The Real Thing

Great album with its own unique sound.

Faith No More is Red Hot Chili Peppers if RHCP hired a heavy metal guitarist and only liked California as a friend.
FNM laid the groundwork for the 'nu-metal' acts of the (very) late 90's and early 00's, which comprised a large portion of my CD case during that time. At that time I only knew "Epic" and didn't fully appreciate how metal the rest of the FNM catalog was. The whole playbook, including the vocal shift from grunting verses to whiney choruses, is present here. But to their credit, this doesn't feel like a band that got together and agreed to just chunk out a bunch of same-y rap metal songs and call it a day. Songs like "Woodpecker From Mars" make a convincing argument that they know how to play their instruments and have some interest in exploring their musical space. To the extent that an album track can be broadly influential, I would argue that this track is one of the earliest examples of post-rock and may have contributed to creating that genre. With several tracks in the 5-8min range, they weren't recording this to be potential radio fodder, and probably could have had more hits if they edited themselves a little more.
I won't call this an easy listen, but it was intriguing and worth my time.

The surprising thing about this album to me is that it came out in 1989. I mean I had heard songs from this album over the years and always thought it was one of the mid 90s grunge/funk/metal mashups that sort of led to the nu-metal genre. Going back now and listening to it knowing when it was released, I should have known better. There are some elements of this that sound exactly like the early Chili Peppers which would have been around the same time I think.
It's a decent album, not one I would go back to. The cover of War Pigs was kind of a nice surprise. My favorite thing about it is the bass - great tone, great playing throughout. Least favorite thing about it - the vocals absolutely suck. 2.5/5 and rounding down

Forgot how good this band is, even with the somewhat annoying vocals and subpar rapping. The instrumentals are fantastic with hints of everything from Exhorder-like grooves to Dream Theater-esque melodies.

4.5/5.0: Excellent

interesting album. not really a great album, but entertaining at least. really enjoyed the instrumental and the war pigs cover

A cross between rage against the machine, RHCP and Metallica. Would defo listen again

This is some proper ass water. I hated the bass sound, the vocalist sounded like he had an annoying accent.
I was like woah finally a good song?
Nah its just a cover of an amazing song.

This is such a great album. Heavy, fast and loud. More funk in their pinky fingernail than the entire Chili Pepper's catalog combined.

Mike Patton has a unique vocal quality - is he being squeezed? Is he one of the smaller Muppets? No one knows for sure.

In all seriousness, this kicks ass from beginning to end. I've heard Epic a million times, but the rest of this is even better. High energy weirdness. Aged really well. A new favorite. The more I listen the more I want to give it my highest rating.

Solid rock, punk-rock.

For my money, Mike Patton is probably the greatest vocalist of all time, and easily top 10 singer of all time. The things he does with his voice are insane, and he's no slouch on this record. From his very Prince-like nasal delivery, to all his inflections and sound effects, dude is the GOAT.

This album is fantastic as well. From the Prince-influenced funk metal tracks (From Out of Nowhere and Falling to Pieces), to the Coroner-esque thrash metal (Surprise! You're Dead!, Zombie Eaters), it's all great. I mention the apparent influences though not to say its derivative because they definitely add their own take on it all, and no other band has ever sounded like this before or after. The title track being a great example of Patton going all out with his voice.

I will say, I'm not the hugest on the Prince-like funk metal stuff, but it's still great.

Some could argue this album helped, unfortunately popularize rap metal/nu metal, and sure, but creatively this album stands heads an tails above pretty much anyone. Even still, we wouldn't have bands like Dillinger Escape Plan (top 5 bands all time for me) in their current form were it not for albums like this.

Pretty fun listen. I can definitely hear how it influenced sounds that followed it in the 90s. Not sure I'll return to it but glad to have heard this.

Le tengo mucho cariño a este disco, era más de lo mismo en esa época, pero se salía bastante del patrón. Tenía algunas en favorito como Epic y Falling to pieces y he añadido un par más: The real thing y Woodpecker from Mars. Creo que se merece más de 3 estrellas, pero esa nota refleja más la opinión general que puedo compartir de este álbum.

The record that unleashed Mike Patton on an unsuspecting mainstream listening public. Their most varied, funkiest, and joyfully evil album!

"Epic" is epic, rocks for the most part, but after a hard cover of "War Pigs" it ends on an almost jazzy loungey number in "Edge Of The World", It's then you realise the whole thing is a jumbled mess of contradictions and a better run order would have made it a lot more listenable

It's never a good sign when you find yourself reflexively reaching for the lower volume button. The vocals are so grating they're almost unbearable. The guitarmonies are cool, the riffs are decent and even the funk metal bass has a fun novelty to it, but the the singing is noxious and then he starts sort of rapping. Oof, brutal. The War Pigs cover is good, but the thing about covering an all time great song is that it just throws into relief how bad all your originals are!

I've heard about Faith No More thorough the years of my life and I never checked them or anything, they felt like a not interesting band. So, I played the album and at first I didn't enjoy it much but with every second it got better. I didn't like the vocals at first but after a bit I got used to them and saw some good stuff in it - harsher vocals were cool too. And the bassist was just phenomenal. I'll be going back to this album now.

Edit:

Okay, so it's been more than a year since I listened to The Real Thing for the first time, and since then - things have changed. Basically Mike Patton became one of my biggest vocal inspirations as a beginner vocalist myself. And well, my respect and love for his art has grown significantly, mainly through Mr. Bungle. I fucking LOVE Mr. Bungle so so so much. One of my favorite bands for some time now. So, I felt a need to come back to The Real Thing again. So I did, and I liked it very muchly, as much as I did in the past. But now I liked it for other reasons too, so well, it's a really great album. Great basslines. Amazing vocalist, of course. And well, I am glad. I am glad I came back to this one and it really needs an update. So, I am changing the review from 4 to 5 stars. Mike and the crew, thanks you.

I know 'Epic' and it's fine. The rest is similar. The album cover is nice; it reminds me of Green Day's Dookie. Lotta guitar and drums which isn't my vibe. Song called 'The Real Thing' on the album 'The Real Thing' with the lyric "the real thing" is very much my vibe. Feels more 90s than 80s to me, which is a compliment, but I still don't enjoy listening to it (too loud). I was surprised that I actually know 'War Pigs' too (presumably the Black Sabbath version). Feels like a 2.75 (I'll stop with the fractional ratings soon, I swear).

Pretty good alt rock. Kinda grungy metal sound with some bangers. 3/5

Music algorithms think "epic" is right up my alley.
It doesn't sound like it's from 1989, feels ahead of its time. A fun album.

Highlights: surprise! you're dead! (great opener riff)

Good album! Lots of energy. Manages to have melody along with rock power. Enjoyed this more than I expected.