Review by Saxy S for Faith No More - Angel Dust (1992)

Back in the day, I used to be a huge fan of any and all Mike Patton projects. I used to think that everything that this man touched turned to pure gold. And his greatest work came with Faith No More and this album. I can honestly say that much of my praise may have been through rose tinted glasses because, with the exception of the self titled Mr. Bungle record, not much of it stands out to me. And when it did, I found to be be excruciatingly cringe. I'm surprised how little of The Real Thing actually stands up today.

This album however, was not the victim of that. In fact, I would argue that Angel Dust was a better gateway towards nu-metal than even the S/T debut from Rage Against the Machine. Is it cheesy? Of course it is. But it feels more refined and as if their is some actual weight to go along with the grandioseness of this album's second half.

The first half of this album is pure fun with some of the best sounding funk metal ever. "Land of Sunshine" is the best thing that Mike Patton has ever recorded; the bass sounds phenomenal in the mix, while the main guitar and synth lines have some great simmer backing up one heck of a vocal performance from Patton. Surely you cannot top it right? Well Faith No More sure are going to try with "Caffeine" and the major single "Midlife Crisis". But then the album starts venturing into that extra gouda with "RV". The cabaret--esque piano is playful, yet also eerie. The same can be said for "Everything's Ruined".

The swiss gets turned up to eleven with the shout chorus of "Be Aggressive" and the Phantom of the Opera-esque organ that sound incredible. "Crack Hitler" brings back some faster funk grooves that are welcome on a song that's literally about a drug dealer who compares himself to Hitler! "Jizzlobber" returns to some of the heavy, spookier grooves from earlier, before ending on a choral with booming pipe organ. And the album ends with "Midnight Cowboy (Theme From)" and I cannot think of a better instrumental that has ever ended an album than this. I just love the main melody on what sounds like a harmonica(?) as the album ends with a soft waltz. When it's over, you almost have to ask yourself "how the hell did I get here?"

But the astonishing part about it all is that the answer you get will be "guess I have to go back and find out!" This is one of those albums that is so easy to go back and listen to just for the experience alone. Are their some lesser cuts? yes. I'm not the biggest fan of the shouting vocals that occur on "Smaller and Smaller". And while I do think that "Crack Hitler" has one of the best funk grooves on the entire album, the stop and start nature of the transitions became very distracting. But they are minor speedbumps on the Monterey Jack highway headed straight for the local grocery (okay, record) store. Faith No More may have fallen out of my good graces in recent years, but they still have this historic landmark.