Faith No More Return With Stellar 'Sol Invictus'

Faith No More have been back in our lives since they reformed in 2009 to play a bunch of festivals. Thankfully, never ones to let themselves, or their fans get comfortable, and feeling unfulfilled by simply playing the hits and cashing the cheques, they are set to return with their first album in 18 years - 'Sol Invictus'.

Over the course of 10 tracks, clocking in at a punchy 40 minutes, they take you on a twisted journey through their collective deranged minds. This album has been created, recorded, mixed and released entirely by the band themselves, so you can probably guess already that with their high standards this album is going to be incredible.

It is.

From the self-titled opener to "From the dead" the whole thing is a wonderful schizophrenic tangled mess. "Sunny Side Up" is weird. But it's the good kind of weird. The kind of weird we expect from them.

I've read before that they, as a group, create an image in their minds when writing songs rather than a narrative, and I'd love to see the image that created "Sunny Side Up". As far as I can imagine it would be something like a leprechaun in a greasy spoon cafe, nursing a hangover and regretting everything that led to him being there.

I'm pretty sure that’s way off though.

"Separation Anxiety" is possibly the closest to early FNM as we get with a galloping Billy Gould bassline reminiscent of "Midlife Crisis" but "Cone of Shame" is a pure masterpiece in its own right. Lyrically it's dark and twisted and gets darker and more twisted as it builds into an angry rager of a tune. Patton displays his vocal prowess all over this album but this track has it all. Quiet, angry, angrier, soaring. He truly is one of the all-time greatest vocalists ever.

"Rise of The Fall" is full of eastern rhythms, a Faith No More signature of sorts and is followed by "Black Friday" which is quite simply brilliant. "Motherfucker", "Matador" and "From the Dead" close the album in fine style and create a body of work that, although it’s not one of their rockiest, is one of their strongest.

Not only is it good to have Faith No More back and making new music, but to have them inspired enough to create something as brilliant as 'Sol Invictus' is incredible.

Buy this album.

To find out more about Faith No More click here.

To visit the Faith No More Facebook page click here.

Words by Frank Ralph

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