Funk metal
[6] In his book Know Your Enemy: The Story of Rage Against the Machine, Joel McIver wrote that funk metal is "a slightly clumsy term applied in the late eighties to any rock band whose bass player used a slapping style."
"[20] Shuker wrote about the genre again in the 2005 edition of his book Popular Music: The Key Concepts, calling it "less structured than earlier forms of metal, with the bass guitar relied on more than the lead.
"[21] The genre managed to gain some international popularity through foreign acts such as British groups Atom Seed[22] and Scat Opera, as well as Super Junky Monkey, an all-female funk metal/avant-garde band from Japan.
[23][24] Although never breaking through in the United States, Swedish band Electric Boys attracted recognition throughout Europe,[6][25] with AllMusic calling them one of the "most celebrated purveyors of the short-lived funk-metal phenomenon.
[19] In a January 1991 Spin article, Electric Boys singer Conny Bloom claimed funk metal had become a trend since people thought other hard rock of that era was "boring".
[26] The album was produced by Jeff Glixman, who also worked with bands like Black Sabbath (for whom Mother's Finest opened for on their Technical Ecstasy Tour), Saxon, Magnum or Kansas.
[27] The self-titled 1984 debut album from Los Angeles band Red Hot Chili Peppers has been cited by some as the first truly funk metal or punk-funk release.
[30] In 1988, Neil Perry of Sounds Magazine referred to Faith No More's 1987 major label debut Introduce Yourself as "a breathtaking harmonisation of molten metal guitar, deadly dance rhythms and poignant, pointed lyrics".
[31] On the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, released the same year, guitarist Hillel Slovak started to experiment with sounds other than punk rock/hard rock, including thrash metal.
[50] The LA Weekly state: "Faith No More, then led by vocalist Chuck Mosley, before Patton joined the band, used to open for the similarly progressive Peppers just as the funk-metal scene was gaining momentum.
[50] The movement had reached a critical and commercial peak in 1991, with albums such as Blood Sugar Sex Magik (by Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sailing the Seas of Cheese (by Primus) and Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut attaining acclaim from the music press.
"[60] Spruance has mentioned the first two Red Hot Chili Peppers albums as an influence, with Mr. Bungle even covering their song "Baby Appeal" at a high school talent show.
[61] However, bassist Trevor Dunn has since claimed that he wasn't as big a fan of them as other members in the band were, saying "I was way more into Fishbone and Bad Manners back in the day.
They range from thrashers, who lend an occasional funk edge to some of their material (Mordred and Death Angel) to straight-out funkers (Primus, Psychefunkapus and Limbomaniacs) to those who defy categorization (Faith No More).
[6] Trey Spruance notes that when living in San Francisco, Mr. Bungle played at "officially funk-metal functions" such as the Funk Fest, but he claims there wasn't as coherent a scene in the city as was being reported in the media.
[68] The drummer for Infectious Grooves was Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, a band from the same scene as the Red Hot Chili Peppers who occasionally delved into funk metal.
[71] Neg Raggett of AllMusic claims that by 1992 "oodles of (mostly horribly bad) funk-metal acts were following in Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' footsteps.
[74] Additionally, Buckethead was in the experimental band Praxis with veteran funk musician Bootsy Collins and former Limbomaniacs drummer Brain (who later joined Primus).
[75] By the latter part of the 1990s, funk metal was considered to be represented by a smaller group of bands, including Incubus, Sugar Ray, Jimmie's Chicken Shack and 311.
has been labelled a "weed-and-mushrooms influenced funk/metal freakout",[80] unlike with the band's prior releases Fungus Amongus (1995) and Enjoy Incubus (1997), it further incorporated elements of electronica into funk metal.
"[82] At the time, they garnered heavy comparisons to Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primus, with critics noting similarities between the voices of singer Brandon Boyd and Mike Patton.
[86] In November 2001, Amy Sciarretto of CMJ New Music Report claimed that Incubus was "poised to be hard rock's bastard child of Faith No More and Primus thanks to its resident hottie Brandon Boyd's easy-on-the-ears emulation of Mike Patton and Dirk Lance's bass thwapping.
[95][96][97][94] Subsequent releases from Sugar Ray completely abandoned the sound of these albums in favor of a more mainstream approach, as they had gained massive popularity in 1997 with their pop/reggae single "Fly".
Kung Fu Radio, the 1997 major label debut of Powerman 5000, showcased an aggressive form of funk metal,[123][124] which the band themselves branded as "action-rock".
[130] Mike Wolf of CMJ New Music Monthly called the album "ozzfest funk metal" in his 1999 review, and compared it not only to Limp Bizkit but also Korn.
Faith No More's bassist Billy Gould claimed he was "sick" of the genre as early as 1992,[134] though the band's 1992 album Angel Dust has been described as having some funk metal characteristics.
"[137] In 2003, Brad Filicky of CMJ New Music Report claimed that after the success of their previous album The Real Thing (1989), they "grew tired of the trappings and limitations of the genre [so] rather than release that era's equivalent of Significant Other, the band flipped the script entirely and dropped an experimental bombshell on the scene.
"[146] The feud between Kiedis and Patton was re-ignited in 1999 when Mr. Bungle's album California was pushed back by their label Warner Bros. Records as not to coincide with the similarly titled Californication, which was to be released on the same day by Warner Bros.[147] Following the album release date conflict, Kiedis had Mr. Bungle removed from a number of European summer festivals that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were set to perform at.
"[158] In 2022, Blabbermouth.net labelled the genre as "absurdly entertaining and considerably more inventive than many of the cross-pollinated subgenres that came later", further adding that "obviously, funk-metal was not built to last and both grunge and nu-metal were far bigger commercial propositions in the years that followed.
"[159] Fox News host Greg Gutfeld injected himself into the Kiedis-Patton feud in 2016, calling Red Hot Chili Peppers "the worst band in the universe" and "poor man's Faith No More.
