Ranking the Studio Albums: Faith No More (w/Martin Popoff) 

Angel Dust is an absolute masterpiece. Highly influential too.

"Angel Dust" is not only my fave FNM album, it is one of my all time favorite albums overall. An amazing feat of artistic strength, and no, not forced. It is catchy when it needs to be (A Small Victory or Everything's Ruined), and abrasive when it needs to be (Malpractice or Jizzlobber), and everything in between. Complete musical freedom.

Angel Dust will always be my favorite. One of my favorite albums of all time.

Rock, metal, pop, rap, grunge, punk etc - every genre owes a debt of gratitude to FNM. Simply one of the best bands ever.

King for a Day is a desert island album for me.

Angel dust is a masterpiece hands down...

Was pleasantly surprised to see FNM on the channel, Angel Dust is still one of my favourite albums of all-time. 7. We Care A Lot 6. Introduce Yourself 5. Sol Invictus 4. The Real Thing 3. Album of the Year 2. King for a Day 1. Angel Dust

Faith No More is my favourite band of all time! Finally you make a video on them, that's awesome.

Everything's ruined is my favorite FNM song and the real thing is brilliant

Love Martin, but I'm with Pete here. Angel Dust is, by far, their best.

I agree with Pete, my number one is also Angel Dust.

The Real Thing was the starting point for my musical journey, it has to be my number one. It's the blueprint for all the things I love about music. Never made a bad album, all the others are kinda interchangeable depending on how I feel that given day.

Been waiting for this...I absolutely love Faith No More, such a misunderstood overlooked band...and Mike Patton has such a great voice...just enjoy watching this one....Fool for a Day King For a Lifetime and Real Thing probably my top 2 all the rest tie...thanks for this episode Pete....Mr. Bungle rules too🤘🤘

My favorite band of all time. Seen them live 11 times starting from 1990. Love'em 1. Angel Dust 2. The Real Thing 3. King For A Day 4. Introduce Yourself 5. Sol Invictus 6. Album Of The Year 7. We Care A Lot

Great to see you with Martin again Pete ... Greets from Argentina

Thank you both for the in depth analysis, the thougtfulness, and the interesting perspectives.

Such an incredible band. I think just based on how frequently I listen to them, I’d go with 1. King For A Day 2. Angel Dust 3. Sol Invictus 4. The Real Thing 5. Introduce Yourself 6. Album Of The Year 7. We Care A lot

Kudos to you guys for doing the FNM show, one of my favorite bands of all time. I also loved the Graveyard show. Thanks for keeping it exciting and rock on!

This was a good podcast. Totally with you Pete on Angel Dust being my favorite FNM album. I love it beginning to end. Masterpiece. I have two different vinyl pressings of it. It's also one of my all-time favorite albums. Easily in my top 10. Thanks!

Yes baby Faith No More!!! Much love from Quebéc!!!

Awesome list Pete and Martin. I'm quite shocked and pleasantly surprised at the amount of support for King For A Day. My ranking and favorite from each: 7. We Care A Lot (We Care A Lot) 6. Introduce Yourself (R n' R) 5. Sol Invictus (Superhero) 4. Album Of The Year (Mouth To Mouth) 3. The Real Thing (Zombie Eaters) I saw them open for Metallica on the ...And Justice Tour and they got booed and stuff thrown at them. A year later, (post-"Epic") open for Billy Idol and got cheers. Different time, different fans. 2. King For A Day...Fool For A Lifetime (King For A Day) Awesomely performed when I saw them live on this tour. There was a time my roommate asked if I could play anything other than this album for a few days. 1. Angel Dust (A Small Victory) Still upset I missed them on this tour.

Hey Pete and Martin, thanks for ranking FNM's studio albums. I appreciate the love, care, time, and insight that's evident in your video. Something that I wanted to add regarding the We Care A Lot album is that, not only were they one of the very first 'alternative rock' bands, the song "We Care A Lot" joins hard rock and rap almost a year before Run DMC's version of "Walk This Way".

