glad they decided to do something different with the cover this time

these guys have the worst song names/album names/artwork jesus christ

I like the song names. And thank god, the artwork isn't a double F. Each cover with these two Fs has felt like an indicator of an identity crisis to me. Although The Industrialist wasn't a great album, it finally sounded like a true Fear Factory one. Genexsucks could be the new Obsolete or Demanufacture. Or maybe it will just be good.

I wonder if they'll continue on their trend of diminishing the content of the album. Mechanize had nine tracks, The Industrialist had eight. Here we have ten but isn't expiration date going to be some sample of a garbage truck unloading itself in a dump and Regenerate and outroduction to the fu***ng religious oriented anavoidable song Church of Godeater Father of Pisschristploitation

I'm going out at a limb here and predicting this new album will have a concept about some sort of dystopian future centering around technology out of control, killer machines and renegade humans.

^ actually it's more on the lines of humans entering the stage of evolution where they become robots, but it's a good guess.

terminator salvation: the album

worst song titles and album covers??? I think the song titles and album cover look pretty fucking awesome for this.

concept is intriguingish. Should be good as long as the album doesn't end with two tracks of filler noise. Looking at you, The Industrialist.

I keep saying this, new Terminator film and new Fear Factory album in the same year... it's no coincidence

I think you're on to something man

Excited.

I keep saying this, new Terminator film and new Fear Factory album in the same year... it's no coincidence

Illuminati

And thank god, the artwork isn't a double F. Each cover with these two Fs has felt like an indicator of an identity crisis to me. Although The Industrialist wasn't a great album, it finally sounded like a true Fear Factory one.

Holy fuck I never realized it was a double F all this time lol. I always thought it was a mask of some sort.

@Mabbitt
I know The Industrialist is a double F. But still, the four double F albums really feel like all the steps of an identity crisis to me.
Archetype and Mechanize both shout at you "We are Fear Factory." Soul of a New Machine, Obsolete, Demanufacture and Digimortal all perfectly sound like complete and independant Fear Factory albums. Yes Digimortal is weak.
But with Archetype appears a self-awareness. The name of the album describes what they were aiming at as a band. Two Fs appear on the cover. Like "Hey ! No Dino but it's still Fear Factory !" (Burton even sings about his departure) and then Transgression: "Yeah, it won't sound like FF but it is ! Promise !" The band tries to redefine itself, although it's not bad, it's not what we want to hear from them (but they couldn't finish the album anyway).
Dino comes back and it is the same situation as for Archetype (And Burton sings about Christian and Raymond being fired). But instead of calling it "Comeback" or "Mechanic Resurgence" they call it "Mechanize." Which means the same thing for a band like Fear Factory. "Mechanize" the song could be called "Demanufacture 2." And the intro to "powershifter" was horribly self-aware too.
So, Mechanize is great but it doesn't sound like a "New" FF album the way the four first albums did. It sounds like the band trying to be itself with more or less success (the indus part synths/samples/noises is relatively absent, two songs really doesn't feel like FF songs, the drumming is awesome but distracting and not industrial).
And finally, The Industrialist is a new Fear Factory album. It isn't a take at "demanufacture 2," it has its own atmosphere and identity, and even some experimentation, but it fails on other levels. The production and the programmed drumming are distracting, the album ends on two filler tracks, the last two songs are weaker, there's only 8 tracks etc...
So, just like the cover is half a double F, half the face of the Industrialist, the album is half the band finally stepping out of its Indentity Crisis, half the band failing at proving they can be as good as they used to be even now that they have overcome the... the what ?
Anyway, I'm curious about Genexus.

And thank god, the artwork isn't a double F. Each cover with these two Fs has felt like an indicator of an identity crisis to me.

Ah ah, yeah, I don't think we can consider this as two Fs but even if they are, the cover is still a lot more a mechanical body than two Fs.

@KevinKC I agree that the cover is all about the body, but now I can't unsee those two F's

Yes you can ! If you can concentrate enough and forget about their stupid obsession with the divine alliteration they made with the band's name.

