"Saturated with shiny, four-minute instant stompers, this was the album that catapulted FNM from Californian obscurities into international headliners."
With Mike Patton writing its lyrics within a week, The Real Thing is really his bandmates’ baby.
Bordin and Gould had melded into an assertive, pioneering rhythm section, James B. Martin had just mastered his catchiest riffs and Roddy Bottom’s piano lines provided that singular edge. Saturated with shiny, four-minute instant stompers, this was the album that catapulted FNM from Californian obscurities into international headliners. With new extreme directions rising up from Florida and Scandinavia, metal would rarely sound so melodic again.