{"id":19075,"date":"2026-02-02T04:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=19075"},"modified":"2026-02-02T04:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:02:00","slug":"angel-dust-by-faith-no-more-the-story-behind-the-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=19075","title":{"rendered":"Angel Dust by Faith No More: the story behind the album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"1baf8d99-503c-48ef-a947-79d753ee9543\">Axl Rose wasn\u2019t angry, just disappointed. \u201cWhy do you hate me?\u201d the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/guns-n-roses-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/guns-n-roses-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/guns-n-roses-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\">Guns N\u2019 Roses<\/a> frontman asked, a note of genuine hurt in his voice. \u201cIt\u2019s like I went away and came back home to find you guys fucked my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Standing beside the singer in GN\u2019R\u2019s backstage compound at Orlando\u2019s Citrus Bowl stadium, the normally easy-going <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/artist\/slash\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/artist\/slash\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/artist\/slash\">Slash<\/a> was equally forthright. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like it here, just fucking leave,\u201d the guitarist told the three sheepish, shame-faced musicians standing before him. \u201cIt can\u2019t be like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\" \/><\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-root\" \/>\n<p id=\"1baf8d99-503c-48ef-a947-79d753ee9543-2\"><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/faith-no-more-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/faith-no-more-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/faith-no-more-your-essential-guide-to-every-album\">Faith No More<\/a>\u2019s Mike Patton, Bill Gould and Roddy Bottum knew this confrontation was coming, given that almost every day for the past three-and-a-half months the trio had been bad-mouthing the Los Angeles hard rock superstars both onstage and in the media. Most of their peers would have been thrilled to be hand-picked to open for Guns N\u2019 Roses on the spring\/summer 1992 European stadium tour booked to promote the quintet\u2019s epic <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/every-track-on-guns-n-roses-use-your-illusion-i-and-ii-ranked-from-worst-to-best\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/every-track-on-guns-n-roses-use-your-illusion-i-and-ii-ranked-from-worst-to-best\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/every-track-on-guns-n-roses-use-your-illusion-i-and-ii-ranked-from-worst-to-best\"><em>Use Your Illusion<\/em><\/a> albums, but Faith No More had always been a particularly contrary, perverse and antagonistic unit.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-3 pb-4 mb-4 border-solid border-y border-neutral-300\">\n<span class=\"font-article-heading block pb-3 !text-base font-bold uppercase sm:text-sm text-[#333]\"><br \/>\nYou may like<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>From day one of the trek, which launched at Slane Castle in Ireland on May 16, the San Francisco band had made no attempt whatsoever to disguise their disgust and disdain for the \u201ccircus\u201d they had willingly signed up to. Just one month before the September 2 face-off with Axl and Slash in Florida, <em>Select<\/em> magazine had published Bill Gould\u2019s scathing, scornful critique of the GN\u2019R roadshow, a brutally honest assessment the bassist knew full well would soon enough come to the attention of the headline act.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\" id=\"769bcdbc-a4ef-40aa-a486-2af7a325a8d6\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Faith No More in 1992: (from left) Jim Martin, Roddy Bottum, Billy Gould, Mike Patton, Mike Bordin <\/span><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"9f7cbe6b-98d5-4ba5-8472-d177748808c6\">\u201cEvery band in the world might think they want to open for Guns N\u2019 Roses,\u201d Bill told English journalist Mark Putterford, \u201cbut lemme tell you, it\u2019s been a real ugly personal experience, having to deal with all the shit that surrounds this fuckin\u2019 circus. I\u2019ve always hated that aspect of rock music and I\u2019ve never wanted to be part of it, so to find myself being associated with a tour this big kinda sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just hours before their scheduled summit with their understandably pissed-off hosts, Faith No More had actually taken a group vote to determine whether or not they would walk away from the tour. Today, speaking from his home in San Francisco, Bill Gould won\u2019t share exactly how that vote broke down, but does admit that his personal preference was to withdraw. Having been out-voted by his colleagues, being subjected to Axl and Slash\u2019s hour-long dressing-down was as embarrassing as it was excruciating for the bassist. Before dismissing the trio, Axl asked Bill directly what exactly he had hoped to achieve with his incendiary diatribe in <em>Select<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just try to stir up as much shit as we can,\u201d came the reply. \u201cWe feel like that\u2019s our job.