Album of the Year.

It seems half the alternative-rock bands these days want to sound like late-'80s Faith No More--a mix of metal guitars, white-boy rapping, and frat-brat attitude. But ever since the Bay Area band fooled with the formula shortly after scoring such radio and MTV hits as "We Care a Lot" and "Epic," these originators have been artistically and commercially eclipsed by imitators in America, where the likes of Rage Against the Machine, 311, and Korn have overtaken the headbanger market. Overseas, Faith No More's nonmarketable art-metal continues to pack arenas. Meanwhile, openly queer keyboardist Roddy Bottum's other group, Imperial Teen, wows critics, hipsters, and alternative queers alike with poppy, punky, and homocentric tunes that put Faith No More's post-hit output to shame.

Album of the Year may be a brilliant title, but it's hardly apt. At least the band here sounds less like its other splinter group--singer Mike Patton's chaotic (and indulgent) Mr. Bungle--than it has on its last two albums. And although Faith No More isn't following Imperial Teen's sassy, hook-intensive path, there are at least songs here, and Bottum's haunted-house keyboards figure prominently. Yet the tempos drag, the melodies meander, the guitars don't offer much beyond generic riffing, and the energy level is mighty low for a band that was once sick with drama. Faith No More seems to have lost faith in itself.