Faith No More

Bordin was ten in 1975, freshly grieving his mother's death, when a friend introduced him to Black Sabbath — no radio play, no jukeboxes, a record you had to seek out in someone's basement. "It's no joke that Black Sabbath saved my life," he said decades later, describing the band's doom as the one thing that kept him from turning "mean and bitter." He carried that debt into adulthood: he toured as Ozzy Osbourne's drummer for two decades and once filled in for Sabbath itself, calling it "an honor I'll put on my tombstone."

listen: upstream & heresource: DRUM! Magazine — Mike Bordin ↗share

1970

War PigsBlack Sabbath

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1989

War PigsFaith No More

listen forFaith No More didn't just admire Black Sabbath — they covered them, cutting "War Pigs" as a bonus track for 1989's The Real Thing, and Ozzy Osbourne later joined them onstage to sing it. Set the original's tritone riff and Bill Ward's loose, swinging toms against Faith No More's version: the central riff barely moves, played almost reverently straight, but Mike Patton pushes the vocal into a wilder, more theatrical register than Ozzy's flatter drone, and Bordin tightens Ward's swing into something more clenched and metallic.

Gould has named the English post-punk band Killing Joke a formative influence in interview after interview, but one comparison cuts deepest: reviewing their 1982 album Revelations track by track for Louder, he stopped on "Land of Milk and Honey" and drew a straight line to his own band's future. "It was interesting to see a band who were kind of extreme get some commercial success," he said. "To me, it was like Faith No More's Angel Dust; a darker, weird kind of record that you have to get into a little bit and digest."

listen: upstream & heresource: Louder — Faith No More's Billy Gould ↗share

1982

Land of Milk and HoneyKilling Joke

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1992

Land of SunshineFaith No More

listen forGould's own comparison is the listening guide: play Killing Joke's "Land of Milk and Honey," then Faith No More's "Land of Sunshine," the song that opens Angel Dust. Neither offers an easy hook — both build from a tense, circling groove and a flat, chanted vocal that refuses to resolve into a chorus, asking the listener to sit inside a bad mood rather than sing along, the same "darker, weird" record-opening move Gould heard Killing Joke make first.

Bordin dates the split cleanly: "A major turning point was when the two of us saw the Sex Pistols at Winterland," he said, recalling the band's chaotic January 1978 farewell show in San Francisco, watched with childhood friend and future Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. Gould had his own version of the same jolt — years chasing prog virtuosos like Yes and King Crimson collapsed the moment he heard the Sex Pistols. "It became less about virtuosity and more about conveying a feeling and emotion," he said. Neither musician names a specific song; the influence is the whole event.

listen: upstream & heresource: Modern Drummer — Faith No More's Mike Bordin Discusses Sol Invictus (Sex Pistols at Winterland, Killing Joke's Paul Ferguson) ↗share

1976

Anarchy in the U.K.Sex Pistols

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1985

We Care a LotFaith No More

listen forThere's no cover or sample to point to, so listen for attitude instead: the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." rides one distorted chord hammered flat under a sneering, barely-sung vocal that treats melody as optional. Faith No More's "We Care a Lot" keeps that same blunt, deadpan delivery — chanted rather than sung — over a stripped, repetitive riff, prizing groove and attitude over technical display, the exact trade Gould and Bordin both describe making after they saw the Pistols play their last American show.