18-Year Break No More: Faith No More To Release New Album, US Tour Planned

Faith No More, the godfathers of the “nu-metal” music movement that inspired some of the most popular rock bands in the late 1990s–such as Korn, Slipknot, and Limp Bizkit–have announced a new album will be dropping in April of 2015 and a full US tour will follow. The announcement was made today in a published interview of bassist Billy Gould in Rolling Stone. The still-untitled album is produced by Gould and will be released independently on their own imprint, Reclamation Records.

Faith No More have been on a festival tour of Europe all summer and have played a small handful of new songs, including the first single off the new album, called ‘Mother******,’ which will hit radio (heavily edited, no doubt) in November. The song will also be pressed into a very limited 5,000 vinyl to be sold at Record Store Day next spring.

The news that Faith No More has new music in the pipeline is welcomed by long time fans. The band had a whirlwind career powered by their unique metal/rap/orchestral sound, and a 1989 music video for the song ‘Epic,’ off the multiplatinum album The Real Thing, that famously ended with a live goldfish flopping around on the ground suffocating.

The video was in very heavy rotation on MTV–you know, back when they played music videos–and as the network shifted to more original programming, bands like Faith No More disappeared from the limelight. It was a struggle to stay relevant, as explained by Gould.

Back in the day, we were a weird band that had to tour a lot. We were constantly fighting to get our label’s attention and to get behind us. We toured a lot, and in some ways, I think we’re a little shell-shocked from that, even still — 17 years later. When we had these songs and we were working on stuff, and we’re trying to be creative and be a real band, there was always this thing over our head like, “Yeah, but are we going to get cut into this meat grinder again?” And there’s just something really freeing about knowing that we can make our own decisions… I can’t imagine doing it any other way right now.

The new album will be the bands’ seventh and first since 1998’s Album of The Year, which was hailed by critics but failed commercially. The band broke up shortly after its release and charismatic–and vocally gifted–lead singer Mike Patton went on to several different solo projects and drummer Mike Bordin joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The other members, like founding member and keyboardist Roddy Bottum, kept themselves busy with side gigs and new bands. After reuniting in 2009 for a handful of US dates and a series of festivals in Europe, there was renewed hope for new music and a full-fledged US tour. Now that appears to be happening. No solid dates–for the record or the tour–have been released, but just knowing that Faith No More is back with new material and a US tour is exciting enough to hold us over until there is additional information. Do you remember Faith No More? What do you think of this news?

[Images courtesy of Metalpaths.com, Faith No More and Metal Injection]