Fantomas Delirium Cordia
Released: January 27, 2004 Origination Year: 2004 Time: 74:16 Tracks: 1 Produced by: Mike Patton Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: None Website: None

Fantomas’ latest, Delirium Cordia, holds an honored place in my music collection now as ‘the greatest disc I probably won’t listen to much’. I can see I have some explaining to do…

First off, let’s deal with the usual band essay. Fantomas is the brainchild of former Faith No More and Mr. Bungle front man Mike Patton and Melvins head honcho Buzz (King Buzzo) Osborne, with another former Bungle, Trevor Dunn, on bass and veteran Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo locking in the quartet. Their aim: to produce a terrifying avante-metal that eschewed the usual shtick, clichés and boundaries that were so prevalent in the genres; “evil talk”, greasy riffs, repetition, repetition, repetition.

Their first release consisted of a long line of tracks lasting less than a minute a piece, each one a complete tonal shift from the last. Their second was pure homage to the classic horror film soundtracks of old and was a major departure from the first. To start with, “The Director’s Cut” featured more song-like songs and actual singing from Patton in parts, whereas Fanomas’ original r’aison d’etre was an amorphous blend of whispers, moans, screams and death-rattle, much like Patton’s solo releases from Tzadik, avante practitioner John Zorn’s label. In place were still Dunn and Lombardo’s sometimes explosive energy bursts and Osborne’s standard style of never going in the expected direction, but all in all, “The Director’s Cut” was about songs.

Delirium Cordia is, however, about ‘song’; one long track hearkening back to their first release, except for the track breaks. It cannonballs into and out of frenzy, crawls into stretches of disembodied dissonance, dangles the carrot of ‘beauty’ before just before the chains snap out, dragging you onto the killing floor. This is not death metal so much as a representative soundtrack of death itself. It is unnerving, scary and oftentimes brilliant in a fashion best appreciated at a distance.

To further the point, Patton and longtime art director Martin Kvamme have licensed the photographs of Max Aguilera-Hellweg to adorn the smoky inner jewel case booklet. On the outside, the photograph of a doctor with arms crossed against his scrubs smock seems harmless enough. Inside, however, are graphic pictures of an autopsy, eyeballs being harvested for donor transplant, a ribcage being irrigated of spilled blood, a massive tumor presented beneath the skin. They are certainly disturbing and, at the same time, reverent. The usual take on death-metal art design is for maximum gross-out. Bodies are painted as distorted, decayed, defiled and destroyed, all with a perverse amusement and a barely legible band logo. While nauseating, these photos are also very much photo-journalistic. It’s ugly, but it is real and a natural part of the process. The art sets the package apart as much as the music. Death-metal mavens will never study the big picture at play and, consequently, will get bored of having to wade through this requiem for mortality.

That’s a shame, as the band has made something very interesting, very thought provoking and not gratuitous for the sake of controversy and shock. It is, at the end, an avante garde performance played out through both graphic and audible media.

Having said that, I can’t say that I will revisit the release very often. This is not a rock album as much as it is a conceptual work that uses rock elements, like an orchestra might use synthesizer textures in a symphonic piece. It requires time, patience, stamina, and sometimes an iron will. It expects a lot from the listener and I can provide that only occasionally. This music is not for long drives to the beach. This is not the soundtrack of a summer barbecue.

In closing, I recall an interview with Osborne about what he liked and disliked about modern music. He indicated his biggest beef was about its generic, repetitive angle and how there were never any sharp right turns, no risks and no danger. Well, Fantomas’ Delirium Cordia is certainly dangerous and most definitely not for the weak-hearted. It is something that must be experienced but hardly enjoyed.

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