Archive Review: Fenriz Presents The Best of Old-School Black Metal (2008)

That rush of blood to your brain that floods all coherent thought; that not-so-subtle, hammerlike throbbing that begins between your temples; the all-pervasive aura of gloom that drowns your psyche…those are the hallmarks of classic “black” metal. There is just no escaping the awesome power, the prurient attraction of black metal at its most extreme, the pulse-pounding, fear-inducing scream of the guitar and accompanying primal vocals. 

There is some skill in performing black metal…it takes an instrumental virtuoso with an ebony-hued heart to spit out songs as overpowering as the best black metal. Influenced by late ‘70s/early ‘80s speed-metal and thrash, by bands like Metallica and Motorhead, and even by itself with originators like Venom and Celtic Frost, black metal is the musical phenomena that refuses to go quietly into that dark night… 

Fenriz Presents The Best of Old-School Black Metal

When black metal legend Fenriz of the band Darkthrone decided to put together Fenriz Presents the Best of Old-School Black Metal, he gathered up tracks from some of the meanest, scariest, and most bad-ass metal monsters on the planet. The resulting disc is a real Frankenstein compilation, a piecing together of some of the best (and most diverse) bands from the black metal world. Sure, some of these choices would be a slam-dunk even from somebody with only a passing familiarity of extreme heavy metal. Mercyful Fate, represented here by the raging guitars and rampaging rhythms of “Evil,” is one such easy choice, as is Celtic Frost, the dark majesty of the band’s “Dawn of Megiddo” playing like a grand funeral dirge. Venom gave the genre its name and defined the music for a generation afterwards; the band’s deadly song “Warhead” is an unrelenting blast of sheer explosive fury.

Other song choices provided here by Fenriz will thrill even the most hardcore collector of arcane death-and-black-metal. Sodom’s “Burst Command Til War” is exceptionally brutal, a jackhammer guitar riff driving home the vocals like an icepick jammed in your ear. Samael’s “Into the Pentagram” is equal parts Sabbath sludge and flesh-rending Slayer riffs while Bulldozer’s “Whiskey Time” grinds the listener into submission with pounding drumbeats and razor-sharp six-string work. Fenriz had to dig deep into the crypt for “The Third of the Storms,” a seminal black metal cut by Tom Warrior’s pre-Celtic Frost band Hellhammer. With Warrior’s impressive fretwork and a low-fi production that underemphasizes the already-buried vocals (creating a hypnotic aural assault), this rare track is a real treat for Celtic Frost fans. 

Mayhem & Burzum

The long and tragic history between Scandinavian legends Mayhem and Burzum is well-documented, and neither band has lent songs to compilation albums before. However, Mayhem’s “The Freezing Moon” illustrates the long reach of the band’s influence, the song’s glorious sound a mix of soaring guitars, machine-gun rhythms, and guttural vocals.  Burzum’s electronic-tinged “Ea, Lord of the Deeps” introduces typically unfamiliar elements into the black metal lexicon, the song a mix of thrashy death metal and industrial metal influences. Fittingly enough, the album closes with Bathory’s powerful “Dies Irae,” a chaotic clash of tightwire guitarwork and propulsive rhythms driving frontman Quorthon’s vocals into the realm of madness. Sadly, Quorthon (Thomas Forsberg) – one of the most influential figures in the European death/black metal scene – died too young in June 2004 of heart failure. 

The lyrical subject matter is typically gruesome, the artist’s perspective on life usually macabre, the music almost always as abrasive as hell. Black metal exists, however, as a shared rumination on life and death between the artist and the fans. The genre is an obsessive reflection on the dark side of existence created by musical philosophers on society’s fringe for consumption by teen-and-twenty-something year old fans that have often just experienced their first taste of tragedy. In this light, the music is a catharsis, the liberating soul of rock ‘n’ roll driven to its logical end under the whip of tortured guitars and howling vocals.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Heavy metal in all its forms is once again building towards a mainstream audience. The often-maligned sub-genre of rock ‘n’ roll never really went anywhere, actually…it just disappeared underground, off the radar screen of the trend-oriented pundits of pop culture. As such, Fenriz has done new metal fans a large favor in compiling Fenriz Presents the Best of Old-School Black Metal. The album serves as an excellent introduction to this sub-sub-genre, offering crucial music from some of leading lights of black metal. If only for tracks from such controversial graybeards as Venom, Mayhem, and Burzum, the disc is well worth the price of admission. (Peaceville Records, released 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine...

