Fear Factory
Archetype
Liquid 8
After that piece of shit the band put out a couple years ago in the form of
Digimortal, they have since departed ways with guitarist Dino Cazares, broken up, gotten back together, acquired bassist Byron Stroud from
Strapping Young Lad, moved Christian Olde Wolbers to guitar, and put out a new CD. Upon first listen, I was magically taken back to a decade ago when the band was on top of their game. It has the musical perfection that was
Demanufacture, but with the balls of Soul Of A New Machine. A little bit of the commerciality of
Obsolete rears it ugly head, but it's not too overbearing.
A good majority of the songs have that definitive Fear Factory sound with the staccato guitar riffs and drumming reminiscent of a German 7.62 mm Burp Gun, but the big downer on this disc is "Bite The Hand That Bleeds". It's the "Resurrection" of
Archetype. "Human Shields" could also be left off and I wouldn't feel that cheated. Other than those soft tracks, I don't have many complaints about this CD. "Drones" and "Archetype" are a little too clean sounding for my metal palate, but they have enough bite mixed in to win me over. Portions of "Undercurrent" and "Default Judgement" almost sound like back-to-back
Helmet songs. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as
Helmet tended to have decent enough heavy riffs, but
Fear Factory puts their unique touch to them. The good outweighs the bad, and the first three tracks are evidence of that...especially "Cyberwaste". Holy cyber-balls! That song tears shit up. More songs like this please. Thanks. They keyboards are still present, and Burton C. Bell still fluctuates between the aggressive and melodic clean vocals. The last two tracks are the odd ones. "Ascension" is a seven minute ambient track, followed up by a cover of "School" by
Nirvana. I never cared much for them, so I can't say how it compares to the original. It's just a 2½ minute happy little punk song.
There are different versions of this CD. There's the standard version with just the songs. Then there is a Limited Edition version that includes a DVD of either "Fear Factory Documentary : The Making Of Archetype" or "Australian Tour 2004". The CD also delves into the realm of Willy Wonka by containing a Golden Ticket. Just go online a register it and you can win a trip for two to see the band perform and meet the band, etc. I don't know if all versions have the Golden Ticket or not, so to avoid confusion just buy the digipak version with the DVD's. Also, to tell which DVD is included in the digipak, check the side of the packaging.
Fear Factory have redeemed themselves, and people I've talked to think so also. Archetype is well worth your hard earned dollars, and the best thing of all about this disc...NO FUCKING RAP SONGS!!! But the big question is how long until the techno remix CD comes out? They seem to have a habit of doing that.
