Watch Fantômas “The Director’s Cut Live” In It’s Entirety For Free

Formed in 1998 as a brainchild of vocal anomaly, Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Tomahawk, etc), Fantômas is an experimental supergroup rounded out by Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne (Melvins) on guitar; bassist, Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Trio Convulsant, John Zorn, Melvins Lite), and Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Dead Cross, Philm) behind the drum kit. Each incredibly prolific in their own right, all 4 of the members have continued to collaborate in various capacities resulting in plenty of overlap between their individual projects over the years. Many of these ventures would find space on the roster of Ipecac Recordings, but the first Fantômas album would also mark the very first release for Patton‘s new label. At the time, Faith No More had just dissolved and the frontman was ready to explore something entirely new, not just for him, but for music in general.

The avant-metal, grindcore, noise quartet released a total of 4 studio albums between 1999 and 2005, while demonstrating a strong penchant for concept albums. Naming the band after “an anti-hero from a series of pre-WWI French crime novels, sometimes dubbed the “lord of terror,” Patton composed and produced the group’s self-titled debut by himself. Clocking in just short of 43 minutes, the studio effort was divided into 30 tracks, half of which were only one minute or less in length. Each “song” title was a chronological page number  — “Page 1” through “Page 30”  — as the release is intended to unfold like a “soundtrack” to a comic book that, as far as I know, doesn’t actually exist.

In a similarly hyperspecific yet uncategorizable vein are the band’s last two albums. Delìrium Còrdia [2004] is a 74-minute single-track behemoth intended as some sort of invasive surgery-themed horror soundtrack. Meanwhile, their final album, Suspended Animation, is a 30-track smorgasbord of mish-mashed styles with plenty of cartoon samples swirled in. The deluxe release came in a limited edition spiral-bound mini calendar to coincide with the fact that each song title is named after a date from April 2005, the month it was released. It was their second album, Director’s Cut, which first caught my attention and is, arguably, the most accessible of the lot. Consisting of 16 covers from various films, primarily in the horror genre, Patton a company doesn’t fail to take plenty of artistic liberties, injecting their metal influences and experimental tendencies into beloved compositions from themes to Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen to The Godfather and Twin Peak: Fire Walk With Me.

The synth-based fifth Fantômas record that was eluded to never actually arrived, but the group has reunited for random live dates over the years. One such show fell on December 31st, 2008, when the guys rang in the New Year by performing Director’s Cut in its entirety. That show took place at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and later received a DVD release on September 6th, 2011. Later, when the pandemic hit in 2020 and the country was asked to shelter in place, Ipecac presented what they referred to as “Stay-In Cinema,” involving the label streaming one of their DVD releases for free in one-week durations while offering a special sale in their webstores to coincide with them. They streamed 5 of these DVDs in total from May 28th through the week of June 25th, 2020. The first of these was Fantômas – The Director’s Cut Live: A New Year’s Revolution.

Today on their social media accounts, Ipecac announced that they would be streaming the show again with the following statement:

“To get you in the mood for Halloween next week, we’ve put Fantômas “Director’s Cut Live” back on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Up for one week only!”

For the time being, you can check out the full show in its entirety below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huSNb1TO1yg