In case you forgot or were not alive, the late 1990s was a time when every Metal record label was jumping on the bandwagon of trend-hopping and hunting for the next “big thing” mostly Nu Metal or Nirvana’s take on pre-Grunge revival of Punk vibes. With almost no websites yet, pundits at music magazines, radio, and MTV, had declared metal dead (many bands would say otherwise, all the while the underground excelled like never before with stellar releases.
Thanks to social media posts, some well-placed sources, and a newly published report over at MetalInsider.net, we may finally get new music from Fear Factory in 2020. However, it may not be under the Fear Factory moniker as we know it. Dino Cazares has been posting to social media a lot lately, hinting at a new album while stating, Fear Factory is not coming back. Confused? Us too! MetalSucks reported on the ongoing lawsuit and continuing issues between Dino, Burton C. Bell, and former members/name and IP owners Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde-Wohlbers (Powerflo). You can read about that here. Dino has been tagging his numerous recent posts with #fearcampaign and monolith. ‘Fear Campaign’ is, of course, a FF song and Monolith is the name vocalist Bell said previously is the definitive title of the new album in a post earlier this year, in a story broken by Ghost Cult. Recently our site interviewed drummer Mike Heller’s band Malignancy and they basically said Mike can’t tour or finish their new album because he is booked solid for Fear Factory in 2020. Hopefully, we get some new music from these guys in some way, shape or form in 2020. Continue reading
Reviewing a new Fear Factory album in 2015 is like purchasing the Blu-Ray edition of a film you already own on DVD. It’s a good movie and it’s all shiny and high-definition like, but overall there’s no substantial surprises. A new commentary track and special features (or in this analogy, lyrics) are nice perks.
Long story short, there’s not a whole lot of deviation. In that regard Fear Factory’s Genexus (Nuclear Blast) is similar enough to the last review I penned, Kataklysm’s Of Ghosts and Gods. Sure, they’re both new albums, but do you really expect (or want) a dramatic stylistic change from these extreme metal institutions?
All the core Fear Factory components that made 2010s Mechanize and 2012s The Industrialist memorable are back. Vocalist Burton C. Bell and guitarist/bassist Dino Cazares are still playing nice while under the guidance of longtime collaborator and producer Rhys Fulber. Two of the songs feature Blade Runner samples so yeah, the man grappling against artificial intelligence theme is present again. Really, the biggest or only variations to be found here are a return to live drumming (a strong performance from Mike Heller) and the record label.
If you’ve had the pleasure of listening to Demanufacture or Obsolete you’re gonna hit the ground running on this outing. Seriously, like those two landmarks we open with some industrial samples/noises that lead into a jack hammer of a song and 40 minutes or so later the album is bookended by a sweeping and melodic closer (this time in the form of the excellent ‘Expiration Date’).
And that’s a good thing. Very good if you’re into this sort of metallic business. But wait, there’s more. In between the covers you also get slabs of brutal groove like ‘Anodized’ and ‘Soul Hacker.’ It’s all the downtuned 7-string chug coupled with machine-gun fire kick drums your little mechanical heart desires. And despite being in this racket for 25+ years, Bell still can do the bark and croon thing better than most.
Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada
Although if they’re going to keep moving forward with the “cybermetal” sound (or whatever Fear Factory refer to themselves these days) I’d like to see it with the full classic lineup. That means bringing bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and skinsman Raymond Herrera out of exile. They were there for the Demanufacture and Obsolete days, they should be here for the resurgence.
8.0/10
HANSEL LOPEZ