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-mtRgTDq6PfT4oEhr3XwmsW\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-mtRgTDq6PfT4oEhr3XwmsW slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\" \/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There was a beat of silence before the ridiculousness of the situation caused Axl and Slash to burst out laughing. The show would go on.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\" id=\"c14d7b57-83e5-4fba-9384-2265ccb2f834\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5FqHQTnRtTQVUq4dNgjyh5.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More&amp;rsquo;s Mike Patton performing onstage in 1992\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5FqHQTnRtTQVUq4dNgjyh5.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5FqHQTnRtTQVUq4dNgjyh5.jpg\" class=\"inline\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Faith No More\u2019s Mike Patton opening for Guns N\u2019 Roses in 1992 <\/span><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Gie Knaeps\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"3de89709-8600-4f7b-ac9c-b7aa14f3bc23\">To be fair, Faith No More had never fitted in to any scene or movement. Formed soon after Bill and Roswell Christopher \u2018Roddy\u2019 Bottum, his best friend from childhood, and neighbour in the upscale Hancock Park district of Los Angeles, moved to San Francisco to attend college in Berkeley, the group drew inspiration from the Bay Area thrash scene, the city\u2019s fecund punk community and its long-established psychedelic rock communes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"1e00639e-e739-4241-a25c-9b03faa46613\">\n<blockquote class=\"vanilla-quoteblock\">\n<p>Our attitude was: the past is the past, and we\u2019re not going to try to recreate it. Because that\u2019s bullshit. <\/p><figcaption><cite>Mike Bordin<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"a02ecc6f-c3de-4f15-b3f3-c9b49b4e19b9\">Yet from the start, the band had issues with the conventions and orthodoxies that defined each genre. Such was their desire to avoid categorisation that, in their earliest incarnations, the group elected to step out with a different singer (among them a young Courtney Love) and different setlist for every show they played.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-3 pb-4 mb-4 border-solid border-y border-neutral-300\">\n<span class=\"font-article-heading block pb-3 !text-base font-bold uppercase sm:text-sm text-[#333]\"><br \/>\nYou may like<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe were having fun being stupid kids,\u201d Bill told this writer in 2002. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much music, as just expression. We just played whatever came into our heads. And that felt kinda good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By accident more than design, however, the mercurial, maverick quintet began to develop a loyal and diverse cult following, swelled in 1985 by the success of their sarky, signature anthem, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/we-care-a-lot-by-faith-no-more\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/we-care-a-lot-by-faith-no-more\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/we-care-a-lot-by-faith-no-more\"><em>We Care A Lot<\/em><\/a>. Sacking charismatic frontman Chuck Mosley in 1988 following a rehearsal room fist-fight with Bill seemed suicidal at the time, but the group re-emerged the following year with a new vocalist, 21-year-old Mike Patton.<\/p>\n<p>Their first album with Patton was the slick, if subversive, <em>The Real Thing<\/em>, a record with genuine crossover appeal. It took well over a year for the record to connect at radio and MTV, but having sold just 45,000 copies in its initial six months on sale, in 1990 the album caught fire when rap-rock single <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/bands-artists\/we-identified-with-bands-like-metallica-because-they-came-in-with-this-punk-rock-energy-but-back-then-the-biggest-songs-were-love-in-an-elevator-and-still-of-the-night-the-unexpected-rap-metal-hit-that-saved-a-bands-career-and-ushered-in-the-1990s\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/bands-artists\/we-identified-with-bands-like-metallica-because-they-came-in-with-this-punk-rock-energy-but-back-then-the-biggest-songs-were-love-in-an-elevator-and-still-of-the-night-the-unexpected-rap-metal-hit-that-saved-a-bands-career-and-ushered-in-the-1990s\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/bands-artists\/we-identified-with-bands-like-metallica-because-they-came-in-with-this-punk-rock-energy-but-back-then-the-biggest-songs-were-love-in-an-elevator-and-still-of-the-night-the-unexpected-rap-metal-hit-that-saved-a-bands-career-and-ushered-in-the-1990s\"><em>Epic<\/em><\/a> charted, going on to sell one million copies in America.