Sometimes bands just pick the name because you can make a cool abbreviation out of it (eg Trent Reznor calling his band Nine Inch Nails because NIN looked cool).

I like the song names. And thank god, the artwork isn't a double F. Each cover with these two Fs has felt like an indicator of an identity crisis to me. Although The Industrialist wasn't a great album, it finally sounded like a true Fear Factory one. Genexsucks could be the new Obsolete or Demanufacture. Or maybe it will just be good.

This brought to mind an interesting discussion.

I simply love when bands run consistency through their artwork, especially when they write decent music. That branding of their logo or symbolism goes hand-in-hand with the music and the theme. I've always liked the FF they've used and I feel looking at the front cover for this that it could be different in a good or bad way.

Archetype wasn't the band trying to prove anything except that they weren't going to make the mistake of a second Digimortal. Transgression was weak because the new label reused to let them work with Rhys Fulber and insisted the band go in a more organic direction. It was also rushed by the label. Mechanize was like Archetype, they wanted to assure the fans they wouldn't return to Transgression. And The Industrialist was a continuation of Mechanize's sound.
The only album of the four that isn't up to par with the usual quality was Transgression, and majority of the hate for that album stems from the production and not the song writing. Fear Factory is essentially the Burton C Bell band, and while much ado has been made about the other members in the band, the music itself barely changes. How were they going through any kind of identity crisis?

These guys are good for a song or two but after that it all starts to sound the same.

@Oneiron
you're answering me as if there wasn't room for both our points of view. My "analysis" was personal:
"the four double Fs albums really FEEL like all the steps of an identity crisis TO ME."
But you're answering me with pseudo objective arguments:
"The majority of the hate for that album stems from the production and not the song writing"
Maybe, but I see a major difference between Dino's riffing and Christian's.
"Fear Factory is essentially the Burton C Bell band, and while much ado has been made about the other members in the band, the music itself barely changes."
Well, I understand that you see a continuity between all the albums then, but it is not the case for me.
Hoglan's drumming is obvious to me on Mechanize, Fulber's and Cazares' absences on Archetype and Transgression, too. The music doesn't "barely change" for me, it changes a lot.
And when you say that The Industrialist is mainly a continuation of Mechanize's sound, that's a bit what I mean too. The Industrialist was the first album in a long time which didn't feel like they had pressed the reset button before making it. Sadly, it is not their most inspired or their best produced.

Holy fuck I never realized it was a double F all this time lol. I always thought it was a mask of some sort. [2]

You are all so lucky, I got depressed when I saw The Industrialist's cover. "oh man, not yet again !"

Looking forward to this. Not expecting a drastic change in sound. If anything I hope it's closer to Mechanize than The Industrialist.

hope this will be good

"The word 'genexus' is a hybrid of two words: 'genesis' and 'nexus,'" explains vocalist Burton C. Bell. "This word describes the next transition in human evolution as man moves forward to a 'mechanical' state of being.


literally every fear factory album concept

im quite fearful that this will be bad tbh.

Why would it be bad ? There's yet to be a bad FF album with Dino/Burton and Rhys.
The worst I can imagine is "not particurlaly original or mindblowing, just middle of the road FF."

"There's yet to be a bad FF album with Dino/Burton and Rhys."

Digimortal

Ah ! I knew someone would answer this. First, I personally don't consider Digimortal bad (I dislike "what will become, back the fuck up, byte block, hurt conveyor" but I like the rest of the album and the bonus songs.) but let's say it's not good, does it prove anything concerning the Dino/Burton/Rhuys collaboration ?
Roadrunner just pushed the band to make something commercial and that's all. Is the situation any similar with Genexus ?

eeh, point taken

That de-escalated quickly

"im quite fearful that this will be bad tbh."



I fear the fact that this might end up pretty bad too. Keeping expectations low.

I would make a bad pun but I got nothing

Ok, everybody place your bets. This will be a 3.7 I say.

3.4

I'm not sure atm, need to listen to a song first