Faith No More – Sol Invictus

I had been waiting for this album without surrendering to the temptation to listen to it before its official release.
I had been waiting for this album with a mixture of anxiety and superstition, because I do not trust in reunions and I was almost scared of the idea of a reunion of one of my favourite artist with his most famous band.
But the first listening immediately scattered all the shadows, dispelling every doubt.
I had been waiting several months before deciding to write something about this album: I did not want to take the risk to be prey to easy enthusiasm and I did want to really understand how much I like it as I continued to listen to it through time. I did not want to seem an inveterate fan (and I really hope to succeed in this aim, now!).
Two days ago, as I was driving back home saying goodbye to Casentino, as sun was setting covering all mountains and hills with its orange bright light and I was listening to Sol Invictus, I finally realized what I could have written about the latest work of Patton and co.
The title is ambitious, it directly refers to the Undefeated God Sun – something pagan, something ancestral, yet something which even Christianity assimilated and made it its own (let’s think about Christmas, just few days ago) – and maybe in this way it clearly marks the fact that Faith No More are still here with their essence still intact. Undefeated. Stars. Great musicians. After a long break, they simply got together once again to do what they do best: music which is expression of their irreverence, of their being epic, of their melancholic part, of their light-hearted nature, of their irony and – at the same time – of their seriousness.
They would never tell you why they chose that title, and there would never be a “definite” explanation of the meaning of their lyrics. Useless to probe these territories. What really matters is that the 10 songs of Sol Invictus are a collection of the more diverse feelings and emotions, with the final result of a picture that can be penetrated and penetrates the listener with immediacy and extreme ease. In my personal opinion Matador is the apex of this opus. Almost an Innuendo (!) in its suite-like structure, in its alternation of full and empty, in the majesty of its final.
And that’s all folks! ;)
[E.R.]