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-video youtube-facade\" data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"U8b88US-6ts\">\n<div class=\"video-aspect-box\">\n<div class=\"watch-on-iframe-U8b88US-6ts\" data-yt-video-token=\"U8b88US-6ts\" title=\"Faith No More - Midlife Crisis (Official Music Video) [4K] - YouTube\">\n<span class=\"youtube-video-title\">Faith No More &#8211; Midlife Crisis (Official Music Video) [4K] &#8211; YouTube<\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More - Midlife Crisis (Official Music Video) [4K] - YouTube\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"watch-on-youtube-U8b88US-6ts\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/U8b88US-6ts\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/U8b88US-6ts\" data-hl-processed=\"none\">Watch On <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"e7a3638f-63af-40c5-9314-fd4bb58f6e64\">\u201cIt was like a sick joke,\u201d Bill recalled. \u201cFor the past 12 months we\u2019d worked our asses off and everyone had been telling us how great we were, but we weren\u2019t selling any records and we were fucking broke. And then just as the label told us that the record was effectively dead, it all kicked off, and we had to start all over again. By the end we hated those songs so fucking much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such was the group\u2019s enhanced profile, that when they regrouped in San Francisco\u2019s Coast Recorders studio in January 1992 to work on their fourth album, MTV sent a film crew along to document what was expected to be the decade\u2019s next blockbuster hit. But when the frontman told an interviewer, \u201cThe only way to really progress is to be ashamed of what you\u2019ve just done\u201d, it was evident that Faith No More had no intention of pandering to expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatton spoke for all of us,\u201d says drummer Mike Bordin on a Zoom call from San Francisco. \u201cOur attitude was: the past is the past, and we\u2019re not going to live on it, and we\u2019re not gonna fucking try to recreate it. Because that\u2019s bullshit, it\u2019s dishonest. We were never going to be a vending machine, serving up the same product. That\u2019s just not what this band was built to do.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\" id=\"a237b238-9dcd-44cd-b000-eca0fc9902ea\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dz5gPzcPRXTRU6P6zYb9o5.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More&amp;rsquo;s Mike Patton and Billy Gould posing for a photograph with baby dolls in 1992\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dz5gPzcPRXTRU6P6zYb9o5.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dz5gPzcPRXTRU6P6zYb9o5.jpg\" class=\"inline\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Faith No More\u2019s Mike Patton and Billy Gould in 1992 <\/span><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Ian Dickson\/Redferns)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"90eb964b-4b36-4b13-b3b0-5e7c2a9114be\">\u201cPart of the mythology around <em>Angel Dust<\/em> is that we were trying to do this or that, trying to alienate people. We weren\u2019t trying to do fuck-all except make a really fucking good record.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"18bdaba4-baaf-4a7e-bd36-50f3b188bcb5\">\n<blockquote class=\"vanilla-quoteblock\">\n<p>One early review said, \u2018This is possibly the least commercial follow-up to a hit record in the history of recorded music.\u2019 <\/p><figcaption><cite>Mike Bordin<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"0594d829-b801-4a93-8fa3-02ab117fb7e5\">As both Bill and Mike Bordin recall, their early weeks at Coast Recorders were spent jamming and \u201cfooling around\u201d, experimenting with sounds and samples and song structures. \u201cWe were united in wanting to do something different,\u201d recalls Bill, \u201cbut everyone had their own ideas of what \u2018different\u2019 looked and sounded like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd, remember, at this point, we still didn\u2019t know Patton that well, so it took a while figuring each other out. And it was clear from early on that our guitarist, Jim [Martin], wasn\u2019t gravitating to the new songs in the way the rest of us were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Faith No More\u2019s definitive biography, <em>Small Victories<\/em>, producer Matt Wallace recalls that Jim Martin\u2019s exact description of Faith No More\u2019s new material was \u201cgay disco\u201d. Inevitably, tensions between the metal-loving guitarist and his bandmates grew.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-video youtube-facade\" data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"i9_hCjcFNO0\">\n<div class=\"video-aspect-box\">\n<div class=\"watch-on-iframe-i9_hCjcFNO0\" data-yt-video-token=\"i9_hCjcFNO0\" title=\"Faith No More - A Small Victory (Official Music Video) - YouTube\">\n<span class=\"youtube-video-title\">Faith No More &#8211; A Small Victory (Official Music Video) &#8211; YouTube<\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770004919_698_maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More - A Small Victory (Official Music Video) - YouTube\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"watch-on-youtube-i9_hCjcFNO0\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/i9_hCjcFNO0\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/i9_hCjcFNO0\" data-hl-processed=\"none\">Watch On <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"e481d642-ea33-4aba-acbf-35e14c8a7ad6\">\u201cI respect Jim as a guitar player, and the stuff he added to the group has always been really good,\u201d says Bill, \u201cbut we had a hard time communicating. It was a struggle, it was antagonistic, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feeling was that Jim was intentionally subverting the record,\u201d Matt Wallace revealed.