Sol Invictus (album)

Sol Invictus (Latin for Unconquered Sun) is the seventh studio album by American rock band Faith No More, released on May 19, 2015. It is Faith No More's first studio album since 1997's Album of the Year, marking the longest gap between two studio albums in their career, and their first release on Reclamation Records. Sol Invictus is also the band's first album since 1992's Angel Dust not to feature a lineup change from after one consecutive studio album. The album marks the group's fifth collaboration with longtime producer Matt Wallace, though it also happens to be the third album he did not produce, his involvement being reduced to helping with the final mix.

Background
On February 24, 2009 after months of speculation and rumors, Faith No More announced they would be reforming with a line-up identical to the Album of the Year era, embarking on a reunion tour called The Second Coming Tour. To coincide with the band's reunion tour, Rhino released the sixth Faith No More compilation, The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection, a double album that includes their hit singles and b sides & rarities, in the UK on June 8. Faith No More then played in major European festivals including, Download Festival in the UK in June, Hurricane and Southside festivals in Germany, Greenfield Festival in Switzerland, Hove Festival in Norway and Roskilde Festival in Denmark, among other dates. The tour continued into 2010 with appearances at the Soundwave Festival in Australian cities throughout February and March. During their tour, the band added covers to their repertoire including "Switch" by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

After an eleven month hiatus, Faith No More played four shows in South America in November 2011. On the first date (November 8, 2011), the band played a "mystery song" - later confirmed as "Matador" - which led to speculation of new material. They played Sonisphere France on July 7, 2012.

In a January 2013 interview, Mike Patton suggested that the band would not remain active beyond the reunion tour, stating that "it's sort of petered out" and the band was "maybe a little too conscious for [their] own good." In July 2013 Billy Gould hinted the band may record new material in the future, saying "We will do something again only when all members are with the focus on that, and ready for the challenge. This is not the time... yet." On May 29, 2014, Faith No More posted a message (along with a photograph of Mike Patton) on their Twitter account, saying that "the reunion thing was fun, but now it's time to get a little creative." On July 4, Faith No More played their first show in two years at Hyde Park in London, supporting Black Sabbath. At that show, Faith No More debuted two new songs "Motherfucker" and "Superhero" (also known by fans as "Leader of Men"). On August 20, the band posted "The Reunion Tour is over; in 2015 things are going to change." These tweets led to speculation that the band was working on new material. On August 30, Gould said that the band was "considering doing something new", and might begin work on a new studio album at some point in the not-too-distant future, explaining, "to do something creative would be a really good thing to do." On September 2, Bill Gould revealed to Rolling Stone that Faith No More had begun work on a new album. On February 10, 2015 the band announced the title of their new album, Sol Invictus, and was set to be released on May 19, 2015.

Singles
"Motherfucker" was the first single to be released from Sol Invictus. It was released on November 28, 2014 exclusively on 7" vinyl to coincide with Record Store Day's Black Friday. It was later released digitally on December 5, 2014. The "Superhero" single was initially scheduled to be released on March 17, 2015 on 7" vinyl, but was delayed to March 23 after the pressing plants suffered from adverse weather effects. A free preview of the song was made available March 1, 2015 through several media outlets, including Marvel.com, YouTube via Ipecac Recordings, and on BBC Radio 1's Rock Show. "Superhero" was also able to be purchased from iTunes later that day. BBC 6 radio confirmed that ' Sunny Side Up' will be the next single.

Reception
Sol Invictus received a positive reception from professional critics. Aggregate review website Metacritic assigned a "generally favorable" score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics. The album sold over 200,000 copies in its first two months of release according to the United World Charts.

Personnel

 * Faith No More
 * Mike Bordin – drums
 * Roddy Bottum – keyboards, vocals
 * Billy Gould – bass guitar
 * Jon Hudson – guitar
 * Mike Patton – vocals


 * Production
 * Billy Gould – producer, recording engineer
 * Matt Wallace – mixing engineer
 * Maor Appelbaum – mastering engineer