It’s not Fear Factory’s fault.  It’s not their fault that they perfected a sound and a style that would sweep through metal.  It’s not their fault that heavy music with triggered kicks, gated guitar riffs, a combination of singing and screaming with an overall gloss of keyboard sheen could be easily duplicated and copied by an endless number of bands.  It’s not their fault that Roadrunner Records tried to push them into a more mainstream avenue, and that the popularity of tech, keyboard and sample-based metal gave us Spineshank, Static-X, Disturbed, Sevendust and Coal Chamber.  Demanufacture and Obsolete were revolutionary albums that expertly combined an image, a message and a sound with great song-writing that was aggressive, dark, powerful and punishing.  It’s not their fault that we’ve been inundated with an onslaught of watered-down and poor imitations ever since.  So when you listen to Fear Factory’s 2010 offering, Mechanize, you quickly realize that you’ve heard this all before, and that it’s nothing new or exciting.

Although it shouldn’t matter, the band’s off-stage drama over the past few years has done quite a bit to sour my perception of them.  After shifting through lineups and reading almost monthly of the childish bickering between Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell, it reeks of desperation that the two have “patched things up” for this new release.  While Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud are more than capable in filling the shoes of Raymond Herrera and Christian Wolbers, you just feel like you’re listening to a band that is going through the motions or trying a bit too hard to recapture some sort of past magic.  Hearing about potential lawsuits from Herrera about the use of the band’s name and the constant deluge of Blabbermouth jawing and press releases casts quite a bit of doubt on their legitimacy.  The band could have righted all their past wrongs with an inspired new album full of great songs, but alas, they did not.

Listening to Mechanize, you realize how boring of an album it is.  The songs are very formulaic and because of all the imitators the band has unwillingly spawned, the production sounds extremely dated.  Despite this, most tracks are interchangeable and gone are the hooks of Demanufacture or Obsolete.  It seems as if the band came up with song titles that expressed the “Fear Factory techno-image” first, then wrote the music to accompany them later.  Mechanize, Powershifter and Oxidizer may sound like X-Men characters, but they are just a sample of the pedestrian tracks that litter this album.  The last track Final Exit, it excruciatingly bad, featuring a collection of forced samples and anticlimactic drama.  I feel like the album is just an excuse to tour, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard of more problems between the founding members once they hit the road.  Maybe I’m jaded, and maybe there’s just no where else to go with this genre of metal.  It’s not Fear Factory’s fault.

Mark’s Rating:

King says: “Ugh, and I thought their “remix” albums were bad…”

Justin’s Review:

Ahh… band politics. If you’ve ever been in or around a band for any length of time, you surely know of the unique dichotomy that exists. Somewhere between a business partnership and a relationship resides the typical band structure. In that regard, Fear Factory are no different from most bands… just a higher profile and a few more pubic spats than they probably care to remember. That’s all shit for the lawyers to sort out.

As it stands, we seem to have one Fear Factory (henceforth to be referred to as Arkaea) that controls one of the Fear Factory websites and myspace pages, and another Fear Factory (hence forth to be referred to as Fear Factory) that writes music that some people actually give a shit about. And it’s that Fear Factory that we’ve come to discuss today.

Yes folks… Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares have put aside their differences, and Fear Factory are back with their “heaviest” lineup to date. Candlelight Records has stepped up to the plate this time around, and according to their press release, Mechanize is “a full-fisted blast of passion and innovation that sounds like the missing link between’s 1995’s caustic, groundbreaking Demanufacture and 1998’s more texturally nuanced Obsolete.” Wow… sweet! If only that were true!

What we have on our hands here, is arguably the most middle-of-the-road album of the band’s career (which is a real shame, because after listening to Transgression, I was ready for a good Fear Factory album) [Editor's Note: To clarify... I'm not a fan of Transgression]. I’ve been through Mechanize four times now, hoping for something to jump out at me, and I can honestly say… nothing has. Not riff, nor vocal melody; not song title nor structure; not lyric nor artwork. Absolutely nothing.

I hate to say it, but…

Fear Factory

is

Obsolete.

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “Nice try guys. Hey… at least you’ve got the 80s covers to fall back on… I hear there’s good money in that.”

Have A Listen:

Fear Factory – Powershifter:

Download audio file (Powershifter.mp3)