Fear Factory – The Industrialist – Review

fearfactory200Fear Factory

The Industrialist (Candlelight)
By Mike Delano

It’s odd that The Industrialist, Fear Factory‘s eighth album, sounds so much like a “band” album along the lines of FF landmarks like Demanufacture and Obsolete. Who knows what level of collaboration amongst the four band members actually occurred during the making of those two late ’90’s classics, but they sound like The Industrialist does: Energized, angry, and with something to prove. The odd thing is that, by all accounts, The Industrialist is FF’s least collaborative album. Heyday bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera are long gone, and even recent FF drummer extraordinaire Gene Hoglan has been replaced by a drum machine this time out, leaving vocalist Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares as the only credited members. Even with all of these changes, these songs show no signs of wear and tear: The opening one-two punch of the title track and “Recharger” roar out of the gate like classic FF. There are the bread-and-butter tracks (“New Messiah”) and then there are the leftfield additions, like “God Eater,” which focuses more on extended atmospherics than blunt force, and the fantastically diverse “Disassemble,” which feels like a throwback to the soaring “Resurrection” on Obsolete.
(www.candlelightrecordsusa.com)