Review Summary: Fantomas continue to not so much push the boundaries of music, but screw with everyone's perspective on it.
Fantomas is probably the most experimental of Mike Patton's various projects. Fantomas consists of Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) on "vocals", King Buzzo (Melvins, Venomous Concept) on guitar, Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) on bass and Dave Lombardo (Slayer on drums. That line-up alone should have metalheads intrigued as all of these musicians are master of their craft.
This is Fantoma's 4th album and continues their trend of releasing albums based on bizzare themes. Their first untitled album released in 1999 had a track for every page of an issue of the comic "Diabolik". Their second effort "The Director's Cut" had various covers of classic movie themes, some were very faithful to the original compositions (Night of the Hunter) while others completely re-imagined them (The Godfather). Then came their most inaccessible release to date "Delirium Cordia" with was one 74 minute song that took listener's through the various stages of surgery without anestetic. The latest effort of Fantomas "Suspended Animation" will be the basis of this review.
The first track sets us up with what the rest of the album will be bringing shortly, zany cartoon effect and heavy guitar riffs. As the sound effects intensify, everything suddenly stops before going into the 2nd track which uses the least ammount of zany cartoon effects like the rest of the album still manages to kick baby testicles. The 3rd day begins with the sound of children laughing before more fantomas insanity which is also apparent in the 4th day. The 5th day is basically some heavy breathing and carefully plucked guitar strings before the sound effects come back in briefly before you hear a bizzare voice yell "Quiet!", it sounds like Mike Patton as an elderly woman.
The 6th track begins with with some subtle vocals and more bizarre sound effects that sound like they were taken out of a Looney Tunes cartoon before going into probably my favorite riff of the album, it then goes into a soothing piano melody with some haunting vocals by Patton. The next few days are more of the same although in the 10th day during the intro it sounds like Fantomas was spelled wrong "F....A....N....T....A...M...A....S" which I believe is some sort of energy drink from Sweden.
The remainder of the tracks are also unique treats to the ears, "04/11/05" starts off with weird gurgling noise before going into what we know from Fantomas, pointless noises. "RAHRAHRAH RURRURRUR, BOING DIKDIKDIKDIKDIKDIK DIGEROO". Not the most accurate assessment but an assessment nonetheless. One of my favorite intros is the intro to "04/14/05" which starts with an opera singer doing what opera singer's do best: antagonize the living hell out of you but luckly we hear a gunshot and the opera singer shuts up.....for good.
I could go on describing the tracks but then I wouldn't get into the unique album artwork (that is if you bought the special edition). It's basically a 30 page booklet (one page for each day of the April) with bizarre, comedic and somewhat disturbing illustrations on each page. The first day of the month has a boy being hung on a cross that is surrounded by fire while a stream of urine protudes from his penial area......yeah.....
"Suspended Animation" may just be the weirdest record to come out since Naked City were shaking up the avant-garde fans. With bizzare sound effects at every turn and more incomprehensable gibberish then a japanese school girl on cocaine, this is one of the most unique albums released this past decade and probably Fantoma's best record since The Director's Cut.
4.5/5
This Message Edited On 09.26.07
