Review Summary: Fear Factory extend their life energy with a catchy and melodic release that can serve as a great introduction for new listeners of the band.
Fear Factory is a group well known in the industrial metal scene. They are one of the pioneers of the genre, and they benefit greatly from the lack of a large amount of bands in the genre. If you have shown interest in industrial metal, chances are you either stumbled across the band or were pointed to them. Even greater chances are that if you are reading this, you have known Fear Factory since their heyday in the 90s when they put out what is largely considered their best work. Still, the band suffered from not being able to consistently put out high quality releases; whether it be due to overly changing their sound with mixed results, or severe internal strife and lineup changes within the band (with how many groups can you hear the bass player take up guitar duties and try to continue the old guitarist's sound?). Ironically enough, despite the continuing carousel of bassists and drummers, the modern era of Fear Factory may be proven to be their most consistent ever now that
Genexus is upon us.
A band like Fear Factory has such a base recognizable sound to them that the burden of not sounding trite rises in pressure with each release. This time they alleviate the pressure by giving the synths room to work melodically as well as more consistently upbeat clean vocals.
Of course the Fear Factory sound is still strong. Those fast metallic riffs locked in with the drums provide the backbone. A lot of the rhythms here do manage to be fresh, heavy, and surprisingly catchy and satisfying. The production is punchy, clear, and crisp. Burton C. Bell's vocals have a good amount of dynamic range between slightly under the breath, standard yells, and those chorus cleans. The all out screams prevalent on Mechanize have a strong performance here but aren't always used. Electronic effects are still very subtle and tasty but are given more room to work.
The album comes right out of the gates with 'Autonomous Combat System'. This track should please with its hard hitting nature. It's a rather complex song for them as sections quickly morph into others. Bell sounds as aggressive and maniacal as ever here and is able to impressively spew out several memorable phrases in the song's peak section: "
Fake reality, you are in a system, fake reality, agents of destruction". This song is everything a Fear Factory fan could want from an opening track.
The clean vocals may very well be the dividing factor here. About half of the album is tracks that feature cleans drawn out a little more than usual with upbeat vocal lines. His vocals sound like optimistic Ozzy mixed with auto-tune. Something that would likely be disastrous for most bands but oddly enough fits well with the robotic future themes and catchy vocal melodies that really shine through. Still when compared to the heavy nature of the music, these cleans, along with the synth melodies and occasional brass may sound more jarring than ever if they aren't embraced.
You still get your strictly hard hitting tracks with the opener, the blasting title track, the groovy 'Soul Hacker', and the explosive 'Church of Execution'; all of which are album highlights. The ominous mood as the machines "
demand a sacrifice" on the title track is appreciated. However with 'Regenerate', 'Battle For Utopia', and 'Expiration Date' closing the album, it does end strong, but loses a lot of its bite. 'Regenerate' is up there with the most poppy songs they have ever written. 'Battle For Utopia' is great but not entirely impactful, and 'Expiration Date' closes the album with a solemn but content lament. Seemingly channeling electro pop band Pantogram, the closing track is good but shows they may never reach the heights of closer: 'Final Exit' from
Mechanize. The album would have shaped up a lot more evenly and been much more satisfying with one more relentless track near the end.
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Genexus' is a concept album about a sentient machine made to serve mankind that realizes it will be shut down soon. The machine fights back, becomes stronger, and sees the depravity of mankind, as well as what he has in common with the Humans. The “Genexus Generation” are all the machines just like the main character. Thanks in part to this engaging story the album does have more continuity than much of their work. The brighter textures and lack of being able to describe the record as “heavy first, pop sensibilities second” may turn off some heavy Fear Factory diehards from the overall musical concept of the album but will surely attract even more with its expanded accessibility. Unfortunately, even with the band in fine form here, their simplistic guitar style does somewhat limit their dynamic potential. Then again, their focused, driving approach is refreshing from all the guitar lead flash out there and the synths provide needed interest. Regardless, with this album and 2010's '
Mechanize' we now have two great modern Fear Factory records and another good one. '
Genexus' is more dynamic than anything off 2012's '
The Industrialist' and as consistent as their best albums. There is still power in this machine.