Angel Dust at #5 Martin. Your credibility has been revoked sir. LOL

YEEEES!!! Thank you for this! 1, Album of the Year 2. King for a Day... Fool For a Lifetime 3. Angel Dust 4. The Real Thing 5. Introduce Yourself 6. We Care A Lot 7. Sol Invictus

Got to say Angel Dust is my number 1.

One of my favourite bands ever. Really got into them earlier this year and never looked back. Pretty hard to say which album is my favourite, probably either Angel Dust or King For A Day

As always, I love how different the lists are and how albums speak to us all differently.

Pete! Good call on “cone of shame”. Fave off that album. Saw them at Merriweather in MD when this album came out. They crushed it

The UK definitely got Angel Dust. Kerrang magazine even voted it the most influential album of all time. For me it's an absolute masterpiece. It still sounds fresh today. Also Patton said he sang the way he did on The Real Thing because he wanted to differentiate his sound from what he was doing with Mr Bungle.

Thanks for this ranking! Pete, I don`t know if you like Sonic Youth, maybe not, but... I was the guy who asked for a Kreator album ranking. cheers, and keep the great work 🤘👍

Big Jim Martin now grows championship pumpkins for a living. Go figure.

Faith No More will always be my top favorite band, above all. Angel Dust would be my No 1. I also didn’t care for Chuck’s vocals at first, but later he grew on me. I feel lucky I once got to meet Chuck at a Deadcross (of all places) show in Detroit. I didn’t meet Mike Patton unfortunately lol This was another great episode!!

Wow........ I usually agree with Martin a lot, but Angel Dust being that low. Yikes... To each they own though! Angel Dust will always be my favorite. I'm mostly with Pete on this one because I'm not a fan of Chuck either and I even love punk but I never did care for his vocals. I do respect the albums through. I like several tracks on both because the music was good but those albums are at the bottom for sure. As far as my 2nd and 3rd favs, it's hard. Because sometimes I prefer King and other days Album of the Year. Then I would go with The Real Thing and then Sol.

Love the Starz live album cover shirt!🤘

The Real Thing will always be a favorite for me. Thx guys.

FNM was one of my favorite bands of that era. I got into them in college starting with Introduce Yourself and then just kept going. Angel Dust is my favorite. I think it's their masterpiece. They are fantastic live. Every one of their albums is gold to me.

One of my 10 favourite bands ever!!! Unique music.. and great live show in Athens in 2009...!!

Angel Dust is their masterpiece

Shout out to Martin for mentioning The Dan Reed Network. Saw them in Cleveland in the 90s and completely was slayed. Finally, an amazing and respectful tribute/ranking of Faith No More.

Always loved Faith No More, with Chuck and Patton.

In 1989 I was 14 years old and a huge fan of the “hair” metal scene. Sitting at my aunts house watching Much Music on her giant satellite disc that picked up everything, “From Out Of Nowhere” came on and 30 seconds into the song my world was turned upside down. I had never heard anything like this band in my young life and I became obsessed. I hurried up and found a paper and pen and wrote down the band name and album and made my way to the record store and bought a cassette copy of The Real Thing. After the first listen I could not get enough. I wore that tape out. When I found out that they had two albums prior I went out and bought them, and to my shock, Patton wasn’t the vocalist, but unlike Pete, I didn’t care. Even though Chuck’s vocals weren’t slick or polished like everyone else’s in the music industry, they fit with the music, perfectly. To me FNM has never made a bad album or an unlistenable song. ( Clutch and Alice In Chains haven’t either ) Anyway, now that I’ve typed this long comment to which almost nobody will read, here’s my rankings: 7. We Care A lot 6. Album of The Year 5. Sol Invictus 4. Introduce Yourself 3. King For A Day….. Fool For a Lifetime 2. The Real Thing 1. Angel Dust

Great show guys ! Supposedly, depending on sources Mike Patton , highest vocal range ever at 6 octaves . But then again , I’ve seen a list with David Lee Roth at 6 octaves , so guess it depends. Great stuff! 👍💯

king for a day was huge in the uk, my favourite of them all. still listen to it now.