C/Z Records Online with Groovy Collectibles!

Legendary Seattle-based indie punk imprint C/Z Records has launched its very first webstore offering a slew of the label’s out-of-print albums as well as a few liver-quivering new titles that offer the C/Z legacy to a new generation of fans.

Started in 1985 by engineer/producer Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale, C/Z Records hit the ground running with the 1986 release of the influential compilation album Deep Six. Collecting performances by Seattle-area bands like the Melvins, Soundgarden, Green River, Skin Yard, and others, Deep Six was the earliest documentation of the sound that would become known as ‘grunge’ a few years later when the Seattle scene conquered the world.

Unfortunately, Deep Six was about five years ahead of its time, and when the disc didn’t sell, Hanzsek and Casale decided to concentrate on their recording studio and sold the label to Skin Yard bass player Daniel House, the madman responsible for the label’s current resurrection. After the early ‘90s grunge explosion that was ignited by bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, Deep Six would be reissued in 1994 through a deal with A&M Records.

During his tenure at the helm of C/Z Records, House proved to have an ear for rock ‘n’ roll talent, the label releasing groundbreaking (and influential) records by artists as diverse as the Gits, 7 Year Bitch, 10 Minute Warning, Love Battery, Built To Spill, Skin Yard, Monks of Doom, and the Presidents of the United States of America, among other artists. A series of various major label distribution deals brought the label’s vision to the average consumer but by the early 2000s, House reduced the label to part-time status.

The C/Z Records webstore offers a wide selection of the label’s releases, including rare original versions that command collectors’ prices. There are some bargains, though, on some hard-rockin’ music. “It’s funny that I’ve worked professionally in web development and e-commerce integration for so many years, and somehow never extended this skillset to my own czrecords.com website. That’s now changed!” C/Z Records President Daniel House states in a press release for the new webstore. “I have a garage full of inventory, and prior to making it available online, it’s been hard to find. I’m so psyched to finally provide the opportunity for fans to access that inventory, and most of it is on sale at super low prices. I’d much rather get the music out there instead of collecting dust.”

The website also offers the aforementioned new releases, including the limited-edition Skin Yard Select 7x7 box set and long-lost recordings circa 1984 from 10 Minute Warning, probably the earliest of the grunge bands that would put Seattle on the rock ‘n’ roll map. The webstore offers some cool CD bargains, too, like the $15 three-disc Alcohol Funnycar bundle, or bundles of CDs by bands like Treepeople and Porn Orchard. Quantities of some of these releases are limited and no new re-pressings are planned by House, so get thee hence to the C/Z Records webstore and get your grunge groove on!

Archive Review: Robert Fripp & Brian Eno’s No Pussyfooting & Evening Star (2008)

At the time, it seemed to be an intriguing collaboration between two of rock music’s most interesting “artistes.” The reality of 1973’s No Pussyfooting, however, left many fans perplexed. The initial pairing of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and former Roxy Music gadget wrangler Brian Eno ended up being a little of the best of both and, yet, something of neither.

The experimental trappings of No Pussyfooting, recorded while Eno was working on his solo debut, Here Come the Warm Jets, would be the first steps by the future superstar producer towards the creation of what he would term “ambient music.” Using what would become known as “Frippertronics” – a seemingly endless tape loop spinning through infinite delays – it would lay down a foundation of sound on which Fripp would embroider his spacey six-string figures and Eno would add jolts of synthesizer. 

Fripp & Eno’s No Pussyfooting

This, then, is the total of No Pussyfooting, two intricate and mind-blowing compositions, each representing a breathtaking exploration of sound and electronics. “The Heavenly Music Corporation” is the better of the two, taking many more death-defying leaps of faith, but “Swastika Girls” has its charms, particularly when Eno coaxes an orgiastic sigh from what sounds like an oscillator.

Fripp’s fretwork on “The Heavenly Music Corporation” is simply mesmerizing, the guitarist stretching out and taking chances, the resulting sound a terrifying mix of prog-rock, heavy metal, and outer-space pyrotechnics that would influence a generation of punters to follow. Accompanied by Eno’s perfectly-timed punctuations of synth, the result is a glorious din. “Swastika Girls” sounds more laboratory-bred, with a colder vibe and more interplay between electronics and guitar wankery.

