10 Greatest Bands Who Mixed Music Genres
6. Faith No More
The most mischievous band in metal has made a career of zagging when fans expected them to zig (or vice versa). Exploding in the ‘80s, they took the scene in a totally different direction, eschewing the lightning pace and self seriousness of thrash in favour of something sludgier, funkier, and more playful - basically year zero for nu metal a few decades later.
Helping to co-author a new style of music wasn’t enough for the band, though, particularly the enigmatic frontman Mike Patton, who joined for The Real Thing, the band’s third release. Patton and co brought in a diverse range of influences, upping the amount of rap and funk but adding lush strings to “Zombie Eaters” and recording the ridiculously anthemic and almost poppy “Epic”.
Things really go wild on “Angel Dust”. They get heavier than ever on “Midlife Crisis”, but then record a quasi-power ballad on “Everything’s Ruined”, and close the album off with two bizarre covers: a faithful if weighty rendition of the theme from Midnight Cowboy, and then a near-note perfect version of The Commodores’ “Easy”.
The latter became one of their signature songs. It’s wilfully confusing, tough to swallow for the pure metalheads, and generally brilliant.