Going through the comments, there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for "King for a Day". That's to be expected, I suppose. I mean, I've always been the only person in the known universe to hail it as a masterpiece. Which it is. And so is "Angel Dust", of course, but "King" is the naughtier, more fun and adventurous (OK, fucking insane) follow-up to that earlier art-rock behemoth. I bought "King" on release day. Went to the midnight sale. I was the only one there. Everyone else stayed at home listening to their safe copies of "Easy". The mainstream crowd. I took it home, listened to it once and immediately realized I'd found the music of my soul. I thought it was the blues, but fuck that. Went to see the band when they came to town. They came running out on stage and started doing pushups for 5 minutes before playing a note. The teenage girls who were there to hear "Easy" looked very uncomfortable. Then the show started. A 2-hour aural assault on the senses in which Patton (at the peak of his powers) and his boys tore everyone a couple of new assholes by playing through the entirety of the new album and yelling at the teenage girls to "DANCE!" whenever they looked lost during the heavier numbers. Someone yelled: "Play Easy!". They got "Cuckoo for Caca" instead. They were never the same again, but goddammit, if they weren't the best band in the world for about 6 years!

Fun with the diversity in your rankings for FNM guys. Good show!

My favorite band of all time!

Martin with Angel dust so low? ...dang I think it's one of the best albums of all time. 1. Angle Dust 2. Album of the year 3. King For a Day Fool for a Lifetime 4. The Real Thing 5. Introduce Yourself 6. Sol Invictus 7. We Care a Lot

Angel Dust is by far their best.

Another great video! Hope you're doing well! Here's my list: 1) Angel Dust 2) King for a Day 3) Album of the year 4) Sol Invictus 5) The Real thing 6) Introduce Yourself 7) We care a lot.

Great review of a great band👍

I am so glad to see an album ranking from this band, they are a band i got into (1990 in 6th grade) & have loved them ever since. I really enjoyed this conversation too & both of you made statements that really word for word is what i had thought of all these years. Terrible album covers, but i do like King for a Day and Angel Dust’s covers. I never understood how Faith No More wasn’t more poplar than they were/are. It’s probably because they are a bit of an oddball band and never fit into a certain genre. Only time i got to see them was also that stadium tour with Metallica and GnR. I’ve always hated GnR and I couldn’t believe i was going to see Metallica and Faith No More on the same day. I completely agree with Pete, as much as i loved Metallica and they were great, i thought FNM was the best band that day..they sounded so so good. 1. Angel Dust (it’s not even close for me) 2. The Real Thing 3. Introduce Yourself 4. Album of the Year 5. We Care A Lot 6. Sol Invictus 7. King For a Day...Fool For a Lifetime (I actually couldn’t get into this album until recent years)

That Giants Stadium FNM/Metallica/GnR show in 92 was my first concert, and that synopsis was spot on.

Great choice Pete, greetings from Peru, here's the list of mine: 1-Angel Dust 2-King For A Day... 3-The Real Thing 4-Sol Invictus 5-Album of the Test Not really fan of the Chuck Mosley era though.

Chuck did polarise people, no doubt about that. I do like those early records. A lot of love here in the UK for 'Angel Dust' (and the band in general) and I loved how original and interesting that one sounded on release. Also worth pointing out the killer b-sides the band has put out throughout its career. And of course the live improvisation. When I first saw them at Glasgow Barrowland in '92, they started the show with some loosely "choreographed" dancing which had the crowd in stitches. Last time around they broke into the Eastenders (UK soap opera) theme tune twice during one of the songs to much hilarity. Can't wait to see them next year when we reclaim our lives, tremendous unique band! 1 King For A Day 2 Angel Dust 3 The Real Thing 4 Album Of The Year 5 Sol Invictus 6 Introduce Y'self 7 We Care A Lot

Imo "Album of the Year" is their best album. It's so underrated with 5 MASSIVELY STELLAR songs: "Ashes to Ashes: (the best song on the album), "Paths of Glory", "Stripsearch", "Last Cup of Sorrow", and "Helpless". Also really good songs such as: Collision, Naked In Front of the Computer, Mouth to Mouth, She Loves Me Not, and Got That Feeling.

This was really interesting, especially seein the difference in you guys' views on the band. Faith no more is a band I discovered around when King for a Day came out (and I never liked that album very much and still consider it kind of a weak point in their discography). On the other hand I adore Angel Dust and it might just be their best one, and I'm rather partial to Album of the Year and SOl Invictus, too. I think I'm in the camp that prefers the band when they are a little weirder, but on the other hand I'm kind of with martin in not thinking Chuck is bad at all. I really like that Killing Joke sound so the pre-Real Thing stuff does kind of work well for me. FNM is one of those bands where sometimes you get the sense that they really weren't getting along. Maybe that actually helped them be crazier? It's hard to say. I thought they gave their weakest album when Jim Martin left the band but then they kind of came back strong again. Interesting band for sure; one which I pretty much abandoned for years as i was getting into wilder metal and prog, but which I've sort of come back to in the last few years.

1.Angel Dust 2.The Real Thing 3.King For A Day 4.Album Of The Year 5.Introduce Yourself 6.Sol Invictus 7.We Care A lot

Best Show on RU-vid!!

Great program. I'm a 51 year old metalhead/farmer from central Indiana and I have a true story to share with you all. In the early '90s, Mr Bungle was on tour with a band named Grotus, and came to a venue called Bogarts in Cincinnati Ohio. My friends and I drove hours to the show, and as many concertgoers in that area may know, Bogarts was the place to meet bands due to no backstage access- the back door led directly to the stage. A white van with an open side door sped through that back alley- probably 13-15 mph- with two pale white asses- yes, they granted us immediate access to more than we wanted to see. Later that evening, after a GREAT performance, my friends and I wanted to drink- but not drive- and chose to get a reasonably priced hotel room on the outskirts of town. Mr Bungle was at the same hotel. Long story short, we bumped into Mr Patton as we were all filling ice buckets, and after about ten minutes of very interesting dialogue- very nice mellow dude- I had a signed ticket stub he requested to sign. I still have that stub. It says "I f*cked Bobby Knight. Sincerely, Mike Patton."

I just got Sol Ivictus. It's growing on me fast. I find the songs very memorable and on rotation in my head.

Martin Martin Martin!! Angel Dust is not only FNM's best album it is my favorite album of all-time and I listen to just about every genre. My broad interests in music were brought into existence by FNM. Before them, I was living a very sheltered life in a small rural town with virtually zero exposure to music outside of the mainstream. When Epic hit, I was at first confused by it, but uncontrollably drawn to it. I distinctly remember getting a posse of friends together and driving 15 miles to the closest town that had a music store so I could buy the album on cassette! The exploration of that album and it's wild shifts and genre mashing was something to behold and it quickly became one of my favorite albums. A few years later when Angel Dust came along the Real Thing was left in the dust! I loved that album from Day 1 and it has only grown stronger in my opinion. I can remember multiple day stretches where I listened to that album on loop without the slightest hint of boredom. Angel Dust has only been threatened at the top of my list a couple of times over the years, but those competitors quickly fell to the wayside. While I have enjoyed all of FNM's albums, everything after Angel Dust was a minor letdown and I actually find myself loving the Chuck Albums more than the post Angel Dust. The one thing I agree with Martin on, is that all of their albums are at least a 7.5, but my list is almost a mirror of Martin's. 1. Angel Dust 2. The Real Thing 3. We Care A Lot 4. Album of the Year 5. Introduce Yourself 6. Sol Invictus 7. King For a Day....

That Ashes to Ashes song Mike Patton sings his ass off.

Saw Bordin play drums behind Ozzy and Black Sabbath and he nailed it, did an awesome job.

I never liked the Chuck albums either and honestly only spent a lot of time on The Real Thing and Angel Dust. Because of this ranking I plan to go back and listen to the catalog and give them a chance. Thanks for all you guys do!

Never got into this band, but appreciate their uniqueness

Thanks for doing this they are my all time favorite band. My rankings. Angel Dust King For a Day The Real Thing Introduce Yourself tie Album of the Year and Sol Invictus We Care A Lot But to be fair it could change on any given day with the exception to the top 2.

