right when they first did it and I still like it now.”

Further verbal applause for Angel Dust was spotted in another book, as well — 2013’s The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion. “Amazing,” is Soulfly / ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera assessment. “They did some of the most cool stuff ever. Angel Dust is one the masterpieces of rock, of all time. It’s so furious sometimes, and then it gets super-melodic. And schizophrenic at the same time. And the album title Angel Dust is a great record title, also. Everything about it was great.” In the same book, HIM’s Ville Valo recalled, “I was in a club and they were playing Angel Dust — it’s such a big part of my life and growing up, that it always sounds good to me. It’s not as if I would say, ‘This sounds passé’ or ‘I don’t like this snare drum sound’ or whatever. It was great then and such a milestone in me becoming a bit more of an ‘adult’ than I was, that I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Lastly, with all this glowing admiration concerning Angel Dust from the band’s musical peers … does Gould consider Angel Dust to be Faith No More’s greatest album? “I don’t know if it’s our greatest, but it might be our bravest.”

Angel Dust Artwork:

30 Years Ago, Faith No More Dealt Out the Masterful Angel Dust
Greg Prato

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