 
Here marks the 8th studio album into the career
of American industrial metal legends Fear Factory.
People were in rejoice when it was made known
that founding member Dino Canzares who had left
the band after the release of 2001’s “Digimortal”
has resumed his axeslinging position with the
band; the reason this was such a big deal is because
when Canzares left the band released 2 albums
“Archetype” and “Transgression”,
“Archetype” was a bit different to
what anyone was used to or even remotely expecting
from the band and “Transgression”
fell just short of the mark amongst certain fans
also. With Dino back in the fold the band would
go on to release “Mechanize” in 2011
which was one of the most amazing albums the band
has ever released so the announcement of a follow
up certainly has the metal community drooling
from more than 1 orifice.
This record starts off from where “Mechanize”
left off; increasingly ominous with some of the
heaviest damn material to have ever graced my
ears. “The Industrialist” builds up
into a monstrosity of a song, extremely thick
distorted riffs and chord sequences, Burton C.
Bell’s distinctive vocal presence and such
impressive drum lines. “Recharger”
up’s the pace that little bit more but this
time the choruses have the vintage Fear Factory
sinister melody mostly coming from Bell’s
strange ominous sounding clean vocals. Good start
then I wouldn’t be able to deny, “New
Messiah” though I feel try’s to take
on the same structure and end’s up at times
sounding a bit too much like the “Archetype”
album which I think they need to not completely
stray away from but avoid letting it become too
involved with the writing.
Then we have “God Eater” which is
a strange one; really menacing slow pace compared
to the rest of the songs, again letting the melodic
side take over a bit more than usual but it’s
not that putting me off here, it’s just
the fact it’s not living up against the
many explosive instant hits the band has under
their belt, this thesis kind of fits a few of
the songs on the album like “Depraved Mind
Murder”, “Difference Engine”
and “Virus of Faith”, all of these
are good songs they just don’t seem to draw
the same connection or hit the mark if you will.
At least those though are better than the last
2 songs, what the absolute hell is the point of
those? “Religion is Flawed Because…”
is literally 2 minutes of strange tones as is
9 minute long “Human Augmentation”
to be honest with odd sinister vocals, what a
waste of my time that I’ll never get back.
So the hype that I had and all of that excitement
to be honest has been quite a bit of a letdown.
“Mechanize” was an outstanding record
which followed through from the surrounding hype
but this, whilst the songs are good they aren’t
song’s that would pop into my head when
I fancied listening to some Fear Factor, sorry
lads but I’m just not feeling it this time.
3/5
Review by James Webb
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