Legend has it that British deejay John Peel once accidently played No Pussyfooting backwards on the air, the result of an incorrectly threaded reel-to-reel tape. The material proved to be as equally intriguing backwards as it was forwards, and this deluxe two-disc reissue of the album includes reversed versions of both “The Heavenly Music Corporation” and “Swastika Girls” for those wishing to relive the experience. The second disc here also includes a half-speed version of the former, a dirge-like 42-minute curiosity that reminds one of a slowly-poured, molasses-speed DJ Screw production, sans vocal rhymes, of course...

Fripp & Eno’s Evening Star

Two years after No Pussyfooting, the pair would create Evening Star, a mix of the previous album’s Frippertronics (especially the 28-minute “An Index of Metals”) and shorter, atmospheric experimentations similar to those that Eno would create with German avant-gardists Cluster a couple of years hence. Listening to the album again after many years, it’s obvious that Evening Star, even more so than No Pussyfooting, was the precursor to the rise of “new age” and space music in the ‘80s. 

Whereas the pastoral “Wind On Water” provides nothing but pure Baroque ambience, the brilliant, shining title track is a marvelous pastiche of gentle tones and chiming synth drones set against Fripp’s masterful guitar imagery. Emotionally rich and hauntingly beautiful, the song is a one-in-a-million mutant hybrid of progressive rock and John Cage-inspired musical theory that succeeds beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. 

Not that the rest of Evening Star is chopped liver, mind you. “Evensong” provides nothing less than a blueprint for new age music with its electronic drone and recurring riff-like themes, while “Wind On Wind” is a blustery, baritone-rich thunderstorm on a spring day. The extended work-out “An Index of Metals” provides a jarring conclusion to the album, the song weaving transparent waves of shimmering dissonance upon a cacophonic soundtrack of distorted guitar and squealing, albeit often melodic, synthesizers.

Less aggressive than No Pussyfooting, but no less inventive, Evening Star would be the last collaboration between Robert Fripp and Brian Eno for nearly thirty years. (Opal Records/DGM, both CDs reissued 2008)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine...

Archive Review: Frank Zappa’s You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 2 (1988)

Zappa fanboys have always been a cultish/fetishistic lot, rabidly scarfing up any and all product even remotely connected to F.Z., from multi-record box sets, books, and video compilations to imprinted towels, posters, and munchkin lunchboxes. This obsession is understandable, though, and thoroughly justified: in over two decades of performing, Zappa has proved himself a master showman, a vastly underrated guitarist, an inspired and fierce bandleader, and perhaps rock music’s greatest social satirist. It is for these aforementioned fans, who have kept Frank employed though some mighty dark years, that the massive documentary You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore series is intended.

Frank Zappa’s You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 2

When completed, the series will contain more than 13 hours of playing time culled from almost 20 years of live material performed by Zappa and various incarnations of the Mothers of Invention. The series will be released on six double-CD set; for those without a compact disc player, multi-record box sets will be released. Recorded in every medium imaginable, from two-track analog to 24-track digital, the series will be an honest, no-dubs documentation of one of the most powerful creative artists in the field of rock music.

The volume in question here, a three-LP recording of the Mothers’ 1974 appearance in Helsinki, Finland is a 17-song, nearly two-hour collection of typically mesmerizing Zappa compositions, featuring what many consider to be one of the best Mothers line-ups (an argument that, of course, extends itself to nearly any Mothers line-up among the hardcore faithful), including keyboard wiz George Duke and saxophonist Napolean Murphy Brock. The early ‘70s were Zappa’s commercial zenith, and the material here, taken mostly from the successful Roxy & Elsewhere and Apostrophe albums, showcase Zappa’s trademark six-string pyrotechnics; complex, extended instrumental interludes; and wry, often scatological humor.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 2 is an excellent collection, a must-have for the “I’ve already bought it” fan; for the uninitiated, it is a fascinating glimpse into the genius of one of rock’s most daring and influential elder statesmen. (Barking Pumpkin Records, released October 25th, 1988)

Review originally published by Nashville’s The Metro magazine...

Archive Review: Paul Weller’s Stanley Road (1995)

I seem to be having a literal, classic love/hate relationship with Paul Weller. As the leading force behind the Jam, one of the British Isles’ finest musical imports ever, I adored just about every mod rocking note he and his mates cranked out. Some cuts, like “The Bitterest Pill” or “Down In the Tube Station At Midnight” are enduring classics, the legacy of a band that sadly never made much of an impression stateside.

