Angel Dust (Faith No More Album) - Critical Reception and Legacy

Critical Reception and Legacy

Reviews of Angel Dust were generally favourable. One critic wrote that the album is "one of the more complex and simply confounding records ever released by a major label" and similarly, another called it "the most uncommercial follow-up to a hit record ever". The single "A Small Victory" is described as a song "which seems to run Madame Butterfly through Metallica and Nile Rodgers, reveals a developing facility for combining unlikely elements into startlingly original concoctions".

The songs "Malpractice" and "Jizzlobber" have been called "art-damaged death metal" and "nerve-frazzling apocalyptic rock" by contrast with the "accordion-propelled" Midnight Cowboy theme cover that follows. Allmusic calls the album a "bizarro masterpiece", citing the vocals as "smarter and more accomplished" than its predecessor The Real Thing. It gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it one of their album picks. Kerrang! reviewer was less enthusiastic, considering Angel Dust's variety of styles "a personality disorder which undermines its potential greatness".

The album was also called an "Album of the Year" in 1992 by seven different publications in four countries, making the top 10 in three of them and the top position in one, and was also named the "Most Influential Album of all Time".