The work of MONSTERS (Fantomas in General)

Member Name: failme

Product:	Fantomas in General
Date:	24/10/04 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Patton, Innovation, Musicianship

Disadvantages: Can't go on forever, Losing its edge a little

Fantomas is a "supergroup" (heck, it beats Audioslave or Velvet Revolver, to pieces) made up of endlessly talented singer Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc. etc.), sludgy guitarist Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), possibly the finest drummer in the world Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Grip Inc., Testament, Apocalyptica) and little gurning baby Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, solo stuff) on bass.

Fantomas was formed when Mike Patton took it upon himself to create an antithesis of all the feeble "nu metal" that was around at the time - well, that's my interpretation of it anyway. A lot of Fantomas sounds like it's taking the piss out of metal. He created a demo (playing all the instruments himself) of the songs that appeared on the first self-titled album and distributed them amongst his musician friends and created a whole new record label (www.ipecac.com) to release their first album.

I first found this band through hearing some Melvins, and getting into Mike Patton's work through them. In fact I bought their second album "Director's Cut" on a whim without ever hearing Fantomas before. I'm ever so glad I did...

"Director's Cut" is their most conventional (okay, relative to their other works; it's hardly Nickelback) album to date, an album of distorted covers of film scores such as "The Omen" and "Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer". It's like a heavy metal opera, and, as with all Fantomas, will probably alienate anyone you happen to play it to.

The self-titled first album ("Fantomas") is utterly bizarre, probably some attempt by Mike Patton to alienate the huge audiences he gathered as frontman of his previous band Faith No More. But saying that it really is a piece of work. The "songs" sound like they should be No.1 hits, at least in an alternate universe. Some say it sounds like the band Naked City, but Naked City could never play this well and could never write like this. In my opinion it's very different to Naked City, and unlike anything I've ever heard.

The third studio album "Delirium Cordia" is another heavy metal (there really isn't that much metal in this one) opera (of sorts), with one track but a bundle of differing segments. It takes some of the more ambient aspects of "Director's Cut", and bundles it with Mr. Bungle's "The Bends", some Hawaiian music, samples, chanting, and Lombardo tipping his drumkit over. I had it playing on a long, lonely, dark, wet and cold car journey late at night and it seemed perfect for that. Utterly creepy and captivating background music.

Also Fantomas has released a live album with the Melvins called "Millenium Monsterwork 2000", which isn't their best (due to bad sound quality) but it's fun to hear Patton destroying Melvins songs...

Their fourth studio album, "Suspended Animation" (apparently an album of cartoon songs, should be fun...) is scheduled to be released in March 2005, but judging by the debacle with the release date of "Delirium Cordia" it could come out when Nelson finds his lost eye for all I really know.

Fantomas is a fantastic band; innovative, talented, and best of all, it scares all your neighbours and friends. What more could you ask for?

Summary: