The Real Thing - Faith No More

It seemed to me that, amongst my peers in the late 80s, there was a competition to be 'more metal' than anyone else. If someone had a particularly heavy sounding record then that was as good as being slapped in the face by a gauntlet. The challenge had been made and the game was afoot to find something heavier.

"Ah so you like The Wonder Stuff. Well they're alright but a little bit pop for me. I prefer Ned's Atomic Dustbin."

"Is that a Ned's Atomic Dustbin tape in your bag? It is? Well I suppose they are not bad, a little tame for me. I've just bought the new Red Hot Chilli Peppers album. It rocks"

"I hear you like the Red Hot Chillis? I used to but then they went a little mainstream. A bit too popular. I'm listening to Metallica at the moment. They're a proper metal band."

"Blimey haven't Metallica sold out - I even heard that they've played Top of the Pops. It's gone to their head. Mind you they're not a patch on Napalm Death."

"I used to like Napalm Death until they sold more than ten records. Far too popular. They're even writing tunes now. Tsscchh. I've gone right off them and now I prefer to listen to the sound of a chainsaw cutting through steel plate whilst a heard of hyenas cackle in my ear."

And so on and so forth.

I suppose Nirvana and the whole grunge scene put an end to the escalation by selling records, appealing to the rock, metal and pop crowd and maintaining a certain artistic credibility.

One such band that was bandied about was Faith No More. Or more accurately their genre crossing album 'The Real Thing'. This took their metalistic leanings and threw in funk, rock and...dare I say it....pop into the mix. The metalheads were outraged whilst the popster wondered if it had to be so loud. You can't please all of the people all of the time.

At the time I was one of them but liked 'Epic', the soaraway single on this album, just as I had loved 'We Care A Lot' from their previous album. Mr R had this album, or at least I recall that he did, but for the most part it was a little metal for my developing indie taste buds.

...but that was before. My taste buds have either developed or been deadened from years of listening to rock music. It is nowhere near as bad as I remember it. Actually it's quite good. Sure it's not strictly pop music but then again a lot of things aren't. Maybe it's time I gave Napalm Death another go......