The Hard Times is an Onion-type satirical news site that focuses on music, mostly metal and punk. I don’t love it as much as the Onion, but sometimes, something it publishes really hits. This week, perhaps to commemorate the start of the 365 Days of Mike Patton, the Hard Times wrote a satirical story about Patton, titled “Mike Patton Runs Out of Bands To Be In.”
It’s an amusing piece of work, as the site quotes Patton saying, “At this point, I feel like I’ve done it all—literally, I’ve provided some sort of vocal arrangement for every musical act in the world. After my album of harmonized, guttural sing-shouting with an uncontacted indigenous tribe deep in the jungles of New Guinea, I realized it was probably time to call it a career.”
And … “It’s tough to say what is next—I’ve already been in bands with everyone I know. Wait… was I in Sepultura yet? Crap. I think I was.”
Yes. Yes he was. Sepultura is a thrash metal band from Brazil, and though I haven’t spent much time studying the band’s discography, it did collaborate with Patton for a song called “Lookaway” on the Roots album. The tune also features Korn singer Jonathan Davis and Limp Bizkit’s DJ Lethal (I CANNOT wait to one day tell the tale of seeing Limp Bizkit open for Faith No More in Atlanta in 1997).
Anyway, “Lookaway” features Patton’s deep growl, a chant and plenty of screaming that wouldn’t be out of place in one of Patton’s most recent projects, Dead Cross. Here’s a live version.
It’s not my favorite Patton song, but hey, props to him for mixing it up with Brazil’s most famous metal export (according to this list, at least).
A couple of years ago, Davis drew some controversy when he claimed that Sepultura’s Roots album was a blatant ripoff of Korn. Guitarist and founding Sepultura member Max Cavalera responded to that by saying, via Blabbermouth, “Mike Patton was on the song, and Jonathan’s a huge Faith No More fan. He was actually freaking out that Patton was there. He was really nervous, which was actually kind of funny. He kept chewing on his hair the whole time he was in the studio.”
According to Cavalera, Patton started singing an Indian chant in the studio, giving Cavalera goosebumps.
“It was so intense,” Cavalera said. “He showed up in the studio with a Samsonite briefcase. I was like, ‘Mike, what’s up with the briefcase?’ He said, ‘It’s what I need to record.’ It had an echo pedal inside for his voice and a bottle of wine. He opened the wine and we drank it. At one point, the three of us were on the floor of the studio going crazy and making weird noises and sounds.”
It’s no “guttural sing-shouting with an uncontacted indigenous tribe deep in the jungles of New Guinea,” but it sounds exactly like a Patton jam nonetheless.
Josh Katzowitz - Sports Writer/Author/Editor 