Weller broke-up the Jam in order to prevent them from falling prey to the “aging boxer syndrome,” preferring the U.K. hitmakers to retire from the charts with their crowns intact than to hang around to hit bottom. His next musical project, the Style Council, cranked out a handful of soulful, R & B tinged British chart-toppers before sliding into what can only be called insipid lounge jazz, not even suitable musical fare for your local Ramada Inn. It was here that the hate part of the relationship began to grow.

Wild Wood, Weller’s “solo” debut partially redeemed his music-making reputation in these eyes, but the recently-released Stanley Road flirts again with brilliance. Weller’s vocals sound more soulful and passionate than they have in years, resembling a vintage, early 1970s-era Joe Cocker. The songs to be found on Stanley Road are a pleasant enough lot, ranging from straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll to R & B inflected, Ray Charles-ish ravers. Weller seems to have returned to his musical roots, and he’s done well by it. Cuts like “Porcelain Gods,” “Woodcutter’s Son,” or “Broken Stones” show the hand of the maturing artist, and may easily represent Weller’s strongest songwriting efforts to date. Stanley Road may or may not connect with an increasingly anglophobic U.S. record-buying public, but it’s a solid album nonetheless, Weller a complex artist who obviously still has a trick or two remaining hidden up his creative sleeve. (Go! Discs, released May 1995)

Review originally published by Review & Discussion of Rock ‘n’ Roll (R.A.D!) zine...

CD Review: The Dream Syndicate's Medicine Show 40th Anniversary Box Set (2025)

Dream Syndicate frontman Steve Wynn has been a busy lil’ rock ‘n’ roller over the past couple of years, publishing the first volume of his autobiography (highly recommended!), releasing albums by the Baseball Project (2023’s exquisite, Mitch Easter-produced Grand Salami Time!) and the sublime 2024 solo LP Make It Right. With a little help from producer Pat Thomas, Wynn even found the time to work on this nifty, four-CD deluxe 40th anniversary box set of Dream Syndicate’s 1984 album, Medicine Show that includes everything a Syndicate fanatic might want and/or expect from this period of the enduring band’s career.

Dream Syndicate’s Medicine Show

I’ve always felt that Medicine Show was vastly underrated and too-often overshadowed by the band’s raved-about, Velvet Underground-inspired debut, The Days of Wine and Roses. Medicine Show was Dream Syndicate’s sophomore effort, but also their major label debut, represented here by disc one. Originally produced by Sandy Pearlman (best known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult), Medicine Show was slagged by critics and fair-weather fans alike for being too, well…different sounding (*gasp*) than the band’s debut. Too slick, too well-produced, too, too…you get the picture. 

Never mind that damn near every album Pearlman produced was unfairly assaulted by the music media at the time for some damn reason or another (especially the Clash’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope). Critics disregarded the uncomfortable fact that Pearlman coaxed some pretty good performances from his wards, shining them up for commercial FM radio and doubtful label execs, but leaving enough jagged edges that the listener risked cutting themselves. Aside from the nearly-perfect first three BÖC albums, Pearlman-produced gems include the aforementioned second Clash album, the Dictators’ excellent Manifest Destiny and Bloodbrothers LPs, and Pavlov Dog’s pioneering Pampered Menial and At the Sound of the Bell.

John Coltrane Stereo Blues

The same creative vision that Pearlman brought to the aforementioned titles carried over to Medicine Show, which comes out of left field, cranks up the guitars, and delivers a dense, discordant, and sometimes challenging listen that pushed against the preconceived barriers inherent in ‘80s-era rock ‘n’ roll and opened the door for ‘90s grunge and alternative bands to stroll through with enough street cred to grab major label deals of their own. Sure, it took Wynn’s Velvet Underground obsession to darker, gloomier, and doomier environs, but by unleashing his musical id, it reconfigured the band’s sonic footprint laterally to the left-hand path, but it also expanded his songwriting palette in much the way that I expect that Lou Reed felt after the first VU outing.

I’ve always considered Medicine Show to be Dream Syndicate’s “noir” album and, over the years, have probably listened to it as much or more than any of the band’s other efforts. There are some real bangers in these grooves, songs like “Still Holding On To You,” “Armed With An Empty Gun,” “Bullet With My Name On It,” “The Medicine Show,” and the squonky, wonderful guitar jam “John Coltrane Stereo Blues.” The disc includes three bonus tracks, including both a live version and a studio outtake of “John Coltrane Stereo Blues” as well as a cool solo acoustic performance of the title track. 

