FANTÔMAS

Mike Patton formed Fantômas right after the Faith No More break-up together with an excellent team of musicians, including Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Buzz Osbourne from The Melvins and Trevor Dunn who was a member of Mr. Bungle before they disbanded, all doing a faultless performance here.

This project is by far weirder and more psychotic than Mr. Bungle (which is saying a LOT), mixing metal with sound effects and vocal screams and noises from Patton, which Patton also did a lot with Mr. Bungle, only here it's nearly all the time, backed up with the fairly metallic riffs. It's very rapid and paranoid, and at first listen you haven't got a chance guessing what comes next. The arrangements are fantastic, the metal and Patton's shrieks flows well all the time and it's an extremely well made album overall, though it doesn't show any emotion; this is pure madness on plastic.

There are 30 tracks here, and the total playing time is 42 minutes. So most of the songs are pretty short, usually around a minute and a half. This album is a concept album, as you can notice inside the booklet, a sci-fi/crime story. Actually, the music is very fitting if you look on these pictures and listen to the album at the same time. The album has a rather dark mood to it especially in the quieter parts, which usually are containing more weird sound effects and Patton at his most creepy. You might have a few shocks when you are listening to this too, you'll never know what's next here.

Of course, this isn't for everyone, it's incredibly inaccessible overall and many people might consider this as trash, but if you like metal and avant-garde at it's most unusual, AND are open-minded at the same time, this is something for you. If not, get lost! You won't have a chance!! Trust me! And if you didn't like this, don't even bother trying their other albums.

Me personally, love it. 4.5/5