Soul Of A New Machine/Fear Is The Mindkiller [Remastered] [PA] - Fear Factory > Reviews > Fear Factory - Soul Of A New Machine

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	original , raw sound , interesting vocal style , great guitar riffs
Disadvantages:	lack of awesome drumming when compared with later works , slightly repetitive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Fear Factory's debut album marked the beggining of an evolution in metal, this is a band that pioneered there own style and has gone on to influence more recent US metal band such as Machine Head, Chimera and Biohazard.

So this is where it all began. With Soul of a new machine Fear Factory started out has a death metal band, but not just any death metal band, fear factory went further and played around with the death metal genre to find their own sound. the band frequently experimented with several different electronic samples and incorporated a soft vocal style to contrast with Burton C Bell's harsh death metal grunts.

This review has been spilt into 2 parts repersenting each album

Soul Of A New Machine

This is Fear Factory's heaviest album ,here in an average song the death metal vocals tend to occupy about 75% of the song , so if you are more into later fear factory albums such as digimortal or transgression you may not like this album much. However for a debut album this is a remarkable feat and as a long time fear factory fan this is definitely a favourite of mine , along side Demanufacture.

Stand Out Tracks
Martyr - The first track. Although not the most heaviest on the album the lyrics are some of the best here, the guitar parts are incredibly catchy while not comprimising a raw and harsh death metal sound. This is my favourite track on the album and one Fear Factory regularly play at their shows.

Scum Grief - Another very powerful track, this is where Bell's vocal talents are best heard, there is a nice balance between the vocal styles here, the song is 4 minutes long, and has more than enough variety with guitar parts to keep the listener engaged. This is another favourite on the album

Life Blind - This is a disappointing track, with such an interesting electronic introduction I figured Dino could write a great guitar riff to match, but unfortunately no, the most boring song on the album unfortunately, it feels out of place with the rest of the album

Crisis - Despite the weird sample from a famous war film this song really doesn't need to be on an album with 17 tracks, most of which are very good, this song just spoils the album, is annoying and far too repetitive.

Unfortunately the songs here do have a tendency to drag on, and some of them only incorporate, 4 or 5 very average guitar riffs, but with each song lasting an average of about 3 and a half minutes its not a terrible problem. The only other criticism I have is the lack of the powerful and intricate drumming, when compared with albums like Demanufacture. The drummer has fantastic skill but for some reason his talents aren't best showcased on this album.

Factory took, a risk that paid off remarkably well, however controversial it still is to some old school fans.

Out of 5 tracks the stand out track for good reasons is: Scum Grief. (Deep Dub Trauma Mix) A very catch tune, the remixing treatment has only improved it, the extra drum beats and good introduction give this song the best balance of the death metal genre and dance music genre.

This album is definitely worth the cash; with 22 tracks on 2 disks, most of them being very good and original this is probably one of the best debut albums from a band of this calibre and as I said before is great favourite of mine.