Before nu-metal had a name, Faith No More were already mixing the parts it would later be built from: metal guitars, funk bass, hip-hop phrasing, keyboards sitting where a second guitar might go. They came out of San Francisco, and their first two albums, We Care a Lot in 1985 and Introduce Yourself in 1987, had Chuck Mosley singing.
Mike Patton arrived in 1988, recruited from his high school band Mr. Bungle, and wrote the lyrics for The Real Thing in about two weeks. "Epic" made the U.S. top 10 in 1990, the video became an MTV hit, and the album went platinum. Angel Dust, in 1992, was stranger on purpose and still went gold.
Sol Invictus, in 2015, was their first album since 1997, and its tour was the last time Patton played with them. A planned 2020 return got pushed by the pandemic, then the rescheduled 2021 dates were canceled, with Patton citing his mental health. He later talked about agoraphobia: "Somehow my confidence was broken down," he said. "I didn't want to be in front of people." The last shows Faith No More played anywhere were in August 2016, and those had Mosley on the mic again.
The return was announced in July 2026: stadium dates in Australia and New Zealand with System of a Down, starting January 22, 2027 in Sydney, then a headline slot at Mystic Festival in Gdańsk, Poland, in June. Columbus gets a U.S. date, which the festival bills as a rare U.S. reunion show.