trib·ute
n.
A gift, payment, declaration, or other acknowledgment of gratitude, respect, or admiration.

It would stand to reason then that a tribute album would be one where bands would show their respect and admiration for the band they are paying tribute to.

Someone forgot to tell that to the 30 bands that got together for the double cd set, Faith No More: Tribute of the Year.

Most of the bands on this cd are obscure metal/punk/undefinable genre groups that will most likely never be heard from again. A few, like Bile and Hate Dept., have had minimal success in the metal field. None of them should have ever attempted to recreate the sounds of the greatest band ever. No, I am not biased at all.

There should also be some kind of ground rules to follow when making a tribute album. Like, don't have three different bands cover the same song. Voudoo, Victims in Ecstacy and Germ Theory all render "Stripsearch" into something undistinguishable from the original tune.

Bile, best known as the aging head bangers who had a minor metal hit with "In League," cover "Midlife Crisis," one of FNM's best songs. In Bile's hands, the tune becomes something that sounds Orgy channeling Angus Young.

Imbue inteprets the angry, bitter "Gentle Art of Making Enemies" as gothic depression. SMP plays "Another Body Murdered," which FNM did with Boo-Ya Tribe for the Judgment Night soundtrack, like a kid who just got a Casio keyboard for Christmas.

Germ Theory covers my favorite FNM song, "A Small Victory" (from which my own website's name comes). They try to pull off a Mr. Bungle experimental noise turn on it, but it all ends up as plain old noise; the experiment failed.

This album should be considered a travesty by Faith No More fans. There was rumored to be another FNM tribute album in the works featuring Papa Roach and P.O.D. and I can only hope that it never comes to fruition. I can only take so much of this dreg disguised as adulation.