The Real Thing

Faith No More

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 1989)
• Original Release Date: June 20, 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Slash/ Reprise
• ASIN: B000002LHA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,120 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Music > R&B > Funk > Metal
  #12 in	Music > Rock > Funk Rock
  #91 in	Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Hard Rock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Faith No More are virtually impossible to categorize; they blend metal and rap elements in a mix that becomes seamless on The Real Thing, whose hit single, "Epic," is a perfect combination of these disparate genres. Other high points are the thrashy "Surprise! You're Dead!," an excellent cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," the funk-layered-with-keyboards "Falling to Pieces," and the soft but spooky "Zombie Eaters." With the addition of vocalist Mike Patton, the band secured a highly talented frontman and skilled lyricist. The Real Thing is one of those rare albums that is impossible to quantify but astoundingly good. More accessible than the follow-up Angel Dust, it's also the first album new Faith No More listeners should get. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You ain't alternative unless you own this album!, October 29, 2003

By	Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Two full years before Nirvana made "alternative rock" the buzzword that it continues to be to this day, Faith No More produced one of the genre's defining moments in "The Real Thing." While this album was among the first to mix rap and rock elements, you definitely shouldn't let that fact scare you. While today's would-be genre benders like Limp Bizkit and (to a lesser extent) Linkin Park seem bent on combining the most meatheaded elements of rap and rock for a sound that only a mook could love, Faith No More brought rock, rap, and funk together with more creativity and intelligence than anyone would have a right to expect. With the phenomenally versatile Mike Patton at the helm and a crack team of musicians backing him up, "The Real Thing" is a clinic in bringing together genres in perfect harmony.
Although there's a bit of a Bay Area thrash influence on display, "Master Of Puppets" this is not. The band's sound may have been ambitious from the outset, but few albums in my vast collection are this fun to listen to.

Even coming from songwriters as prolific and imaginative as Patton and co., it's almost alarming how much high-quality stuff is here. Just look at the first four songs and you'll get an idea of how far ahead of the game Faith No More were. The opening "From Out Of Nowhere" and "Falling To Pieces" bring together Patton's piercing, in-your-face vocals, the band's razor-sharp musical attack, and generous doses of punkish aggression. The head-banging rhythm and explosive rapping of "Epic" made it a justified hit. "Surprise! You're Dead!" brings a menacing, thrash-derived sound into the mix, but it's clearly all in good fun.

From there, the classic songs just keep coming. "Zombie Eaters" starts out with a couple minutes of gentle acoustics (!), then stops on a dime and turns into a pulverizing slab of metal that's all the more effective for the calm that preceded it. The eight-minute title track is a hard-pounding, constantly-shifting epic that makes my jaw hit the floor no matter how many times I hear it. The atomic bassline and neck-snapping dynamics of "Morning After" bring to mind the Pixies, while the instrumental tour de force "Woodpecker From Mars" provides convincing evidence of the virtuosity at the foundation of the band's schizophrenic sound. And as if the original material here wasn't enough, there's also a note-perfect rendition of the Black Sabbath classic "War Pigs."

Listening to this album, it's clear that the fusion of rap and rock did at one point have real potential. It's just too bad that the radio schmoozers of today lack Faith No More's talent and vision. But that's beside the point, as "The Real Thing" was, and is, a classic album that marks one of the high-water points of alternative music. I like to think that along with Soundgarden's "Superunknown" and Jane's Addiction's "Ritual de lo Habitual," this album formed a sort of alt-rock holy trilogy. So get them all!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful blast of genre-crushing, anarchist rock., April 27, 2000

By	D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I was one of those people baffled by "Epic" when it first came out. "What is it?" Neither rap nor metal, neither funk nor dance, it was Faith No More's challenge to conventional music. The song begins with a wash of glorious guitars (courtesy of freaky-looking, Metallica-influenced guitarist Jim Martin) and Mike Bordin's unstoppable drum bashing, going into a thumping bassline and Mike Patton's energetic, enigmatic rap, launching into that mighty chorus, with progressive-rock keyboards providing punctuation at moments, then ending with that classical-sounding piano exit..."What is it?" indeed!

Looking at today's rap-metal fusions, you realize that Faith No More got there first. And The Real Thing is the band's most uniform album, less eccentric, but with exquisite songcraft, a fiery mix, and top-flight performances all around. Patton's versatility and resilient voice is the secret weapon to songs like the irreverent "Falling to Pieces", the superior-to-the-original cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", and instant-classic leadoff track "From Out of Nowhere". And in case you didn't think the band *looked* weird enough, there's "Woodpecker from Mars" and "Zombie Eaters" to remind you that these guys are eccentrics to the bone.

A pivotal release in 1990 that not only woke up the music world, but dangled it by the feet over a pool of alien chemical reagents of Faith No More's own concoction.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Album, January 6, 2005

By	Justin Gaines "Corporate Rocker" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I realize that this is probably the album responsible for much of the dreaded nu-metal phenomenon, but it is still one of my all-time favorites.

The Real Thing was the first FNM release to feature Mike Patton on vocals, and he made quite an impact, as did the band when they released the single and video for the song Epic. This will always be the song that people associate with the band. Anthrax may have tried to fuse rap and metal with "I'm the Man", but it was too goofy to be anything but a novelty. Faith No More took the idea much more seriously, and as a result Epic was a major hit and an inspiration for many bands that followed, from Korn to Pain of Salvation.

Despite the impression Epic gave, the Real Thing was not really a rap-metal album. It was something exciting and new. I suppose if it had been released in 1992 it would have been called alternative. It had elements of rap, punk, and obviously plenty of metal, but there was also something eclectic and offbeat about the music. It wasn't totally experimental and bizarre - that would better describe the band's follow up album Angel Dust.

The albums best tracks are right in the middle, with the 8-minute title track, Underwater Love, and the Morning After. These are all impressive and powerful songs, and show that the band had more to offer than just a rap-metal single. Another album highlight is the cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs. I've heard a lot of Sabbath covers, but this is one of the best.
The band picked up a lot of fans with this album, but over the course of their next few releases would shake off all but the die-hards as each album got progressively weirder.

No matter what you may think of nu-metal, it is impossible to deny the impact Faith No More had with the Real Thing. It's an impressive album, a powerful album, and an album that should be in every metal fan's collection.