Just when it appeared that Mike Patton’s solo date in Amsterdam would signal the end of the FNM reunion, the band have announced their opening two European festival dates of the summer and promised more to follow.

Indeed, should they follow the often hectic schedule of their 2009 European tour, it seems likely that Faith No More will squeeze in another date on the same weekend as their Optimus Alive and Sonisphere engagements in Portugal in Spain. The Bilbao BBK Live festival, which also features Rammstein from Sonisphere and Pearl Jam from Optimus, looks a good bet. Also on the same weekend are the mammoth and related Oxegen and T in the Park festivals in Ireland as well as the Ruisrock festival in Finland, which FNM headlined last year, and Serbia’s iconic Exit festival. Oxegen has gone somewhat hip-hop this year and the bill looks loaded but more names will be revealed on 8 March. T in the Park has already announced its headliners and is sold out so looks a remote possibility.

With as many as ten major festivals taking place across Europe on some weekends, further summer speculation would be laborious and ill-informed. However, some news to keep an eye out for next week is the announcement of the final headliner for the United Kingdom Sonisphere date. No word of an exact date yet but this week’s announcement came on Tuesday. Iron Maiden and Rammstein are already conformed for the Knebworth two-dayer on Friday 30 July and Saturday 1 August.

A confirmation for that and suddenly a whole summer of FNM again looms appealingly for European fans. What though for the US and north America in general? Three Warfield dates and the Coachella festival have been confirmed so far and there’s not even a sniff of a rumour of anything else as of yet. Some fans have taken the new European dates as a sign that there won’t be any more US shows but there is still plenty of time to fit in more dates before a European jaunt and it must be remembered that the lucrative European festival circuit was more than likely the trigger for the whole reunion in the first place so it is hardly surprising that it is being milked again.

As for a new record, again speculation is all I can offer but it does appear that the band have not even got so far as discussing the prospect in detail as of yet. Whatever the future holds, just over one year after the announcement that Faith No More would reform, the Second Coming adventure continues to enthrall.

Let us know your thoughts below.