May seems to be a little thin on the ground for albums, though one of my favourite bands did release one this month, which I'll be looking at later on. For now, I'm going to choose a band many of you love but who have never chimed with me, not even their supposed masterpiece. Will this one change my mind? I kind of doubt it, but sure we'll give it a go.
Sol Invictus --- Faith No More --- 2015 (Reclamation)
Introduction: One thing I really do not like is when metal and rap meet. I've yet to see it done properly, the only possible link being Evanescence, and they're neither metal nor really use rap in their music. I just feel the two are polar opposites, though it can be argued that both use or exhibit a lot of underlying anger and repressed feelings, so maybe. But to me it just never really works. Obviously, that's just my opinion and FNM are a world-renowned band, this being their seventh album and their first in eighteen years, so has it been worth waiting for?
Track-by-track
1. Sol Invictus: Interesting. A piano opening then military drums. Dark vocal, Cohen or Cavelike. Not heavy at all.
2. Superhero: This is much more uptempo, driving along nicely, good piano again, sort of an eastern style to it in parts. Pretty good to be fair.
3. Sunny side up: Another hard rocker but it kind of slows down in the middle and gets a little indie-rock maybe? Haven't hated anything yet though. Short track.
4. Separation anxiety: Kind of a rolling, rumbling feel to this, the vocal is almost whispered at times. Good grinding guitar. Gets a bit frenetic later on.
5. Cone of shame: Ringing, chimy guitar to start off, then it goes into a kind of boogie metal riff. Quite powerful, dark, growling vocals though very discernible. Good guitar riffs.
6. Rise of the fall: Feel this has a semi-reggae feel to it, nice organ work. Kind of reminds me of The Specials too in parts. Also a vague French feeling?
7. Black Friday: Not too sure about this one; sounds a bit like early U2 in parts, REM and some others too. Not crazy about it at all. Bassline is nice.
8. Motherfucker: Dark ambient piano, and here comes the rap. Oh no!
Percussion helps and it's very downtempo, kind of trip-hop I guess (reminds me of Massive Attack which is why I say this). Actually I quite like it. Yeah. Oddly enough, probably my favourite on the album. It's kind of more spoken word than rap, or at least slow, punching rap.
9. Matador: More piano, sounds like it could be a slower one. It is, but there's a really good buildup and you know, this could be my second-favourite. The bass rules once again. Chanelling Bowie here. Great guitar work on the ending.
10. From the dead: With an acoustic guitar opening akin to “Leader of the pack” (!) it has an echoey, distant vocal which merges with some very psychedelic style melody. Probably would have been better signing off with “Matador”. This is something of a disappointment.
Conclusion: Well it's a whole lot better than I had expected it to be, with hardly any hip-hop influences and some really good songs. In fact it only lets itself down, in my eyes, on two tracks out of ten, so that's not bad. Worth waiting nearly two decades for? On balance, I would have to say yes. Changed my mind about FNM? Possibly, though don't expect me to review their discography just yet...