This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album…Live!

No, the band didn’t hit every bullseye with Medicine Show, and some of their efforts fell short of critics’ expectations, but they took a chance and even if it didn’t sell much at the time, there are many good reasons why we’re still talking about the album 40 years later. It sounds unlike just about anything else released during the decade, and that’s a good thing! The second disc of Medicine Show’s 40th anniversary box includes an expanded version of the band’s This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album…Live! five-song EP, also released in 1984, and recorded during the Medicine Show tour. 

The band was more comfortable with the new tunes, and it shows, the box presenting the full WXRT-FM concert in Chicago with two additional tracks, including a killer live take of “The Days of Wine and Roses.” Several other bonus tracks beyond that concert offer various live (1984) versions of “John Coltrane Stereo Blues” (not a problem, as every performance provides new dimensions), “Bullet With My Name On It,” and “Witness” as well as a lo-fi rehearsal outtake of “Weathered and Torn,” a bluesy, Stones-adjacent romp that is easy to imagine Mick singing.

What Is And What Should Never Be

Disc three really amps up the excitement with “The Road To Medicine Show,” a previously-unreleased live set from CBGB’s in NYC circa 1983 that offers pre-Medicine Show workouts of several songs that would feature on the LP as well as a muscular, feedback-drenched cover of the last good Eric Clapton song, “Let It Rain,” that sounds absolutely Goth. Wynn’s vocals here more closely resemble Robert Smith than ol’ “Slowhand,” the song also offering up some tasty guitarplay. A reverent take on Bonnie Dobson’s folk classic “Morning Dew” starts out with just Wynn’s plaintive vocals before the guitars razorblade their way through the dense mix to noisily punctuate the song’s lyrics. Disc four, “What Is And What Should Never Be,” is an odds ‘n’ sods collection of previously unreleased live tracks from 1983/84 and includes a couple of rehearsal tapes with fan favorite bassist Kendra Smith. 

There are some surprises here, but only a few that truly excite, and the sound quality varies from venue to venue. A somber cover of Dale Hawkin’s “Susie Q” is a little too staid for my tastes, but the band’s take on “Evil Ways” incorporates jazzier vibes than the band’s usual fare, falling somewhere in-between Willie Bobo’s 1967 original and Santana’s better-known recording a couple of years later. BÖC’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is a cheeky choice in cover songs, considering the band’s (then) future association with Pearlman, but the performance’s revved-up and cacophonic delivery (Austin TX version) is both fiercer and punkier than the original. Their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born On the Bayou” is swamp-blues at its finest – dense, murky, unpredictable – you can almost smell the Spanish Moss growing on the Cypress trees. 

  

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

My feelings about Medicine Show aside, the album’s 40th anniversary box provides a lot of bang for your buck – four CDs and 42 songs, including two discs of completely unreleased Dream Syndicate material – all for less than $14 per CD (with shipping from Bandcamp), which is a heck of a better deal than Springsteen’s recent Tracks II box set (seven CDs, $231 on Amazon, $33 per CD?!!). Packaged in a hardback book with liner notes, band commentary, and lots of photos, it’s truly a “deluxe” presentation. 

For the dedicated Dream Syndicate fan, Steve Wynn and Pat Thomas have done an impressive job of documenting the band’s history circa 1983-84 with this expansive collection of studio and live recordings, their efforts resurrecting an underrated album from potential obscurity and extending the band’s growing legacy with a wealth of electrifying live tracks. The Medicine Show 40th anniversary box is what all retrospective reissues should aspire to… (Down There Records, released September 17th, 2025)   

Buy the Medicine Show box set via Bandcamp!

 

 

Archive Review: The Suburbs’ Viva! Suburbs! (1994)

Way back when, during the glory days of American alternative rock, in the early moments of a Reagan era that seemed to spawn such things, came forth legendary bands like Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, and Soul Asylum. Preceeding all of these, however, was the Suburbs. The first of many bands to come from the much-vaunted early ‘80s Minneapolis music scene, The ‘Burbs were a product of both English new wave and good old-fashioned U.S. punk. A handful of albums on a like number of labels brought the band heaps of critical acclaim but only modest commercial success. The Suburbs sadly faded away before the end of the decade.

History seems to have passed the Suburbs by. As lesser lights get their own tribute discs and homage paid them by the cream of the pop charts, the Suburbs’ influence is heard, more than felt, in the present-day world of alternative music. The band mixed punkish intensity with new wave sensibilities and were never afraid to cross musical genres, throwing in a white-hot funk number here, a soulful horn arrangement there, every song always delivered with a great deal of energy and vigor.

