Fantomas (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue) vinyl

The first official album released through Ipecac Records; the label of absurdist vocalist extraordinaire Mike Patton (Faith No More, a million other projects), was this self-titled debut from Fantomas, originally unveiled in 1999. A supergroup with no absolutely zero desire to make it easy on listeners, this culmination of Melvins mastermind Buzz Osborne on guitar, Mr Bungle/Tomahawk/regular Patton cohort Trevor Dunn on bass and Slayer's Dame Lombardo behind the kit, would coalesce all of their most extreme creative proclivities into one bizarre maelstrom of avant-garde cacophony that can barely be fit into the metal genre. Intended as the musical accompaniment to a fictitious comic book, with all track titles even listed as chapter/page numbers (a unique theme that would follow into all subsequent albums), the work has since been praised for its sonic abandon and artistic fearlessness, with one critic once referring to their avant-garde jazzy grindcore as "dada-metal". The project would also finally offer Patton the opportunity to prioritise his experimental forms of voice music and scat singing over traditional vocal cadence or standard lyricism.