Digimortal [PA] - Fear Factory

Advantages: Heavy,original,no fat
Disadvantages: Concept album, a few weak tracks

...‘Demanufacture’ (1995) and Obsolete (1998) Digimortal it’s ripe with dystopian visions of a future where it’s man versus machine in a dog eat dog fight for survival. In interviews leader singer Burton C. Bell has stated each album has been a concept dealing with certain aspects of the raise of technology and the dehumanisation that faces mankind in the not to distance future. According to Burton Digimortal is about mankind ...
...work and new album Digimortal proves. Digimortal kicks off with the storming ‘What will become’. It begins innocently with a short burst of twanging guitars and a stuttering technoid pulse, before surgical precise guitars cut into the song and a walloping double kick beat drives the song forward. The first thing you notice with the Fear Factory sound is the stunning control and purity of the music. There’s no flabbiness, nothing ... Read review

Advantages: Stays true to Fear Factory sound
Disadvantages: Some tracks take a little getting used to

This latest release from metal titans Fear Factory came as rather a shock to me as the first track I heard was "What Will Become", the opening number, at a club and thought to myself "This is Fear Factory?". Slight fears about what had become of a band that I love so much stalled me from purchasing the album, but then I heard the next single "Linchpin", and it blew me away. So out I went and bought the album, and boy am I glad I did. Fear Factory ...
...fundamentally made them in the first place - the variations in vocals (going from screaming to melodic singing) and the ripping fast guitars by Dino Cazares and the double kick drums of Raymond Herrera. These all combined since the beginning to create what makes Fear Factory so distinctive in the world of metal, and I'm glad to say that they are all still here. This album even avoids falling into the trap that the last release "Obsolete" did in that ... Read review

Advantages: Empowered, highly charged music, more of the best from FF
Disadvantages: It's different... it's not Demanufacture

...I got my copy of Digimortal I was, I guess a little disheartened on first listening. The album is in no means bad, don't get me wrong there, it's not even medicore as many people have branded it - poor thing, it's just not Demanufacture 2. It's different, and to be honest, I think Demanufacture was the pinnacle of ultra-speed metal (or whatever genre you can fit it into), and so anything that's different can never be as good. Of course, if the Fear ...
...situation! On to comparing Digimortal to other albums then, as I'm getting nowhere fast at the moment! It rates highly against other similar albums, it is varied, original and powerful, there are some amazing songs as I would expect from such a band. Ranging from the heavy hitting fast paced tracks that are trademark Fear Factory, all the way to beautiful melodies similar to those that adorn the end of the previous albums, this is in many ways what ... Read review

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Disadvantages: .

Fear Factory's fourth album proper (not counting their two Remix jaunts), sees them returning to their beloved manual on 'how to come up with a sci-fi concept album in 11 easy steps'. With Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly) back on production duties, Sure enough Dino (guitar) and Raymond's (drums) trademark 'diddly-did-did-diddly' rhythms kick you in the gut from the off. But, what's this? Things seem a little more bass-y? And clean guitar?! And tracks ...
...have. This really seems like a collection of all the things that make Fear Factory who they are. They've looked at their best tracks like Replica and Edgecrusher and used their feel for getting people moving and even gone back to their early days and used the odd 'lone monk singing in a huge tunnel' style of vocal that runs through Soul of a New Machine. . A couple of gripes though. As with all Fear Factory albums, there is some poop in with the ... Read review