With the release of Viva! Suburbs! (Live At First Avenue), the band has come back to Twin Tone Records where they began, and you fanboys are afforded a second chance to grab onto one of the greatest unknown bands of the last decade. Recorded live at the legendary First Avenue Club in Minneapolis during a 1993 reunion, this 20 track, hour plus set includes all of The Suburbs’ best-known material as well as a pair of brand-new, never-before-heard cuts.

The Suburbs’ built their own little myth around songs like “Waiting,” “Every Night’s A Friday In Hell,” “Love Is the Law,” and “Rattle My Bones,” and they run through this set of songs like it was 1983 again and they were on top of the world. Viva! Suburbs! is highly recommended...grab it before some wet-behind-the-ears alternative band covers “Cig Machine” or “Drinkin’ With An Angel” and all that old Suburbs’ vinyl now gathering dust in the $1 bins begin fetching collector’s prices. Don’t come cryin’ to me when it happens... (Twin Tone Records, released 1994)

Review originally published by Review & Discussion of Rock ‘n’ Roll (R.A.D!) zine...

Archive Review: The The’s Hanky Panky (1995)

Who would have thunk it, eh? Concept albums, by their very nature, are increasingly passe...after all, in a music world that runs the gamut from rock to rap, metal, thrash, hardcore punk...what is there that we haven’t seen? Well, how about alternative favorite The The releasing an album of Hank Williams songs? After all, if you look at Hank’s life, his rebel attitude, his obstinate refusal to compromise his artistic brilliance, the arrests and his tragic youthful death, hell, Williams had more cajones than a lot of today’s alternative idols.

Hanky Panky is exactly that, a collection of Hank Williams covers delivered perfectly by Britain’s The The. Matt Johnson, the brains behind the band, has done his homework well, brilliantly selecting an inspired list of Williams’ classics. Cuts like “I’m A Long Gone Daddy,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and “I Saw the Light” receive a rather reverent treatment, Johnson’s echoing vocals representing the technologically-enhanced nineties equivalent of Williams’ hillbilly twang. The cuts are fat with sound and life, altering only the song’s arrangements, not their underlying emotion or poetic accomplishments. It’s an experiment that works, Hanky Panky an excellent tribute to one of the music world’s greatest artists. (550 Music/Epic Records, released February 14th, 1995)

Review originally published by Review & Discussion of Rock ‘n’ Roll (R.A.D!) zine...

Archive Review: Faith No More’s King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime (1995)

I first saw Faith No More some 7 or so years ago, around the time of their first disc, when “We Care A Lot” was on its way to becoming steady college FM fare. They played here in Nashville at a well-known club on a Thanksgiving night, opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The two bands rocked the small club, a mosh pit was in full force, and my brother and myself, bolstered by several pitchers of cheap beer, tried to pick up a couple of leather-clad female beauties who were stationed smack dab in front of the right speaker column. Turns out that the lovely duo had their eyes on the band, however, and dragged Faith No More to their West Nashville abode for an evening of Nyquil intoxication and who knows what else. I ended up going to work the next morning with a dreadful hangover and significant hearing loss, but also, strangely, happy.

Faith No More made a name for themselves by cranking out a funky blend of hardcore and hard rock on stages in small clubs a couple of hundred nights a year. Their albums, no matter how good they might have been, took a back seat to their awesomely intense live performances. With King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime, Faith No More head into a slightly different musical direction. They don’t entirely turn their backs on the chunky metallic hooks, roaring six strings and manic vocals that earned them a solid rep, but rather add an exciting bit of experimentation to the pot alongside their traditional rock frenzy.

“The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” mixes a hard Peter Gunn-styled guitar undercurrent to what is almost a jazzy, big band arrangement with swinging vocals while “Evidence” is a low-key ballad with a soulful, slightly funky backing rhythm. Cuts like “Cuckoo For Caca,” with its random syncopation and wild vocals, or “Digging The Grave,” chockful of harried guitar riffs and shouted lyrics return the band to their traditional roots. Overall, however, King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime represents an important musical departure for Faith No More, one that serves them well, showcasing a more mature and more polished outfit. Bet the material would sound great live, too! (Slash Records, released March 28th, 1995)

Review originally published by Bone Music Magazine...