Review by Brian on May 24, 2015.

Back when I was young teenager I began to explore music outside of metal, I wanted to hear something that was different from all the run of the mill thrash bands that were being force fed to us metalheads. I knew of this band that toured with Voivod and they had a brand new album out. I went to my local record store, Blue Jays Records and Tapes, picked up the long slim cardboard box that housed the CD inside (remember those?). The cover art was different, the band name was written in plain block letters and it was titled The Real Thing. This was it! This is what I'd been looking for.

Faith No More made that transition easier for me because they still incorporated some metallic guitars and some undeniable metal riffs. The Real Thing spent the summer of 1989 in my CD player. Even though the band would never again enjoy the commercial success it did with that album, they would go on to greater things. In 1992 with their release of Angel Dust, Faith No More began to get more experimental.This is when Mike Patton began to shine as the vocalist and they would never be the same. Angel Dust is a masterpiece and has never been matched. The follow up King For a Day...Fool for a Lifetime did well to further their sound and is near perfect. However, Album of the Year was sub par by their standards and then they broke up and left us craving more.

Fast forward 17 years. I caught wind of the new single "Motherfucker", this was classic Faith No More. Spoken word, pseudo rap versus with the ultra catchy chorus with Patten's trademark vocals. I remained cautiously optimistic as I awaited to get Sol Invictus in my hands. Why not? It has been almost two decades since their last release and comeback reunion albums often fall short of past glories. At first I wasn't sure what I thought, but through several listens I realized that Sol Invitus is a triumphant return for Faith No More. Musically it falls somewhere between the last two releases, containing the best elements of both. It's as if they haven't missed a beat.

Sol Invictus has all the elements that we have become accustom to. Melding different genres, catchy choruses, sarcastic lyrics and Mike Patton's amazing voice. However this isn't just regurgitated shit that we heard 20 years ago. Sol Invictus is fresh and the appropriate comeback album, with a whole set of songs destined to become classics. Whether it be the quick paced and punk driven "Superhero", the doom laden and sorrowful majesty of "Cone of Shame" or the funky "Rise of the Fall" they all leave an imprint on your brain and have you singing them in the shower. The back to back Faith No More stamp is left right near the end of the album with "Motherfucker" and "Matador". To me these 2 songs have that classic feel.

Clocking in at around 40 minutes and containing couple so so songs makes this album a little too short for an 18 year wait. However the meat of the album is extremely strong and fans of the band should be pleased with it. So 25 years a later and Faith No More's music is still "The Real Thing"

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on December 11, 2023.

Algebra, what a name for a band. It reminds me of the poor grades in maths that I produced with great naturalness and questionable consistency. Fortunately the music of the Swiss thrash brigade is no academic exercise. The guys dish up earthy, crispy riffs that do not lack sharpness and dynamic. It makes fun to experience that “Chiroptera” unites the most important elements of the thrashing genre. Especially the factor energy does not come off badly in songs like “Resuscitation”. But “Chiroptera” also knows what it does not want to offer. Nonsensical, infantile details do not show up. This is no “Poser Holocaust” or any other kind of bullshit. Algebra perform a mature form of thrash without sounding tiring. There is a spontaneous note in their compositions and so they cannot be blamed for predictability.

Of course, their maturity is not the perfect partner for an old school thrash massacre and indeed, the album sounds partly rather modern than traditional. But this is no case of black or white; similar to bands like Mortal Vision from the Ukraine, Algebra combine both worlds. Maybe the production tips the scales. Don’t worry, this is no sterile mix, but it also does not have much in common with the somehow charming sound of the classics. Algebra set the focus on a high degree of clean transparency. Additionally an emotional solo like that of “Eternal Sleep” is hardly imaginable on an album from the eighties, maybe except for outros. (The whiny back vocals in this track are also pretty odd.) Nevertheless, broad parts of “Chiroptera” follow an adequately brutal approach. The quartet lets steam off and this is nothing that worries me. The opposite is true, the album holds some pretty strong tunes. Just let me mention three of them.

I already mentioned “Resuscitation”. Its flow is not perfectly arranged, but it houses many sequences which are filled to the brim with aggression, force and pressure. “Kleptomaniac” sounds like a bastard of thrash (due to the rasping guitars) and hardcore (due to the vocals). “Constricted” cannot be confused with its predecessor. It offers a slightly eerie mid-tempo approach that combines pretty unusual melodies with dry riffs. These are the first three songs after the intro. Why do I mention this? Well, despite the fact that the other tracks are mostly more or less on a par with them, it is sometimes difficult to keep the focus on the musical offering. To create a clear, maybe even catchy flow is not the main competency of the band and so I miss a more coherent approach from time to time. Nevertheless, the positive aspects dominate (this is a big difference to my school “career”) and especially the title track depicts the glory of powerful thrash metal.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10