Faith No More

Faith No More
Faith No More live in Portugal (2009)
General information
Genre (s)	Crossover , alternative rock , alternative metal
founding	1982, 2009
resolution	1998
Website	fnm.com
Founding members
singing	Chuck Mosley (1984–1988; † 2017)
guitar	Jim Martin
bass	Billy Gould
Drums	Mike "Puffy" Bordin
Keyboard	Roddy Bottum
Current occupation
singing	Mike Patton (since 1988)
guitar	Jon Hudson (since 1996)
bass	Billy Gould
Drums	Mike Bordin
Keyboard	Roddy Bottum
former members
guitar	Trey Spruance (1995)
guitar	Dean Menta (1995-1997)
singing	Courtney Love (1983)
guitar	Jim Martin (1983-1995)

Faith No More is an American rock band . The musicians are considered the founding fathers and one of the most important bands of the crossover , as they fused different styles of music such as art rock or funk with metal and hardcore punk . After the band split up in 1998, the musicians have been working together again since 2009.

Band history

From 1982 to 1998

In the early 1980s bassist Billy Gould , drummer Mike Bordin and keyboardist Wade Worthington played in San Francisco in a band founded and directed by singer and guitarist Mike “The Man” Morris and “Faith. No Man "was called. After leaving Worthington, Gould's roommate Roddy Bottum joined as a keyboardist. After Gould, Bordin and Bottum got tired of Morris' dominance, they formed a new band which, on the recommendation of a friend, was named Faith No More - in reference to the old band name ("The Man" is no more). A guitarist was soon found in Jim Martin , and after an enormous wear and tear on singers (including Courtney Love ), the debut We Care a Lot finally appeared in 1985 with Chuck Mosley at the microphone . This led the band to a small success with the title song of the same name. However, after various disputes, which were also triggered by Mosley's drug problems, Mike Patton (including Mr. Bungle , Fantômas ) became the band's new singer in 1988 . Mosley died in 2017.

The single Epic from the following album The Real Thing , in which the band combined a hard guitar sound with rap , was the first big success and made the band known beyond the country's borders. With Mike Patton as the singer, who quickly gained a reputation as an unusually virtuoso vocalist, four studio albums were recorded until the temporary separation. On November 9th, 1989, the evening when the inner-German border opened, Faith No More happened to play a concert in the Loft music club in the Metropol-Theater in West Berlin . After the concert, singer Mike Patton announced to the audience: “ And guess what? The wall is gone! "- In German:" Guess what: The wall is gone! ". In Europe, a cover version of the song Easy by Lionel Richie (from 1977 with The Commodores ), recorded as part of the 1992 album Angel Dust , was a particular success. Already during the recording of Angel Dust , differences between Martin and the rest of the band regarding the musical direction became apparent, which is why Gould recorded some of the guitar parts of the album. Faith No More was nominated for a Grammy three times between 1990 and 1993 .

Before the recordings for King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime , Jim Martin was released from the band, and so the line-up changed again, which also changed the sound of the band. In the studio came Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance used, but who left the band after the recording again and was for the subsequent tour by Dean Menta, a former roadie replaced. King for a Day finally pushed the crossover elements into the background, and the keyboards were now only rarely prominently represented. Instead, Spruance's hard guitars and above all the uncompromising, very expressive vocals of Patton shaped the melodically not very catchy album. This exploration of new musical shores and especially the separation from Martin was received with skepticism by some fans and fanzines. The album sold far worse than its two predecessors, especially on the American, but also on the European market. Today, however, many critics consider the album to be the undervalued highlight in the band's history.

After another album ( Album of the Year , 1997) with the new guitarist Jon Hudson, again much more conventional songs and an extensive tour (among other things Faith No More played as one of the headliners of the Bizarre Festival ) rumors of dissolution emerged in early 1998 on April 19, 1998, shortly after a concert in Lisbon , resulted in the actual breakup of the band. The record company reacted to this with the single release of the Bee Gees cover version I Started A Joke , which had already been presented to the audience as the B-side .

