[JoshK]

Any Faith No More fans out there?  I have always liked them but it seems that I am really only seeing their true genious in the last year or so.  I can't stop listening to albums like "The Real Thing" and "Angel Dust".  IMO, these bands were way ahead of their time, progressive in the true sense of the word.  I wonder if 5 or 10 years from now, Mr. Bungle and Fantomas will start to have their influence seen in more mainstream rock.

It is easy to go back and listen to the hit song "Epic" check out the year that it was produced and now look at rap-metal bands and see where they got the idea.  I mean it had been played around with before, but never quite that influential.  RHCP was even some time after and they are oft thought as one of the first.  FNM's stuff is not all rap-metal-like or like the song Epic for those not in the know, they were just ahead of their time in experimenting with modern rock music.

[duff138]

Great band!  I think their last album "Album of the Year" is excellent, and very overlooked.  
  I actually think RHCP's self titled record came out in 1984, a year before FNM's "Introduce Yourself".
  Old RHCP's material makes their new pop-garage sound ridiculous.

[massappeal85]

MTV sort of gave them credit for doing it mostly before anybody else, and Kurt Loder even mentioned something like "Limp Bizket might not he here bla bla bla if it weren't for them" in one of their "memorable videos" specials or something (I've got a couple years before I'm ashamed of watching MTV). It was basically about Epic and PETA giving them hell for the fish flopping around.

I heard from a friend, that whatever band opened for Tool on a previous tour that had some person/people from FNM, was pretty horrible. They got booed off stage at every show.

At any rate, DON'T FORGET ANTHRAX!

[Rob Babcock]

Anthrax, there's a blast from the past!  Sorry, but IMO they were mostly pretty horrible.  Of course, growing up my brother loved them, and tortured me mercilessly with hours of Anthrax at max volume.  Since I liked Metallica, he had to have some other band that he could say was better.  Eventually he admitted that they pretty much are nothing compared to Metallica, but the scars remain!  

Have you heard the first major label release?  Ewww!  Songs like "Howling Furies" ("hammering, bashing-pounding and smashing"-indeed!).  I didn't think The Sound of White Noise was too bad.

I haven't really listen to FTM very much.  Like most people, I thought "Epic" was pretty cool.  "From Out of Nowhere" was a great song, though I actually think Helloween's cover was better.

[massappeal85]

lol, I don't listen to anthrax, I just knew they were also doing a little rap/metal thing for awhile. However, the thing they did with Public Enemy I thought was way awesome.

And... what is it with Helloween? I never heard of them until me and a couple friends were watching VH1 classics, and this hilariously cheesy video for a song called "halloween" came on, I think it was off of a movie soundtrack. Me and my friends have been joking since about them seemingly being a huge no name wannabe metal band of the 80's. Did they actually make some respectable stuff? lol.

[nathanm]

Anthrax "Among The Living" was a very impressionable album for me in the early years.  A damn fine record I must say.

Helloween does have some good stuff from what I've heard.  Perhaps a bit campy yes, but such is it with some Euro power metal! Kai Hansen really has a piercing high voice I am in awe of.  Don't own any of their albums myself though.

Fantomas "Director's Cut" is a really bizarre and great record.  I wasn't so fond of the 1st album though, much more jarring and sound byte-ish.  Definitely some twisted music without a doubt!

[JoshK]

IMO, FNM is quite genuis.  The band you were referring to that opened for tool was Fantomas.  It is FNM's singer, Slayer's drummer & bassist I think and someone else of noteability on guitars.  It is totally experimental and really whacked out, kinda like Mr. Bungle was but worse.

[Rob Babcock]

Helloween had a great sense of humor, both in their music and hilarious videos.  The '80s were full of cheesey vids, but Helloween meant it to be tongue and cheek.

Keeper of the Seven Keys was a superb album, and the couple that followed were pretty good, too.  They had a fantastic singer and two really great guitar players.  They were definately inspired by Iron Maiden; on a couple of songs you can almost tell what Maiden song they're playing!  Still, they were a little more speed metal influenced, and overall not as dark a band.

Eventually they got a new singer, and while he's pretty good, he doesn't have the upper register of Michael Kiske.  The only album I have with the new singer is Metal Jukebox, which is a hoot.  It's an album of cover songs, from Cream to the Beatles.  If you've ever wondered how "All My Loving" would sound as a speedmetal song, check it out! This is the disc with their cover of "From Out of Nowhere."

I will admit to having been a major metalhead back in my younger days; if it wasn't metal, I didn't wanna hear it.  Except, oddly enough, that I loved classical, too.  Depending on the day, my dorm room may be rocking to Judas Priest or cranking out Dvorak!  I still really love those bands, and still have a few hundred old metal CDs.

[duff138]

IMO, FNM is quite genuis.  The band you were referring to that opened for tool was Fantomas.  It is FNM's singer, Slayer's drummer & bassist I think and someone else of noteability on guitars.  It is totally experimental and really whacked out, kinda like Mr. Bungle was but worse.

 guitarist is King Buzzo of The Melvins.

[Sean Parque]

Angel Dust is one of my all time favorite albums...Mike Patton is amazing...

Don't forget to pick up Tomahawk...one of Mike's bands...

Sean