Fantomas: Suspended Animation

Herald rating: * * * *

If you are reading this today, April 30, then there's a song just for you on the Fantomas' latest album. It's song 30 of this 30-track album, a collection of "miniature holidays" dedicated to each day in April. Listen, and it will make for the sickest vacation you could take. So Suspended Animation is weird? Yes. But the real fruitcake is band leader Mike Patton, whose screams and growls could only be the product of a man possessed.

The music of Patton and cohorts Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle) veers from metal riffs and pounding double-bass drumming to operatic serenades, with the heavy, fractured rantings of the instruments filling it out. After last year's epic 74-minute one-song album Delirium Cordia, this is a step back to their horror-cartoon-metal. Suspended Animation isn't for everyone but it's intriguing. So please yourself. Patton and his cronies are.

Label: Ipecac/Shock