Review Summary: Another remaster... is there a point?
The original release of
The Industrialist came about at a contentious time. Bassist Bryon Stroud had just left the band stating, “It was just time to leave, man. The way I put it to everybody is that life's too short to spend it with people that don't love and respect you.” Drummer Gene Hoglan also left the band during the recording of
The Industrialist, but whether it was his own idea or not is still up for debate. While one side says Gene abruptly left during the recording, forcing Dino to use programmed drums, the other side says Gene found out Dino had gone with programmed drums behind his back, essentially forcing him to leave – either way,
The Industrialist was the first Fear Factory original release to not use a real drummer.
If you’ve heard Fear Factory’s brand of mechanized industrial metal, you know the drums have always sounded programmed anyway, so
The Industrialist didn’t really suffer for it finally being true. This leads to the obvious question: “What’s the point of
Re-Industrialized?” The point, according to Dino, was to add the same drummer that did the last two Fear Factory releases,
Genexus and
Aggression Continuum, as well as provide a new mix by Greg Reely, new guitar passages, and five bonus tracks; fair enough. In practice, though, the live drums sound just as mechanical and programmed as the original album. Not only that, but their drummer clearly wasn’t given any room to display his own flair or personality, as the arrangements and beats are identical to the original (as far as I can tell). As far as new guitar parts are concerned, I don’t hear them. The guitars definitely
sound different, but I figured that was due to the new mix by Greg Reely not because they were re-recorded in any capacity.
As far as the new mix is concerned, whether you like it or not will be up to individual interpretation, but I like it (with the caveat that I never had an issue with the original and never thought it needed any kind of overhaul). If there’s a brief way to describe the new mix, it would be ‘more powerful’. Again, the original sounded great to my ears, but the new mix beefs everything up. The bass drums sound fuller and are much less clicky and the guitar sound is much fatter with less of a hollow sound (which I never really noticed on the original until comparing it here). As for the bonus tracks, the remixes are typical Fear Factory – remove the drums, drop a rhythmic beat, add some electronic layers, and kind of force the vocals over the top. They’re not the best Fear Factory remixes I’ve ever heard, but they’re nice.
The cover songs are a different story. The cover of Pitchshifter’s “Landfill” feels like
Streetcleaner-era Godflesh filtered through a modern lens, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering early Pitchshifter sounded a lot like early Godflesh. “Saturation” (originally by Sonic Violence) also sounds a lot like early Godflesh, but since I’ve never heard the original, I don’t know if it was similar… I only know this version is positively crushing. “Passing Complexion”, on the other hand, is an upbeat grooving track that reminds me of
Pandemonium-era Killing Joke (although it’s originally by another band I’ve never heard, Big Black), and that certainly can’t be bad.
I guess when it comes right down to it, the only question is which version I’ll listen to going forward. Honestly, due to the beefier production and bonus tracks, I’ll most likely prefer
Re-Industrialized, but you can’t go wrong with either version. In my opinion,
Industrialized is part of what turned into a four-album resurgence, and this subtle variation of the original, while certainly not needed, at least brings a live drummer into the fold, enhances the power somewhat, and adds a few decent bonus tracks. Essentially, however you felt about
Industrialized will probably be exactly how you feel about
Re-Industrialized as it doesn’t really change the overall feel much – but it does change enough to be a relevant listen.
