Fantômas by Fantômas (Review)

I’ve been a follower of Mike Patton since his first days in Faith No More. This followed through to Mr. Bungle and whatever side projects of his that I could find. It should be noted that as Patton distanced himself from Faith No More, his experimentation grew stranger and stranger. Listening to any Patton project now is like Bobby McFerrin on crack.

So we have Fantômas. A joint project of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle, Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins and Dave Lombardo of Slayer. There are 30 quick tracks of harsh ambience and blast metal with Mike Patton making strange noises with his voice.

It’s certainly a far cry from anything that any of the musicians on this album have done in the past and is not really meant to be enjoyed by the casual listener. I’m a die hard fan and it ranks high on my list of favorites as it is actually very good. The stuff Patton does with his voice is godly. But take heed, this is really out there and new listeners may want to ease into it with Mr. Bungle first.

Written by Rook.