It was a Friday night sometime in 1989. I was visiting the boys at Metal For Melbourne which had become a weekly ritual in that year. They unpacked a bunch of new stuff that had come in and out of the cardboard box came a record called The Real Thing by Faith No More.
“Who the fuck are these guys?”
“Put it on!” I said.
What proceeded to come out of the (loud) speakers floored me. I hadn’t heard anything like it and it was rare for a record to grab me as this did halfway through the first song.
The Metal brethren at the store laughed at it and we’re gonna stop it but I interjected.
We listened to it in full. I can remember it as if it were yesterday.
A masterpiece record was being enjoyed for the first time.
To this day, I can’t listen to this album without remembering that very night.
Here was a record seeing birth in 1989 but little did anyone know how important and masterful it would be in the years ahead.
I always measure Faith No More’s The Real Thing as the bridge between the glory days of Heavy music and the influx of the early Grunge movement which came and obliterated the floor with the plethora of ‘Heavy’ bands that had become a fucking joke!
Thank God for the Grunge movement boys and girls because apart from a handful of the heavy hitters at the time, Metal had become a farce.
This transitional band and slab of music stands the testament of time and has ingrained itself in pure masterpiece status.
If this record is not in your collection, you ain’t listening!
In the meantime, this is essential viewing…
