MAKING OF THE ALBUM: Faith No More – Angel Dust

The success of Faith No More‘s third album, The Real Thing, in 1990 had taken no one by surprise more than the band themselves. Having struggled throughout the 1980s to gain mainstream acceptance, the track We Care a Lot had been a minor hit in 1987 but it would not be until singer Chuck Mosley was fired and replaced by twenty-one year old Mike Patton that they would finally gain the exposure they had worked so hard to achieve. But, despite a Grammy nomination, they did not simply want to repeat themselves and recycle their ideas for their next album, and so when writing and recording began of their fourth studio release, Angel Dust, they went against the advice of their record label and produced something far removed from the funk metal sound of its predecessor.

Recovering from a world tour that had seen them support such acts as Guns N’ Roses (who, at the time, was busy promoting their double album use Your Illusion), coupled with the fact that the band were being featured in mainstream music magazines (Patton felt they were perceived in Britain as a pop band), Faith No More commenced writing new material for their next album in 1991, whilst their track A Perfect Crime (a reworking of a song entitled Sweet Emotion, originally released on a flexi-disc by Kerrang! in 1989) was used on the soundtrack to the hit movie Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. Unlike The Real Thing, in which the music had already been recorded prior to Patton writing the lyrics, with Angel Thing he wrote the majority of the words for the album.

Once again collaborating with regular producer Matt Wallace, sessions began in San Francisco at Coast Recorders and Brilliant Studios in January 1992. Writing continued even as the band were in the studio, with songs such as Malpractice completing the nineteen songs considered for the album. Two of the tracks recorded were previously performed by other arists, including the theme to the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy and the Commodores hit Easy (although the latter would only be included on the re-release of the album). Once recording had been completed, the mixing process took place at Scream Studios in Studio City (which would also host such artists as Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine).

Slash Records released Angel Dust on June 8th 1992, two weeks after their comeback single Midlife Crisis began to generate interest in the band once again. They would enjoy further success in the singles charts with the tracks A Small Victory and Easy, the latter also being featured on the EP Songs to Make Love To (which featured Angel Dust out-takes Das Schutzenfest and Dead Kennedys‘ Let’s Lynch the Landlord). Disappointed with the direction the band had taken, guitarist Jim Martin decided to quit in 1993 and refused to participate in their recent reunion. Faith No More would never achieve the same level of mainstream success and critical acclaim as they would in the wake of Angel Dust.