Faith No More – ‘Sol Invictus’

By Glen Bushell

For years it seemed almost impossible that Faith No More would ever make their return, and it remained but a pipe dream for their heavily dedicated fan base. They answered everyone’s prayers in 2009 with several festival and club performances, which carried on for a couple of years, only to go slightly quiet again. The reason for this silence is that they were putting together the foundations for what would be their first new material since 1997’s ‘Album Of The Year’, which would come to light in the shape of their new album ‘Sol Invictus’.

With a musical output as enduring, and timeless as Faith No More have, you would be right to approach ‘Sol Invictus’ with a sceptical view. Their back catalogue is one of the strongest by any rock band of the last 30 years, with every album expanding on the last, constantly pushing the boundaries of contemporary music. Would they make another genre-defying album? Would they better some of their classic releases? Would they sully their legacy with a sub par album? All of these questions are justified, and the simple answer to them is that they haven’t done any of those things.

Within seconds of the title track you are greeted by the incomparable vocal of Mike Patton. Brooding, and as soul-stirring as ever over a broken piano melody, showing Faith No More have not lost any of their flair for the dramatic. They then launch into ‘Superhero’ with a thunderous Billy Gould bass line that could have been straight out of ‘King For a Day, Fool For a Lifetime’, and is essentially vintage Faith No More. They then take it down a notch or two and focus on the bizarre end of their spectrum with ‘Separation Anxiety’ which is more slow and droning, with Patton showing his excellent vocal range as always.

Rather than choosing to go for a more straightforward collection of songs, ‘Sol Invictus’ primarily focuses on the more avant-garde side of Faith No More. Perhaps fuelled by Patton’s work with his projects Mr Bungle and Tomahawk over the years, but this is not an album of “classic hits” by any stretch. ‘Rise Of The Fall’ is a somewhat disjointed, and at times a nonsensical romp, and ‘Motherfucker’ sounds dated and a little childish by dropping as many expletives as possible into three and a half minutes. It is the lower points like this that make you think that Faith No More are capable of so much more than this.

Thankfully, ‘Matador’ proves the last statement to be true, as it is filled with a harrowing atmosphere before Patton’s soaring vocal in the chorus lifts it up, ending with a glorious lead guitar passage from John Hudson at it’s cadence. The final track ‘From The Dead’ ends the album on a high as the band reaches their most melodic, sounding like the closing moments of a film score.

So where does ‘Sol Invictus’ sit within the long arc of the Faith No More story? In short it is a Faith No More album for Faith No More fans. It doesn’t break any new ground, and doesn’t see the band pushing themselves in the way that they did on faultless records like ‘Angel Dust’ and ‘King For A Day…’ but it doesn’t ruin the legacy of the band in any way. While ‘Sol Invictus’ may not be a classic Faith No More album, they have still proved their relevance in a time of very “safe” music.

GLEN BUSHELL

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