Introduce Yourself, I just return to this album so many times over the years. Like the rest but love this one.

Popoff names all these bands in that scene but forgets Fishbone, who were probably the biggest local influence on all those other bands; I’d love to see a ranking the albums for Fishbone after they release their reunion album in 2021

One of the hardest rankings for me. Love them. So creative and so different. Every album is a little different from each other. Great musicians and Mike Patton is like a chameleon on vocals. Guy can sing any style. Saw them with Metallica and GNR. They were awesome. I’m gonna do my best but my top 5 could switch any day. Number 6 I just haven’t heard enough I don’t think but here we go #1 The Real Thing #2 Angel Dust #3 Introduce Yourself #4 Album of the Year #5 King for a Day #6 Sol Invictus #7 We Care A Lot Great show!! Hard one to rank because they are all good and all hit in different ways. Great musicians and great artistry!!! Love em. Another band that hits me the same way is Jane’s Addiction. Both bands have their own style and artistry. They have that here it is, like it or not, this is what we feel attitude going on.

After the great thrash show this weekend, I am now realizing how much I like Overkill and Kreator, any chance of a top albums for them Pete?

I saw the Mr. Bungle tour in February 2020, right before the March 2020 lockdown at The Warfield in San Francisco featuring Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo. 👏

Great Video! Love FNM! Could you do a Glass Hammer worst to best albums? Would be very interesting.

My favorite band of all time. Very unique band, nobody sounds like them.

"I'm Easy" and "Digging The Grave" were HUGE in France. Tons of radio play. Here's my ranking: Angel Dust (saw them twice on that tour) The Real Thing KFAD Introduce Yourself Album Of The Year We Care A Lot Sol Invictus

Don’t own anything by this band but always admired their quirky and inventive style. Loved the insight from Martin with great point counterpoint with Pete. Pete and Martin together are a must watch no matter what the band because of the awesome insight and entertainment level.

Nice discussion on this one. For my money, the Real Thing, Angel Dust and KFOaD series is one of the best ever. Three records that are completely different from one another, and perfect their own way. I think FNM’s status in rock music will only grow as more people discover the records that got a bit overlooked when they came out.

Over here in Europe there's two albums that stood out in 88-89 and they were Masters Of Reality In a Blue Garden and Faith No More The Real Thing. As much as anything else is was the "in your face" production values that seemed to offer something different to the whole "Hair metal" sound. The drum sound on In A Blue garden and the Bass sound on The Real Thing was just...... "That......That's what we want, under a wall of guitars please thank you very much"

Ahhh the mighty Faith No More. Good move Pete! You're right, they were ahead of the curve. Nu Metal owes alot to these guys. Here's my list. 7. We Care Alot 6. Album of the Year 5. Introduce Yourself 4. Sol Invictus 3.King For a Day.... 2. The Real Thing 1. Angel Dust

Saw them in Raleigh in 2015 and could not believe how amazing and energetic they still were and how powerful the songs remain after decades. The musicianship was impeccable, from the lively rockers through the ballads (their cover of "Easy" has to rank among the greatest covers ever!). I don't know how Mike completely defies age; evidently he has been drinking the blood of newborns since the 1650's.

Surprised to see this one. Have watched a lot of your stuff and have never even heard you mention Faith No More, or even Patton. Love this band, seen them probably 6 times. I agree about Chuck's vocals, but even those songs are really good, as well as the vocal melodies. Listen to Patton sing Chinese Arithmetic or As The Worm Turns to see what I mean. Can't wait to hear you talk about Mr.Bungle, or the many other Patton projects.

Introduce yourself was such a music style changing album for me. I was steeped in metal and this album was a breath of fresh air at the time. Also a huge fan of Chuck Mosley.

I love talking about this band. I'm always a fan of contrarian follow up albums from artists who've just had a huge commercial breakthrough (Angel Dust being maybe the shining example of this "I dare you to keep liking us" challenge to the normies). Angel Dust is a difficult album for sure but it rewards repeat listens perhaps more than any of their other albums and has, for me, the most poignant and painful emotional impact. KFAD is a safer album, a relatively straightforward release for them, with a slightly more anonymous guitar sound (due to the absence of Jim Martin) and AOTY is for me a masterpiece, as it offers all of the band's best traits: weirdness, but also catchy tunes, gorgeous production, heaviness, ugliness, beauty. I adore the electronic component of this album too ("Stripsearch" FTW). Could go on and on. Great chat!

My rankings: 7. Album of the Year 6. Sol Invictus 5. We Care A Lot 4. King for a Day 3. Introduce Yourself 2. The Real Thing 1. Angel Dust Martin, you were right on about Chuck. His voice fits those two albums perfectly! Pete, I din't care for Chuck's voice either, but his voice grew on me and I became a fan!

Of the ones I've heard 1. Angel Dust 2. King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime 3. The Real Thing 4. Album of the Year 5. Sol Invictus

Speaking about mixing Rock, Funk, Thrash,... and mastering it, Living Colour comes to mind as well!

Amazing band!! I only own the five Mike Patton-era albums. Love them all, but they would rank something like this: 1. Album of the Year 2. Angel Dust 3. King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime 4. The Real Thing 5. Sol Invictus On AOTY, the band eschews much of the wildness of the two albums preceding it, but the songs are excellent from top to bottom, and I love the atmosphere and ambience of it. Ashes to Ashes is my favourite FNM song, and the scenic imagery from their performance of this song in Cannes, 1997 (search for it) matches perfectly with the transcendent beauty of the song.

I would love to hear a threshold rankings discussion because they are one of the most underrated bands of all time

I agree with Pete's ranking, but it's cool seeing somebody with a different point a view instead of having similar lists. Nice discussion.

Angel Dust is their best album. And in my top 5 of any all time, 30 years ahead of time. Wanting commercialism? What a hack. You can get commercialism anywhere. This album was like nothing else

My fav will always be "The Real thing". I've had such a hard time with "Angel Dust" and have only come to appreciate it with the Deluxe re-edition.

My list is similar to Martin's: 7. We Care A Lot 6. Introduce Yourself 5. Angel Dust 4. Sol Invictus 3. The Real Thing 2. Album of the Year 1. King for a Day Hoping for a new album anytime soon!

How about rate the albums Kings X? I know Martin's a big fan.

Angel Dust was such a leap forward for the band, it kicks off with "Land Of Sunshine" and you just know you are on a journey. "Jizzlobber" to this day remains a genuinely terrifying and distressing song. I was lucky enough to see them with Jim Martin twice.

a follow up on my Chuck vs Mike comment; this video inspired me to listen to all the Patton FNM albums and I must say Sol Invictus is really good! MP is clearly the better singer, no doubt about that, but I'm reminded of 2 other bands that changed lead singers (Iron Maiden and Sabbath). I really appreciate Di'Anno Maiden although I could never argue against Dickinson being a better singer (I mean, it's not even close). and for me Ozzy is the perfect singer for Black Sabbath although I can never argue that Dio isn't hands down the better singer. thanks for covering FNM, Pete and Martin!

Pete, Martin, FNM = Instant like!

I remember listening to Martin Popoff's podcast where he said "People haven't heard such heavy music before when Faith No More's album was released in' 87". I was like wtf? 😀 Anyway my fave is Angel Dust, I also dig the eclectic style of 'Album Of The Year'.

1 The Real Thing 2 Introduce Yourself 3 King for a Day 4 Album of the Year 5 We Care A Lot 6 Angel Dust 7 Sol Invictus First saw them in 1989 two nights on the trot, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Edinburgh Jan 1990 then when they sold out the Barrowlands in Glasgow 1990, great band.

Missed this video haha, here's my ranking of Faith No More: - Angel Dust - The Real Thing - Introduce Yourself - King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime - Album of the Year - Sol Invictus - We Care a Lot

#1 King For A Day.... #2 The Real Thing #3 Angel Dust #4 Album Of The Year #5 Sol Invictus King for a day is arguably the most diverse album in my collection. Just fantastic. Love them

At last One of my fav bands. My picks: 1 Angel Dust 2 King for a day 3 Real Thing 4 Album of the year 5 Introduce yourself.