Fantômas is an American Alternative Metal supergroup formed in the late nineties, featuring vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More and Mr. Bungle), drummer Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer member), guitarist Buzz Osborne (Melvins) and bassist Trevor Dunn (also from Mr. Bungle). The band is named after the Fantômas Villain Protagonist of the same name.
The band actually started as a little side project of Mike, just before the collapse of Faith No More. He recorded a set of demos by himself and sent to Buzz, Trevor and Igor. In hopes of forming a supergroup with the aforementioned people. Two of the people accepted but Igor declined, recommending Dave Lombardo instead. The band released all of their albums in Mike's own independent label Ipecac Recordings.
The bands musical style is a mixture of Death Metal, Avant-Garde Metal and Grindcore, because most of their songs (excluding The Director's Cut) last about 1-2 minutes, with the somewhat occasional 3-4 minute song. They also have scat-like singing, instead of conventional singing. Even one critic said they were Dada-Metal because of their unique style of playing.
Discography:
- 1999: Fantômas
- 2001: The Director's Cut
- 2004: Delirium Cordia
- 2005: Suspended Animation
Tropes employed by Fantômas:
- Concept Album: Basically every album they have done
- Fantômas" is meant to be like a soundtrack to a comic book, every track has "page" and the number of the track beside it.
- The Director's Cut is a Cover Album of horror film themes (with the occasional odd one out). For example: Rosemary's Baby, Der Golem, The Omen and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
- Delirium Cordia is a soundtrack to a surgery without anestethic and is only a single track.
- And their last album Suspended Animation... is probably the Mind Screw-iest of all. There are two concepts to this album. 1. The album served as a calendar for the month of April and it's holidays (For Example: Track one is April 1st: April Fool's Day), and 2. The album is full of sound effects from Fisher-Price toys and cartoons... Yep.
- Cover Album: The Director's Cut.
- Crossover: On New Years Eve 2000, they collaborated with Buzzo's band to form "The Fantômas Melvins Big Band". So basically, a super-supergroup.
- Epic Rocking: Delirium Cordia, if we could count it, considering it's only one track.
- Jump Scare: Expect this alot when listening to their music.
- Minimalistic Coverart: Delirium Cordia's cover art is just a flatline with a beep in the end, with the tile of the album below and the band name above.
- Miniscule Rocking: Basically all of their songs (except for The Director's Cut and Delirium Cordia) which lasts 1-2 minutes
- But none can match to the tracks that have the number 13. The one in the Self-Titled Album is basically the fading out of a cymbal from Page 12. And the next album The Director's Cut is just pure silence.
