Started listening to to Mr. Bungle recently:
Mr. Bungle – Discovolante (1995)
Mr. Bungle – California (1999)
It was described to me as “circus music and death metal combined”. I thought they were joking but they weren’t! The funny thing is that it WORKS! -at least for me. I almost immediately spotted the lead singer vocals as that of Mike Patton from Faith No More. Turns out, Mr. Bungle was the band he used to get more of the extreme and intense creativity out of his system as Faith No More just couldn’t handle some of the crazy ideas he had brewing. I was also told that in one of the first Faith No More videos, Mike is seen wearing a Mr. Bungle t-shirt! I’ll admit this kind of music isn’t for most -in fact I know of few people I’d even think of suggesting listen to this. But I liked it. I liked the violent changes from style to style. I thought the combination of different sounds worked very well -but I also have to be in the right mood to listen to this one!
On a related note, I also got a hold of Velvet Revolver:
Velvet Revolver – Contraband (2004)
I liked their single “Fall To Pieces” and thought the album would be worth a try. A lot of friends told me they were disappointed with their work and I didn’t understand why until I realized that Velvet Revolver is just a “patchwork quilt” of remaining band members from both Guns ‘N Roses and Stone Temple Pilots! Once again, I started identifying the vocals almost straight off the bat once I started playing the album. STP’s Scott Weiland is just unmistakable in quite a few of the songs (just not “Fall To Pieces”). In addition, you get both Slash and Duff from GNR along with a few more headliners to round off the band. I now understand why so many were disappointed with this album: they were expecting the magic of some of the previous releases from their previous bands. Aint gonna’ happen boys! Still, I thought the album was decent and worth a few more plays on my laptop for the moment!