Faith No More to release first album in 18 years in 2015

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Faith No More, the influential alternative metal group fronted by Mike Patton, are set to release their first album in over 18 years.

Bassist Bill Gould confirmed that they had recorded a new album, scheduled to hit the shelves in April 2015.

Produced by Gould and recorded at their rehearsal space in Oakland, California the LP will be released by their own Reclamation Records and distributed by Patton’s long-running label Ipecac Recordings.

Their last record was Album Of The Year in 1997.

“We've been working on this idea for probably a year and a half,” Gould told Rolling Stone. “We live in different cities and all have other things going on, so it's a matter of checking in and focusing and working little by little.

“I think what we're doing reflects where we've gone since we made our last record as Faith No More. I think this kicks things up a notch. And I think there's parts that are very powerful and there's parts that have a lot of ‘space.’ Everything we do, with our chemistry, the way we play; it's always going to sound like us. It's just what we do, that makes us feel good. Hopefully it doesn't sound like a bunch of 50-year-old men... which we are!

“There's going to be a lot of space and scope — big, big sound-stage space — but I also think there's gonna be a lot of those things that we already have. All I can say is what we're doing just feels right.”

Of the newer influences the band have drawn inspiration from, he said: “I've really gotten into a lot of things, stuff outside the country: Balkan-influenced stuff, stuff that goes outside Western ways of thinking about music that can be really powerful, but not in ways that are tried-and-true rock ‘n’ roll ways.”

On the newer acts they’ve been inspired by that weren’t around in 1997, he added: “Oh, yeah. Justin Bieber — I don't even know how old Justin Bieber was when we were playing last time — and now, he's a major influence [laughs]. We didn't even have the vocoder effect back then. It's amazing how technology is moving forward.”

Alongside a full US tour to promote the album, the band will release their first single, “Motherf**ker”, on 28 November as a 7-inch, limited to just 5,000 copies, in time for Record Store Day’s Black Friday.

It will also feature a B-side by J.G. Thirlwell.