Solo projects from 1998 to 2008

The band's figurehead, Mike Patton , founded other bands called Fantômas , Tomahawk and Peeping Tom in addition to various projects . He also maintains his own record company, Ipecac , which publishes artists of various styles. The main focus is on creative border crossings. Patton himself is also permanently involved in various projects under his own label.

Bassist Billy Gould also runs his own record company called Kool Arrow Records . This is dedicated to underground formations from all over the world. In addition to his work as a producer, he can be heard with the Scandinavian cover band Black Diamond Brigade , whose members, as well as Patton's collaborations, are known from other well-known bands. In November 2006, Gould joined the German band Harmful , whose album "7" he produced in February 2007, temporarily as the second guitarist. The former drummer Mike Bordin was in addition to regular temporary jobs (including Korn and Jerry Cantrell ) for a long time a permanent drummer for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath . Keyboardist Roddy Bottum continues to run his indie pop project Imperial Teen .

Activities since reunification in 2009

In February 2009 it was surprisingly announced that the band would reunite for a European tour. After the European tour in summer 2009 with over 30 appearances (mainly in the context of festivals) concerts were played in South America (Chile, Argentina, Peru, Brazil) and Mexico in the autumn. In February and March 2010 Faith No More gave concerts in New Zealand and Australia, in April and June in the USA. At concerts in San Francisco they played for the first time since 1988 with Chuck Mosley. In July they performed again in Europe. In September 2010 it was announced that Faith No More would not pursue any further activities for the time being after the last concert, which took place in Chile in December. This message has often been interpreted as the final breakup of the band.

However, the band performed at four festivals in South America in November 2011, most recently on November 14th in São Paulo , Brazil, at the SWU Festival . Billy Gould kept it open whether further activities from the band were to be expected. In June and July 2012 there were actually several live performances at various European festivals, where the new song Matador was played.

After that, the band was quiet again for two years, until they performed together with Black Sabbath in London's Hyde Park on July 4, 2014 , where they played new song material. Shortly afterwards, a new album, the fifth with Patton, was announced. Since November 20, 2014, the new single Motherfucker can be heard on the SoundCloud streaming service . The song was available for download on December 9, 2014. On May 15, 2015, a new studio album called Sol Invictus , produced by bassist Billy Gould, was released on the band's own record label Reclamation Records for the first time in 18 years . According to the band, it was musically inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees and Roxy Music . On May 11, 2015, the album could be heard in advance as a stream on SoundCloud. It was received largely positively by the criticism.

Style and style of play

Faith No More achieved fame primarily through their extravagance . Her style changed with almost every album. At the beginning of their careers they played a hard version of post-punk in the style of Killing Joke . After Mike Patton's entry, the elements metal and funk dominated , which is why their style was initially referred to as funk metal . Later more and more elements were added, others were lost again. From soul and easy listening to hardcore punk , industrial rock and world music elements, the range has been exhaustively exhausted. Even classical elements and film music were included in the band's sound spectrum, e.g. B. Epic (by The Real Thing ) ended with a piano theme and Jizzlobber ( Angel Dust ) with some sort of church music .

“Eclectic rock is probably the most fitting description of Faith No More's music,” wrote the US daily The New York Times in a concert review in 1995, saying that they “play stupid rock smart”. Faith No More often use cover versions in their live sets . On the one hand, the band reinterprets entire songs, as they can be found on various albums (such as War Pigs by Black Sabbath , Easy by Lionel Richie / The Commodores , I Started A Joke by the Bee Gees or the film music instrumental Midnight Cowboy by John Barry ). On the other hand, she often only uses music or text fragments that are implemented like samples in her own compositions (e.g. The Right Stuff by New Kids On The Block in the middle section of We Care A Lot, Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic as the outro of The Real Thing or Lady Gaga's Poker Face as an intro for Chinese Arithmetic). The band also uses compositions from a wide variety of styles, epochs and categories when selecting the covers. The arc ranges live - in addition to the above - from Let's Lynch The Landlord from the Dead Kennedys to Deep Purple Highway Star, Michael Jackson's Ben, Burt Bacharach's The Guy's In Love With You to Switch from Siouxsie and the Banshees. The set of their second coming tour in 2009/2010 also opened with a cover version, namely with the 1978 RnB superhit Reunited by Peaches & Herb . According to statistics based on setlist collections, of all the songs that Faith No More performed live from the start, the fourth most played is already a cover version (Easy).

Discography

→ Main article : Faith No More / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1985	We Care a Lot	-	-	-	-	-	First published: 1985
1987	Introduce Yourself	-	-	-	-	-	First published: April 1987
1989	The real thing	DE37 (16 weeks) DE	-	-	UK30th silver (35 weeks)UK	US11 platinum (60 weeks)US	First published: July 3, 1989 Sales: +1,160,000
1992	Angel Dust	DE8th gold (45 weeks)DE	AT4 (16 weeks) AT	CH9 (15 weeks) CH	UK2 gold (25 weeks)UK	US10 gold (19 weeks)US	First published: June 8, 1992 Sales: + 950,000
1995	King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime	DE8 (24 weeks) DE	AT9 (16 weeks) AT	CH7 (16 weeks) CH	UK5 gold (8 weeks)UK	US31 (8 weeks) US	First published: March 25, 1995 Sales: + 100,000
1997	Album of the Year	DE2 (20 weeks) DE	AT5 (11 weeks) AT	CH16 (12 weeks) CH	UK7 (5 weeks) UK	US41 (8 weeks) US	First published: June 3, 1997 Sales: + 70,000
2015	Sol Invictus	DE4 (7 weeks) DE	AT7 (6 weeks) AT	CH3 (6 weeks) CH	UK6 (4 weeks) UK	US15 (4 weeks) US	First published: May 15, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Greg Prato: Album of the Year was a fitting way for one of alternative rock's most influential and important bands to end its career . Allmusic.com. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
2. ↑ Metal Hammer: The mighty alternative rock band will play their first shows in over a decade this week at Brixton Academy and Download respectively. . Metal hammer. June 6, 2009. Archived from the original on September 3, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 28, 2011. 
3. ↑ Rock Radio: Faith No More have announced a comeback season of festival shows. . Rockradio.co.uk. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 28, 2011. 
4. ↑ Alternative Metal at Allmusic
5. ↑ Mike Morris on Faith. No Man on FaithNoMan.com
6. ↑ Zeitsprung: On 09.11.1989 Faith No More playing in Berlin, when the wall falls. by Christof Leim on www.udiscover-music.de, November 7, 2019 (accessed November 13, 2019)
7. ↑ http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/02/faith-no-more-r.html
8. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/04/15/faith-no-more-reunites-with-chuck-mosley/
10. ↑ http://www.fnm.com/tour-dates.shtml
11. ↑ http://www.visions.de/news/13274/Faith-No-More-Das-Ende
12. ↑ FAITH NO MORE Confirmed For Brazil's SWU MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL. (No longer available online.) July 19, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 13, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
13. ↑ Faith No More Tour Dates. Retrieved September 13, 2011 . 
14. ↑ FAITH NO MORE Confirmed For Brazil's SWU MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL. (No longer available online.) July 19, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 13, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
15. ↑ http://www.fnm.com/tour-dates.shtml fnm.com Tour Dates; Retrieved June 8, 2012
16. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-faith-no-more-first-release-in-17-years-motherfucker-20141119
17. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.de/news/mektiven/article629397/faith-no-more-im-interview-neues-album-2015-das-erste-seit-18-jahren.html
18. ^ "Faith no more announce details of first album in 18 years" . The Guardian . 11-02-2015.
19. ↑ laut.de : Faith No More: "Sol Invictus" in the stream
20. ↑ Plattentests.de : criticism
21. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/16/arts/rock-review-being-smart-about-music-that-isn-t.html
22. ↑ http://www.setlist.fm/stats/faith-no-more-2bd6b0de.html
23. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

• Official website
• Faith No More at Allmusic (English)
• Faith No More on MusicBrainz (English)
• Faith No More at laut.de