intothewellsabyss

Jun 20, 20239 min read

𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗡𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 (1989)

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

34 years ago this week, an album of “Epic” proportion was released.

On June 20, 1989, Faith No More released their third full-length studio album, “The Real Thing” via Slash and Reprise Records.

It was the first album by the band not to feature vocalist Chuck Mosley, instead, the album featured Mike Patton from the Experimental/Funk band Mr. Bungle.

On this album, Faith No More continued to advance their sound range, combining Thrash Metal, Funk, Rap Metal, Progressive Rock, Synthpop, Carousel music and Hard Rock, along with what has been described as "a black sense of humor".

Background:

Faith No More underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, “We Care a Lot”, released in 1985 and distributed through San Francisco-based label Mordam Records. On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as "Faith. No More" on the album's liner notes, back cover, and on the record itself.

Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records. The debut album's title track "We Care a Lot" was later rerecorded, for their follow-up album “Introduce Yourself” in 1987, and released as their first single. Membership remained stable until vocalist Chuck Mosley was replaced by Mike Patton in 1988.

The writing for the majority of the music for “The Real Thing” took place after the tour for “Introduce Yourself”. A demo version of "The Morning After", under the moniker "New Improved Song", with alternate lyrics written and sung by Chuck Mosley was released on the “Sounds·Waves 2 EP” with the Sounds magazine.

"Surprise! You're Dead!" was composed by Jim Martin in the 1970s, while he was guitarist for Agents of Misfortune; Agents of Misfortune also featured Cliff Burton in their line up. The recording of the song took place in December 1988 after Chuck Mosley was fired from the band, and was completed prior to the hiring of Mike Patton, who then wrote all the lyrics for the songs, and recorded them the following month over the music.

Producer Matt Wallace said, "All the music was written before Mike joined the band, which had gotten rid of the original singer, Chuck Mosley, and the tracks were either in preproduction or being recorded when Mike came in. And when he'd ask if he could make a section longer or different, the band would say “No, this is it, so you have to do it this way”. So Mike Patton wrote every lyric and melody to that record over a ten to twelve day period. And it is stunning, because he was nineteen or twenty, and pulled all that out of the air, and put together an incredible record. The only thing we did was spend a couple of days at this coffee shop in San Francisco, because a lot of the songs were really dark and heavy lyrically, crazily so, and I would sit there and go, “Mike, these are some great lyrics, but we need to at least use some metaphor, or couch some of the concepts, but I think you've got some great ideas here”. In the end, they really pulled some great songs together."

The recording sessions yielded several songs that did not appear on the album. Two of them, "The Grade" and "The Cowboy Song", later appeared on the singles and on the UK edition of “Live at the Brixton Academy”. A third song, "Sweet Emotion", was later rerecorded with different lyrics as "The Perfect Crime" for the soundtrack to the film that also starred a cameo appearance from guitarist Jim Martin, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. The original version was released on “Flexible Fiend 3” with Kerrang! magazine issue 258 and, more recently “The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection”, the greatest hits compilation released to coincide with the band's reunion tour.

RHCP Controversy:

After the release of the album, Faith No More developed somewhat of a rivalry with fellow Californian’s Red Hot Chili Peppers, whom they had previously played with on “The Uplift Mofo Party Tour”. Singer Anthony Kiedis accused Mike Patton of stealing his "style" in the "Epic" music video. He (Kiedis) told Kerrang! magazine "My drummer says he's gonna kidnap (Patton), shave his hair off and cut off one of his feet, just so he'll be forced to find a style of his own". In a separate interview, Kiedis clarified his comment, remarking "I love “The Real Thing”, and I liked his vocals on that record. I mean, when I heard the record I noticed subtle similarities, but when I saw that video it was like, 'Wait a second here, what the fuck?'".

Roddy Bottum responded by saying "To me, our band sounds nothing like Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you're talking about long hair, rapping with his shirt off, then yeah, I can see similarities. But beyond that, I can't see any. I haven't talked to them since this whole thing started. We're really good friends with that band and I'd like to think they're doing It ... like as a favor". Mike Patton finally addressed the allegations from Kiedis in 1990, commenting that "It just kind of came out of the blue. It doesn't bother me a bit. I got a real big kick out of it to tell you the truth. I mean, if he's gonna talk about me in interviews, that's fine - it's free press! Either he's feeling inadequate or old or I don't know, but I have no reason to talk shit about him." Later in 2001, Patton also theorized that "I think Anthony, deep down, feels like I'm a better dancer than he is. I think I shake my booty just a little bit fresher than he does. And if he would stop doing drugs I think he could outdance me. Maybe one day we'll have a breakoff, just breakdance."

The Real Thing Tour:

The tour in support of “The Real Thing” was the first Faith No More tour conducted with Mike Patton.

The band had begun to be marketed as "Alternative Metal" by the media after the album's release, and they were now primarily playing with Heavy Metal bands, along with other Metal-influenced Punk/Alternative bands.

Notable artists Faith No More performed with during the touring cycle include Metallica, Billy Idol, Soundgarden, Voivod, Sacred Reich, Forbidden, Primus, Babes In Toyland and Poison.

They managed to attract controversy for mocking the party/sex-filled lifestyles of Glam Metal tourmates such as Poison at several shows in Europe during 1990.

The second show of the tour was filmed for the music video to "From out of Nowhere" in the I-Beam nightclub. During the show, Patton had a beer bottle smashed over his right hand, causing lacerations to some tendons. He regained use of his hand after it healed, but he no longer has feeling in it.