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Jim told one UK rock magazine that making the album was \u201cvery unpleasant\u201d. Bill\u2019s memory is that, even as he was coaxing\/bullying contributions out of Jim, the guitarist was telling anyone who\u2019d listen that his band\u2019s new songs \u201csucked\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew we were making a challenging record,\u201d says Bill. \u201cAnd so we had to be really, really solid among ourselves, that what we were doing was the right thing to do. More than <em>Angel Dust<\/em> being a \u2018fuck you\u2019 to anyone, it was like, \u2018If this is our shot, and it might not work,then let\u2019s all feel good about it.\u2019 And it was obvious that Jim didn\u2019t. And by the end of the tour cycle, it was clear that Jim had to go for us to continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it was a complicated time,\u201d he continues. \u201c<em>The Real Thing<\/em> did really well, and that was the first time, personally, that I ever got any professional validation in my life for what I did. People were taking what we were doing somewhat seriously, and it meant a lot to me for us to really drive that home. So any kind of energy that diluted from that really got to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\" id=\"8c38e998-67fd-4eea-a2ee-7e73b9964861\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PPvTfJtzzpKtcuSVRH5hn5.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More posing for a photograph in 1992\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PPvTfJtzzpKtcuSVRH5hn5.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PPvTfJtzzpKtcuSVRH5hn5.jpg\" class=\"inline\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"2fc3d932-9f73-4bee-9f3d-fe505755972c\">Faith No More previewed their new album for their record company president Bob Biggs at the end of February 1992. Bob could not disguise his unease with what he heard. It\u2019s now part of the mythology of the album that he delivered the brutal line \u201cI hope nobody bought houses\u201d when the playback ended, though the band\u2019s manager is also credited, in some tellings of this anecdote, with this zinger.<\/p>\n<p id=\"11c10b33-5094-4405-83f5-5171a1ebb91e\"><em>Angel Dust<\/em> was no one\u2019s idea of a hit record. Dark and twisted, and occasionally almost unlistenable, it was shot through with self-loathing and disgust and paranoia and misanthropic spite. Beneath its surface sheen, <em>The Real Thing<\/em> had its trangressive moments &#8211; the easy-listening <em>Edge Of The World<\/em> was written from a paedophile\u2019s viewpoint, <em>The Morning After<\/em> outlined the aftermath of <br \/>a murder &#8211; but there was a genuine sense of revulsion running right through its follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>It pinballed from mocking, viciously sarcastic opener <em>Land Of Sunshine<\/em> through to the white trash ramblings of <em>RV<\/em>, from the nightmarish screeches of <em>Malpractice<\/em> and the unhinged, edge-of-breakdown <em>Caffeine<\/em> through to the deceptively perky <em>Be Aggressive<\/em>, Roddy Bottum\u2019s graphic take on sub\/dom fellatio (<em>\u2018You\u2019re the master and I take it on my knees\u2019<\/em>) and on to Jim\u2019s brutal composition, <em>Jizzlobber<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>There were moments of great beauty too &#8211; the melodic majesty of <em>Midlife Crisis<\/em>, the hooky <em>Everything\u2019s Ruined<\/em>, a haunting take on John Barry\u2019s <em>Midnight Cowboy<\/em> &#8211; but the pervading impression was that <em>Angel Dust<\/em> was a knowing, wilful act of self-sabotage.<\/p>\n<p id=\"a024f0ca-c988-44c7-bfed-d0f4eaff91f6\">\u201cNo one could understand why we were fucking with the formula,\u201d Bill told this writer in 2002. \u201cThe key phrase from the label was \u2018commercial suicide\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were challenged at every turn,\u201d recalls Mike Bordin. \u201cManagement were like, \u2018Are you sure you wanna do this? This is weird.\u2019 The label basically said, \u2018What the fuck are you doing? This is not frat boy goodtime music!\u2019 And I want to say clearly, that yes, we were challenged at every turn, sometimes internally, sometimes externally, but we made the fucking record that we wanted to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne early review said, \u2018This is possibly the least commercial follow-up to a hit record in the history of recorded music.\u2019 And we took pride in that, 100%, everyone loved that shit. But also, deep down you knew, it wasn\u2019t going to work for a mass market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Released on June 8, 1992, <em>Angel Dust<\/em> entered the UK album chart at No.2, and debuted at No.10 in America, where it racked up 500,000 sales in just three months. But the perception was that Faith No More had fucked up, big time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\" id=\"5d55d497-59d7-4c39-a559-00914b47abd8\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/KueAWKJsKDiyGatNTmBqi5.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More&amp;rsquo;s Mike Patton performing onstage in 1992\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/KueAWKJsKDiyGatNTmBqi5.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/KueAWKJsKDiyGatNTmBqi5.jpg\" class=\"inline\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Gie Knaeps\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"55958367-7296-4e97-bc15-7746e28f0092\">\u201cWe over-compensated by saying we didn\u2019t give a shit,\u201d recalls Bill. \u201cIt was like, if we were gonna get shot in the face, we\u2019ll pull the trigger ourselves. It was a bit of a juvenile way of going at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"f612e3e7-978a-4e1e-aeae-ca03478fa28a\">\n<blockquote class=\"vanilla-quoteblock\">\n<p>\u201cYou had Metallica playing The Black Album and Guns N\u2019 Roses playing the hits. People were going, \u2018Get off! I wanna hear Enter Sandman!\u2019\u201d<\/p><figcaption><cite>Bill Gould<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"35696976-ddc4-4321-bae7-35abc847059f\">Certainly, from the outside, pushing the record first to Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 audience seemed a typically perverse move. Today Mike Bordin point-blank refuses to see the GN\u2019R tour in Europe as anything but a wonderful opportunity \u2013 \u201cI love Guns N\u2019 Roses, and I\u2019m eternally fucking grateful to them for putting us on their stage, and allowing their audience to get a two by four right across the teeth every fucking day\u201d \u2013 but admits that opening for GN\u2019R and Metallica on their co-headline US stadium tour was \u201cdifficult\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou had Metallica playing <em>The Black Album<\/em>, and Guns playing the hits from <em>Appetite<\/em> [<em>For Destruction<\/em>] and <em>Use Your Illusion<\/em>, and we\u2019re out there playing <em>Be Aggressive<\/em> and it didn\u2019t come across. People were like, \u2018Get off, I wanna hear <em>Enter Sandman<\/em>!\u2019 We were standing between these two massive redwood [and] sequoia trees, and they\u2019re 300 feet tall and 1,000 years old, massive and eternal, and we were a tiny fern on the ground that needed some sunshine\u2026 and that may not have been forthcoming.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-video youtube-facade\" data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"rBQbWGY2o9Y\">\n<div class=\"video-aspect-box\">\n<div class=\"watch-on-iframe-rBQbWGY2o9Y\" data-yt-video-token=\"rBQbWGY2o9Y\" title=\"Faith No More - Be Aggressive - Live Hellfest 2015 - YouTube\">\n<span class=\"youtube-video-title\">Faith No More &#8211; Be Aggressive &#8211; Live Hellfest 2015 &#8211; YouTube<\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770004919_632_maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Faith No More - Be Aggressive - Live Hellfest 2015 - YouTube\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"watch-on-youtube-rBQbWGY2o9Y\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rBQbWGY2o9Y\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rBQbWGY2o9Y\" data-hl-processed=\"none\">Watch On <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"c862bdb7-9267-43bf-8cff-54e116fb1d47\">\u201cBut look, we didn\u2019t expect to be Whitesnake or Bon Jovi, we didn\u2019t go into this band wanting to own 15 houses and three Learjets and have 17 supermodels on speed dial,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWe knew we were a challenge because we were selling something that people didn\u2019t know. If you\u2019re dealing with unknown quantities, it can be tricky. Maybe 30 million people didn\u2019t buy that record, but it meant something to those who did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bill sighs when asked to evaluate <em>Angel Dust<\/em> three decades on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Angel Dust<\/em> was always perceived at the time as us going in the wrong direction,\u201d he says after some reflection. \u201cOn <em>The Real Thing<\/em>, it kinda felt like we were attractive to people, but on <em>Angel Dust<\/em>, it just didn\u2019t feel that way. It felt like we had to take a beating for the way we ran our show, so it was never that gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made a lot of stupid mistakes,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut we were real, we were honest. I really like it and when we signed off on it, we were happy; I thought, I can live with this, however things go. And, you know, honestly, I can still live with it. People tell me that it\u2019s a record that changed their lives, that opened their minds. I think we did well.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 362 (May 2022)<\/strong><\/em>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/bands-artists\/faith-no-more-angel-dust-story-behind-album\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Axl Rose wasn\u2019t angry, just disappointed. \u201cWhy do you hate me?\u201d the Guns N\u2019 Roses frontman asked, a note of genuine hurt in his voice. \u201cIt\u2019s like I went away and came back home to find you guys fucked my wife.\u201d Standing beside the singer in GN\u2019R\u2019s backstage compound at Orlando\u2019s Citrus Bowl stadium, the &#8230; <a title=\"Angel Dust by Faith No More: the story behind the album\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=19075\" aria-label=\"Read more about Angel Dust by Faith No More: the story behind the album\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Angel-Dust-by-Faith-No-More-the-story-behind-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19077,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075\/revisions\/19077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}