By Jason Fierstein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Faith No More
King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
Slash Records
Charm has always been a virtue of Mike Patton's. When vocalist Patton and Faith No More broke into the mainstream 1989 with The Real Thing, they charmed audiences with their cutting edge allure.
With King for a Day, Fool For A Lifetime, FNM's fifth production and latest since Angel Dust, the San Franciscans keep the the creative juices flowing. But the underlying weakness of the album are the guitars. FNM gave guitarist Jim Martin the pink slip a year ago, which crippled the true FNM sound. The brash and aggressive guitar contributions Martin provided for the band for ten years doesn't seem to be rivaled by guitar temp Trey Spruance (of the FMN offshoot band Mr. Bungle), who filled the position for King for a Day's recording and then quickly exited the band after the album's completion.
The closest the band gets on King for a Day to rejuvenating their brilliant maniacal roots is on "Cuckoo For Caca." The lyrics are Patton-ted originality; twisted screams and nonsense psycho-babbling of "You can't kill me/ You can't kill me" articulate everything and nothing all at once. Paradox is just one element to FNM music; it's nonsensical but understandable at the same time.
"Digging the Grave" is slated to become FNM's first video from King for a Day. Of all the songs on this album, "Digging the Grave" is the last one worthy of music television exposure. Patton is still psychotic, yes, but the song doesn't have that needed drop to make it explode like a chemistry experiment.
Faith No More consistently evolves and their sound always breaks new ground. King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime is FNM at their best, but it explores a different musical route than that travelled on Angel Dust and previous works.