The Singles:

The first single to be released from the album was "From Out of Nowhere" on August 30, 1989 which failed to make the UK Singles Chart. It was re-released on April 2, 1990 and made number twenty-three on the UK Singles Chart.

In between these releases was "Epic" on January 30, 1990, the music video for which received extensive airplay on MTV throughout the year, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists for a slow motion shot of a fish flopping out of water.

"Falling to Pieces" then saw release on July 2, 1990 and made it to number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 before the reissue of "Epic", which became the band's first number one hit single, on the ARIA Charts, as well their only top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached ninth position.

"Surprise! You're Dead!" had a music video produced for it, directed by bassist Billy Gould, featuring footage shot in Chile during a South American tour in 1991.

However, the song never saw release as an official single, and the video was not released until its appearance on Video Croissant. "Edge of the World" saw limited release as a two track promo single in Brazil on CD and 12" vinyl, with the album version as track one and the Brixton Academy live version as the second track, in a yellow slipcase with basic black text.

Critical Reception:

“The Real Thing” is one of Faith No More's most successful albums to date. It is now considered a classic Metal album by fans and critics alike. Although released in mid-1989, “The Real Thing” did not enter the Billboard 200 until February 1990, after the release of the second single from the album, "Epic". The album eventually peaked at number eleven on the chart in October 1990, following the reissue of "Epic" almost a year and half after the initial release of the album. It was eventually certified platinum in U.S. and Canada as well as being certified Silver in the United Kingdom.

The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato named “The Real Thing” one of the albums that changed his life and, on the month of the album's 30th anniversary, he wrote an article for Faith No More Followers about the impact that it had on him and alternative music.

In 2015, Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis stated;

“My favorite Faith No More record is “The Real Thing”. That's when Mike Patton took over. That's the one. [Although] I do like “We Care a Lot”. We got a lot of our influences from “The Real Thing”. It showed everybody you could do heavy music and not be "metal". It was something completely different.

In a January 1997 interview with Guitar World, Korn's guitarist Brian Head Welch listed it as an album that changed his life, recalling;

“I was about 17 when I first heard it, and listening to a lot of Metallica, 24-7 Spyz, Living Colour and Fishbone. I dug them all, but Faith No More moved me in a different way, a way more than anything else. It totally changed my direction. It said to me that you didn't have to follow a certain path, that you could just create anything, go out and mess around with anything, that there were no rules. I remember seeing them open up for Metallica, and everyone started booing them going "Rap sucks!" I was so bummed. I felt like screaming at everyone, "Quit fucking booing them and listen." They all just heard the rap beat and didn't give them a chance. Then, six months later, they were all over MTV and the same fuckers who were booing were probably lining up to see them."

James "Munky" Shaffer, another of Korn's guitarists, also praised the album, recalling;

“Fieldy and I were big Faith No More fans. In the late 80s they were playing a kind of Funk Rock; so were the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but we tended to lean more towards the minor progressions. When Patton joined in '89 they dropped a single called "From Out of Nowhere" and we were sold all the way. At that point we became real fanatics – started researching the guy and going up to San Francisco to see them play. Every song on this record was super inspiring to us. The song structures and Patton's sense of melody – it was alternative metal at its best."

“The Real Thing” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance category in 1989 and "Epic" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1991.

The Albums Legacy:

"Epic" was ranked number thirty on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs, and number sixty-seven on their 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders list.

Cover Versions:

• "From Out of Nowhere" has been covered by Canadian New Wave/Electronic Goth Rock band The Birthday Massacre on their compilation album “Imagica”, Finnish band Apocalyptica on their second album, “Inquisition Symphony”, German Power Metal band Helloween covered the song on their cover album “Metal Jukebox” and the Danish Metal band, Raunchy covered the song on their album “Velvet Noise Extended”. It has also been covered by the band Five Finger Death Punch, and is featured on the UK version of their album “The Way of the Fist” as well as the soundtrack for Marvel's Avengers.

• "The Real Thing" was covered by American Progressive Metal band Redemption on the album “The Fullness of Time” as a bonus track.

• "Epic" has been covered both in concerts and on the Kerrang! “Higher Voltage” CD, a compilation of artists covering other songs. Such artists include the Welsh Rock band The Automatic; the CD was released June 20, 2007. The Metalcore band Atreyu also covered the song on their album “Lead Sails Paper Anchor”, and the Swedish indie band Love Is All covered it on their 2008 tour.

• "Surprise! You're Dead!" has been covered by Jim Martin following his departure from the band, on his solo release “Milk and Blood”, and by Humans Being for the “Tribute of the Year” album. It was also covered by Belgian Death Metal band Aborted on their album “Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture”, by American Technical Death Metal band Revocation as a bonus track on their album “Chaos of Forms”, and by American Deathcore band All Shall Perish as a bonus track on their album “This Is Where It Ends”.

• "Zombie Eaters" was covered by Ill Nino with Chino Moreno for their extended play “The Under Cover Sessions”.

• "Edge of the World" is covered twice on the “Tribute of the Year” album by both Hate Dept. and Combine Heathen.

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to the “The Real Thing” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-real-thing/83386606

Click this link to follow Faith No More on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithnomore

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Epic”: https://youtu.be/ZG_k5CSYKhg

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Falling to Pieces”: https://youtu.be/32bdevGClD4

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Surprise! You’re Dead!”: https://youtu.be/eG4AawcYdSE

Click this link to watch the official music video for “From Out of Nowhere”: https://youtu.be/j4tsGWdarHc

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells