Fear Factory

Archetype (Liquid 8 Records 2004)

Album review

Home | Interviews | Live Pictures | Reviews | News | Tourdates | Message Board | Links | Search | CD Store | Trade Index | Mailing List | Fear Factory are back with a big heavy middle finger of an album. Not only is this album neckbreaking in places, it's more focused than the band's last effort, "Digimortal". Who says a lineup change is bad? This is still pure Fear Factory straight to the core. The blast beats are back in full force on this one, along with almost everything that made "Demanufacture" such a sick album. There's a subtle but huge difference here however, the guitar work. Grooving death metal riffs still abound, tight as hell with Raymond's crazy drumming, but there are melodic clean parts here and there the likes of which have never shown on previous efforts. All in all it's not really a guitar album, but at the same time you'll be hearing an off-time riff or 2 that Meshuggah and Opeth wish they'd thought up first. While Fear Factory's signature sound is still backed by melodic underlying keyboard tracks, I'm not hearing any major industrial influence or samples on this one. I guess you could call it a more basic, straightforward FF album. As usual the vocals really shine here, running from death metal growls and screams, to melodic singing, to goth as only Burton can, with the lyrics taking a slightly more personal direction on several tracks. There's still no substitute. Album Rating: Reviewed by: Wolfie