Mike Patton's band, Fantomas, has released another album, this time acollection of theme songs from various movie soundtracks. The majorityof the movies are in the suspense/thriller/horror genres, which fitsFantomas' schizoid attention span. I liked this record a lot more thanthe first Fantomas album ("Amenaza al mundo!"), it seems more cohesive,and it seems like the band is getting more comfortable with itself. Thesongs' veer into the familiar, such as "Theme from Godfather" and theobscure, such as the excellent "Der Golem" although even those familiarwith these songs will find something surprising in the band'sinterpretations of them: "Godfather" starts off with the accordion(played on melodica, I think,) motif so familiar from the movies andsuddenly breaks into a full on assault of crashing drums and poundingelectric instruments. Drummer Dave Lombardo's (ex-Slayer,) playing is ahighlight of the whole disc. Patton's yelps and screams are stillpresent, though not as annoyingly or pervasively as on solo material;here he's using his voice as an instrument, with a lot of melody. Someof the material has got me intrigued enough to look for some of thesefilms (still trying to find "Der Golem"). So what's the disc soundlike? A jazz-metal band doing covers of movie themes while trying tobranch out from jazz and metal to avant-guarde noisescapes, with some"California"-esque vocals. All 39 minutes are highly enjoyable andrecommended.
Read More
