31 DAYS OF FAITH NO MORE: “THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES”
Spurred by a lazy crossword clue in The Onion (36 down, four letters: “Faith No More’s only hit”), MetalSucks contributor Anso DF dedicates every single day in August to celebration and exploration of the San Francisco alt-metal greats. Here we prove that history’s greatest band landed more than one commercial hit (crossword answer: “Epic” natch), we revel in FNM’s embarrassing wealth of winning album tracks (themselves often fit for chart topping), and we dip into the staggering best of the b-sides (ditto). Along the way, we survey the context of FNM’s big break (amid similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to the post-Nevermind, panic-based music commerce in which the brilliantly versatile, fearless powerhouse band operated until their 1998 demise. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Song “The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies”
Written by Patton (L); Gould, Bordin, Patton (M)
Released 1995
Appears on King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime album
Produced by Andy Wallace
Guitars by Trey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle)
Key lyric “If you don’t make a friend now/One might make you.”
Single? Planned and scrapped, according to Wikipedia. But “Enemies” went out to commercial radio. I heard it once srs!
The climate One of FNM’s hardest-rocking jamz, “Enemies” represents another FNM theme: No matter where you are, or whose company you keep, or how well you think you’ve succeeded at life, no matter what … there might be someone hating you from across the room. Worse, it’s like the someone wants to hate your guts. “Happy Birthday, fucker.”
Awesome song elevated to supra-awesomeness by cinema, for at least the second time already here on 31Do’FNM on MS.net. For example, imagine this in your brain: Right around 2:38, Patton’s vocals rest, and a new, competing guitar lick is introduced and plays against the main riff, right? So, assign each of those two guitar parts to a shot in your imaginary brain movie: the main riff (the triumphant one) is you toasting champagne with friends, laughing gaily in a turtleneck; an instant later, the descending riffs accompanies a cut-away to Mike Patton standing just beyond the head of your table, clenching his fists and staring at you. The shot goes back to you being all super-thrilled to be you (duh-duh-duh-DUHHH duh-duh-DUHHHHH); back to him, sweating and thrilled to be near the time of your punching (Dehhh-deh dee-dee doo-doo doo-doo). You: A winner. Him: On the move. The song ends just when you notice that he’s upon you, fist cocked. Smiling.
Didja know? I’ve discovered a new and horrible way to break terrorists. I got the idea when I was listening to “Enemies” on my stereo on repeat, and then the youtube above started playing exactly one beat behind the stereo. I listened to the entire song all echoing itself this way and it was insane. I learned that, truly, you don’t do heavy metal in doubly. Everybody knows that.
–ADF
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METALSUCKS’ 31 DAYS OF FAITH NO MORE
6 “The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies”
5 “Caffeine” (read)
4 “Falling To Pieces” (read)
3 “Stripsearch” (read)
2 ”Ricochet” (read)
1 ”Land Of Sunshine” (read)
