10 Great Metal Albums (For People Who Don't Like Metal)

10. Faith No More - Angel Dust

The dichotomy of Faith No More is laid out within moments of opener “Land Of Sunshine”. The band is out the gate with pounding drums and the chug of its down-tuned riff. Moments later, they add to the mix a fairground organ, with Mike Patton’s playful, often hilarious vocal completing the picture.

The band’s masterpiece, Angel Dust crosses every genre boundary you could think of, though keeping the music crunching and heavy throughout. They get into the groove on “Be Aggressive”, and combine piano balladeering with buzzsaw guitars on highlight “Everything’s Ruined”.

It’s funk-rap-rock-metal with plenty more besides; for good and ill, this era of FNM was the blueprint for much of the radio friendly heavy stuff that followed. They did it first, though, and best. When they want to, they can get serious, like on the abrasive “Midlife Crisis”.

For the most part, this is metal with a wink and a nod; not novelty, but the sound of a band having a blast and pushing boundaries to breaking point. They even finish things off with a note-perfect cover of The Commodores’ “Easy”, just because they can.